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Beth-el

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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A city famous for its shrine, on the boundary between Ephraim and Judea—the site of the present little village of Bêitîn, on the southern slope of the Ephraimitic mountains. (See illustration on page 120.) Originally the town was called Luz (Genesis 28:19); but this name was displaced by that of the shrine, Beth-el ("house of God"). According to Genesis 12:8, Abram erected an altar east of Beth-el; but the erection of the shrine—that is, of the holy stone—is ascribed to Jacob (Genesis 28:18; compare Genesis 35:6,14). Since in these narratives (Genesis 28:19, 35:7) Beth-el, "the holy place," is distinguished from the city Luz, the shrine must have been outside the city. A suitable place would be the hill to the east of Bêitîn, where now are the ruins of a small fort. But Schlatter ("Zur Topographie Palästina's," pp. 236 et seq.), who thinks that the name Beth-aven in the Old Testament (Hosea 4:15 et seq.) is merely a sarcastic disguise of "Beth-el" (so also the Talmud; Neubauer, "G. T." p. 155), concludes from Joshua 7:2 (compare Genesis 12:8) that the shrine must be sought somewhat more to the east at Deir Dîwân. The statement in the text of Joshua 7:2, and Joshua 16:3, also, which places Beth-el, together with Luz, on the boundary-line of Ephraim, can not, for textual reasons (compare the Septuagint reading), be taken as a conclusive proof that the shrine was at a great distance from the city. According to Judges 20:18,26 et seq., the shrine was of great importance in the days of the Judges; still more so after the division of the kingdoms, when Jeroboam made it the chief Ephraimitic shrine (1 Kings 12:29 et seq.; compare 2 Kings 10:29), "the king's chapel," as it is called in Amos 7:13. At the time of Elisha there was a community of prophets at Beth-el (2 Kings 2:3). The oldest prophets name Beth-el as one of the centers of degenerate Israelite cult (Amos 3:14, 4:4, 5:5; compare Hosea 4:15, 5:8, 10:5). Amos came into the city at a great feast, and raised a storm of indignation among the priesthood and the people by his merciless condemnation of Israel (Amos 7:10 et seq.).

Even after the conquest of Ephraim the shrine of Beth-el retained its importance (2 Kings 17:28). When Josiah took possession of this old part of the Ephraimitic dominions he uprooted the illegitimate cult (2 Kings 23:15). After the Exile, Beth-el belonged to Judea (Ezra 2:28). At the time of the Maccabees it is sometimes named as the seat of Syrian garrisons (I Macc. 9:50). Otherwise, the place is only mentioned by the first Christian topographer, the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, and by Eusebius, as a small country town. In Lam. R. 2:3 it is stated that Hadrian placed a guard at Beth-el to capture Jewish fugitives.