BETHEL bĕth’ əl (בֵּֽית־אֵ֤ל; Βαιθήλ, and οἶκος θεοῦ, lit. house of God).

1. Location. A town on the great N-S watershed road of Pal. twelve m. N of Jerusalem designated as the modern village of Beitin. The Heb. name, Bethel, has been preserved in the Arab. “Beitin” by the normal shift of consonants. The presence of excellent springs of water near the top of the ridge of hills made the site desirable from early days. Bethel also occupied a key point on the E-W route from Trans-Jordan W by way of Jericho to the Mediterranean either by way of the Valley of Ajalon or via Gophna to the Plain of Sharon and the sea. These circumstances are a partial explanation for the fact that Bethel is mentioned in Scripture more often than any city except Jerusalem.

The bare mountain top at Bethel served as a worship center through the millennia. The Canaanite deity El gave his name to this site. The god Baal, who normally replaced El in the Canaanite pantheon, was unable to dislodge the name of El in Bethel. So this location continued to be known as Bethel, serving as a worship center for nomads. Even Abraham (Gen 12:8) and Jacob (28:19) used the name Bethel. Another name for the site in the time of the patriarchs according to Genesis 28:19 was Luz. This name may be derived from Laudh meaning “place of refuge.” When Jacob reached the site on his way to Padan-aram, the Genesis account says “he came to a certain [Holy] place” (28:11). Bethel originally may have been the sanctuary on the ridge E of the town, whereas the town itself may have been designated as “Luz.” Genesis 28:19 speaks of Bethel as a maqom, a “sanctuary place,” and Luz as an ir, “town.” In the boundary descriptions of Ephraim and Benjamin in Joshua 16:2 Bethel and Luz are mentioned as adjacent sites.

2. History before Jeroboam I. The earliest archeological evidence for the occupation of the high place at Bethel is a chalcolithic water jar from 3500 b.c. The lack of structures dating from that period suggests that Bethel was an open-air sanctuary in that age. During the late chalcolithic period (c. 3200 b.c.) Bethel was occupied, as indicated by ceramic evidence found around the high place and S of the sanctuary area. Ai then replaced Bethel as the major town of the area. A second occupation of Bethel was about 2400-2200 b.c. Later that town was abandoned and not reoccupied until the 19th cent. This marked the beginning of an almost continuous occupation of the site. A temple was built immediately above the high place and a town was constructed S of it. A strong defensive wall system may not have been constructed until the 18th or 17th centuries.

It was early in this Middle Bronze period that the accounts of the patriarchs as presented in Genesis fit well into the archeological history of Bethel. The quality of the architectural evidence indicates that Abraham and Jacob found a well-developed town when they visited the site. While Jacob might think of the town as Luz, a place where he could find refuge from his twin brother Esau as he fled toward the E, the Genesis account also reports that Jacob played on the generic name for God which was El. He set up a stone, poured oil upon it, and called the name of the place, “house of God,” Bethel, for God had spoken to him in a dream the night before (Gen 28:1-22). The Canaanite might mean one thing by the name, Bethel, but Jacob meant another. To him the spot was not only the house of God but “this is the gate of heaven” (28:17). Jacob revisited Bethel and renewed his covenant with God on his return from Padan-aram.

The absence of Late Bronze I material at Bethel suggests that the site was destroyed about 1550 b.c. by the Egyp. drive against the Hyksos who were thrown out of Egypt and Pal.

In the Late Bronze II period (14th and 13th centuries) the city was rebuilt and extended. The quality of the houses was superior to those of the earlier periods. A sewer system, the only one the town ever had, was constructed in this era. The only industry located by the archeologists was an olive oil press. The plentiful evidence of burning which indicates the end of this period in the history of the site suggests that the city was prosperous when the Israelites invaded the region. While both Jericho and Ai present problems relating to the conquest of Joshua, breached walls, ash and brick debris to the depth of 1.75 meters and destroyed houses witness to the destruction of Bethel in the 13th cent. b.c., c. 1240-1235 b.c.

Captured by Joshua (Josh 8:7) the town was allotted to Benjamin. After the civil war against Benjamin the town became a part of Ephraim. It was on the border between the two tribes. The importance of Bethel is revealed in the Judges passage (21:19) which speaks of a “Bethel to Shechem” highway and locates Shiloh as a site which is N of Bethel. The Ark which was the center of Israel’s life was located at Bethel for a period of time right after the conquest. The divine oracle was consulted at Bethel (Judg 20:18) and Deborah, the prophetess, lived near Bethel (Judg 4:5). Samuel made Bethel one of the locations of his court as he moved around the circuit judging Israel (1 Sam 7:16).

While Bethel is not mentioned by name in the OT under either David or Solomon, archeological evidence shows that the city was prosperous in that period. Building arts improved, pottery art took on new techniques and forms, and the Israelite control of iron created new opportunities in agriculture.

3. History after Jeroboam I. Jeroboam I established Bethel as the chief sanctuary of Israel as a rival to Jerusalem in Judah (1 Kings 12:26-33). During the time of the divided kingdom the fortunes of Bethel rose and fell with the tides of the struggle between the northern and southern kingdoms. The accounts in 1 Kings 12:29-16:34; 2 Kings 2:2-23:19; and 2 Chronicles 13:19 tell of this fluctuation in prominence. Jeroboam II made Bethel a royal sanctuary in the northern kingdom and the shrine was restored to its earlier importance. The archeologists did not find Jeroboam’s temple which is prob. under the modern village of Beitin. They did find the seal with which the incense bags were marked. The incense was used in the temple ritual. The seal dates to shortly after the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Pal. In the days of Elijah and Elisha a school of the prophets flourished in Bethel (2 Kings 2:2, 3). Not all the younger generation in the Bethel area had respect for the prophets, however, for the young boys jeered at Elisha (2 Kings 2:23, 24).

Following the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians, Bethel also suffered destruction. The shrine was revived later so as to offer a religious center for the imported populations settled in the area by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:27-33). When Josiah moved N after the fall of Assyria he did not destroy Bethel, only its temple; nor was the town destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 b.c. when they destroyed Jerusalem. Bethel was evidently regarded as a part of the administrative region of Samaria and therefore was not in revolt against Judah. The presence of Babylonian colonists in the Samarian region is noted in 2 Kings 17:24, 30. Bethel was destroyed by a great fire either in 553 b.c. or 521 b.c. This destruction may have been the work of Nabonidus of Babylon or of the Persians in the period just before Darius.

4. History after the Exile. During the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, Bethel was a village of a few crude walls built from material taken from the old city wall. The census records under both Ezra and Nehemiah show that Bethel had only a small population (Ezra 2:28). Bethel is listed as the northernmost town of the Benjamites (Neh 12:31ff.). There is no mention made of the involvement of the people of Bethel in the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Literary references to Bethel in the early Hel. period are missing. Archeological evidence, however, clearly supports the fact that good houses, quality pottery and thriving trade marked the period immediately prior to the Maccabean era. In 1 Maccabees 9:50 and the Antiquities of Josephus, XIII. i. 3, reference is made to the fact that Bethel was one of the towns fortified by Bacchides. The city flourished under the Maccabees, with houses even outside the city walls. In the early Rom. period either Pompey or Vespasian broke down the NE gate and leveled part of the N wall. No other evidence of destruction has been noted but Rom. construction took place, a house being built over the leveled N wall.

There is no specific reference to Bethel in the NT, but Christ must have gone through the city on His trips since it is on the main road from Shechem to Jerusalem. The town increased in population in the 1st cent. a.d. Vespasian captured Bethel just before he left Pal. to become emperor of Rome. Josephus (Wars. IV. ix. 9) mentions that Vespasian established a Rom. garrison at Bethel. So great was the increase of population at Bethel in this period that cisterns were introduced for the first time. The four springs had been adequate for the population until the Rom. occupation. The authorities found it necessary to build large community cisterns close to the largest spring so that they could be filled in the winter.

Eusebius refers to Bethel as a large village in the 4th cent. a.d. It continued to be a holy place. On a ridge E of Bethel, an important Byzantine church was built, perhaps marking an identification of the locale of Jacob’s dream. Another church was built about the 6th cent. This sought to commemorate the site of Abraham’s sanctuary. Near the great spring within the city a third Byzantine church was constructed with possible related monastic structures. Meanwhile about a.d. 500 Bethel erected a new city wall as a defense against the current Samaritan revolts. The city reached its greatest extent and prosperity in the Byzantine period. Only a little Islamic material was found. No explanation for the sudden disappearance of the city is known. The site was unoccupied until about a cent. ago. See Archeology.

Bibliography W. F. Albright, “First Month of Excavation at Bethel,” BASOR, 55 (Sept., 1934), 24, 25; W. F. Albright, “The Kyle Memorial Excavation at Bethel,” BASOR, 56 (Dec., 1934), 1-15; J. L. Kelso, Excavation at New Testament Jericho, AASOR, Vol. 29, 30 (1955); W. F. Albright and J. L. Kelso, The Excavation of Bethel, AASOR, Vol. 39 (1968).