Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary John 3:23

"And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized." — John 3:23 (ASV)

This period of Jesus’ ministry in Judea is not paralleled by any account in the Synoptic Gospels (cf. Matthew 4:12–21; Mark 1:14). It occurred before the arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist, for he and Jesus were preaching and baptizing simultaneously. Both were exercising a rural rather than urban ministry at this time. Jesus and his disciples remained in the Judean country; John was preaching farther north.

The exact location of Aenon is uncertain, though it is probably a site south of Bethshan, where there were numerous springs. In this region John would have been in the territory of the Greek city of Scythopolis, outside the domain of Herod Antipas.