Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BETHLEHEM

(Heb. bêṯ leḥem, bêṯ halaḥmî;
Gk. Bēthleém)

Traditional Shepherds’ Field at Bethlehem. In the distance is Tell Herodium (Allen C. Myers)

A city name originally derived from Heb. “bayim, “house,” denoting a cultic site, and the name of a pair of ancient Mesopotamian agricultural deities, Lahmu and Lahamu, listed early in the cosmogony of the Enuma Elish.

1. A village in the tribal territory of Zebulun (Josh. 19:15). It was likely the hometown of the judge Ibzan (Judg. 12:8, 10). The name survives in modern Beit Laḥm, 11 km. (7 mi.) NW of Nazareth.

2. Bethlehem of Judah, located 8 km. (5 mi.) SSW of Jerusalem, at an elevation of ca. 762 m. (2500 ft.), and just E of the Hebron road which runs along the ridge of the Judean hill country. The earliest mention of the city may be in the 14th-century b.c.e. Amarna Tablets (ANET, 489, n. 21) in which Jerusalem’s governor Abdi-heba suggests that Bit Lahmi (or Bit-ilu Nin.urta) has fallen into the hands of the marauding ʿApiru people.

The origin of the city is unknown, and the site is first mentioned as Ephrath, and parenthetically Bethlehem, just north of which Rachel died after giving birth to Benjamin (Gen. 35:19; 48:7). The city is not mentioned in the Hebrew text of the tribal allocation list for Judah in Josh. 15:1-63, though the LXX includes the city in the ninth district of Judah. Salma, a grandson of Caleb through Ephrath, is called the “father of Bethlehem” in 1 Chr. 2:51. Surface survey of a mound immediately to the east of the Church of the Nativity yielded Bronze and Iron Age remains, but no stratigraphic excavation has yet been carried out in the modern city.

Israelite inhabitants in Bethlehem are known from the time of the judges. Though the city was not allocated to the Levites, a young Levite from Bethlehem served as priest to Micah in the hill country of Ephraim (Judg. 17:7). It was the home of the concubine of an Ephraimite Levite whose slaughter precipitated civil war against the tribe of Benjamin, leading to the near annihilation of the tribe (Judg. 19–20). Bethlehem was home to Elimelech and Naomi, and here Ruth met Boaz, who as kinsman-redeemer purchased the field of her deceased husband. Hence Bethlehem was the hometown of David, their descendant through Obed and Jesse.

The city rose to prominence after Samuel anointed David as the second king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:1-13). The Philistines established a military outpost in Bethlehem in the days of Saul (2 Sam. 23:13-17) while David was assembling his band of warriors. Later Rehoboam fortified Bethlehem and 14 other Judahite cities as a defensive network around Jerusalem (2 Chr. 11:5-6). Listed among the returnees from Babylonian Exile under Zerubbabel are 123 men of Bethlehem (Ezra 2:21; Neh. 7:26 cites 188 combined from Bethlehem and Netophah).

Micah’s prophecy concerning the messianic king (Mic. 5:2[MT 1]) was familiar to the religious leaders of Jerusalem whom Herod summoned when the Magi sought knowledge concerning the birth of the king (Matt. 2:1-8). Matthew records that Herod then ordered the killing of all male children two years old and under in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:13-18).

Jesus was born in Bethlehem ca. 6 b.c.e., and Christians of the early 2nd century c.e. revered a certain limestone cave as the site of the birth of the Messiah (Justin Martyr Dial. 78). A sacred grove at the site was dedicated to Adonis (Tammuz) in the time of Hadrian, following his suppression of the Bar Kokhba Revolt of 132-135. Jews were expelled from Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the district of Aelia Capitolina, and numerous Jewish and Christian holy sites were desecrated. Tertullian confirms the absence of Jews in Bethlehem, and the 2nd-century Protevangelium of James (Prot. Jas. 18:1; 19:2) refers to the cave as that which Joseph found for the birth of Jesus. Origen, who traveled throughout Palestine from ca. 215, spoke of the manger of Jesus (Contra Cels. 1.51)

With the support of Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the construction of the first Church of the Nativity commenced over the traditional cave of Jesus’ birth (Eusebius Vita Const. 3.25-32, 51-53). According to the Bordeaux Pilgrim (ca. 333) the “basilica” was constructed “at the grotto which had been the scene of the Savior’s birth” (Eusebius 3.43). The sanctuary was dedicated on 31 May 339. Jerome resided in one of the nearby caves from 385 to 420, during which he prepared the Vulgate translation.

Bibliography. M. Avi-Yonah, “Bethlehem,” NEAEHL 1:203-10; J. Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Princeton, 1992), 22-43.

R. Dennis Cole

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BETHLEHEM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)