JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ethlehem
rath/Beth-Lehem where Jacob is said to have buried her (Gen.
35:19). Together with its neighboring cities (I Chron. 2:51, 54),
Beth-Lehem became the center of the tribe of *Judah and was
settled by an important clan claiming descent from Perez, son
of Tamar and Judah, among whose descendants were Boaz and
Jesse the father of David. In the period of the Judges, the fields
of Beth-Lehem were the scene of the idyll of Ruth and Boaz
as related in the Book of Ruth. The levite youth in the story of
Micah and the graven image (Judg. 17:7), as well as the levite’s
concubine mentioned in Judges 19, came from this city. *David
and some of his warrior-kinsmen, sons of Zeruiah, were also
born at Beth-Lehem, and it was there that Samuel anointed
David king (I Sam. 16:1–13). The sacrificial act performed by
Samuel on that occasion suggests that Beth-Lehem may have
been a center for the worship of the Lord. At the end of Saul’s
reign, Beth-Lehem was occupied for a time by a Philistine
garrison. The story of David’s men bringing him water from
the “well of Beth-Lehem, that was by the gate” (II Sam. 23:15)
implies that it was even then a fortified city. Some of the assassins
of Gedaliah son of Ahikam, Nebuchadnezzar’s governor
in Judea after the destruction of the Temple, came from
the neighborhood of Beth-Lehem (Jer. 40:8); the remnants of
his followers withdrew to the same region before their flight
to Egypt (Jer. 41:16–17). With the return from Babylonia, the
exiles from Beth-Lehem went back to their city (Ezra 2:21;
Neh. 7:26), and Jews inhabited the city until the time of Bar
Kokhba. In 135 C.E. a Roman garrison was stationed there to
root out the remnants of Bar Kokhba’s army (Lam. R. 1:15).
Later a gentile population resided in Bethlehem and erected a
temple to Adonis (Tammuz) in a grove at the edge of the city
(Jerome, Epistle 58 to Paulinus).
On the basis of Micah 5:1, the early Christians identified
Jesus’ birthplace with Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1, 5; Luke 2:4,
15; John 7:42). The location of this event in a cave east of the
city is first mentioned by Justin Martyr (155–160) and by the
time of Origen (third century) the site of the cave already
corresponded to its present position. At the beginning of the
reign of Constantine, his mother *Helena erected a Christian
church over the cave. The church was destroyed during the
Samaritan uprising against Byzantine rule (529): it was rebuilt
by Justinian in the form that it has kept to the present time. On
the facade of the building, over the entrance, were depicted
the birth of Jesus and his adoration by the kings of the East.
Because this picture portrays people in Oriental costume, the
Persians are said to have spared the building when they captured
Bethlehem in 614. In the fifth century *Jerome settled
in Bethlehem and built a monastery there. In preparing his
Latin translation of the Bible, the basis of the Vulgate, he was
assisted by Jewish scholars who apparently lived in villages in
the neighborhood of the city. The grotto in which he is reputed
to have lived is still to be seen under the Church of the Nativity.
Further evidence of the resumption of Jewish settlement
in the hills of Jerusalem is also found in an extant account of
the Persian campaign, according to which the invaders were
aided by Jewish inhabitants of the hill country.
In the early Arab period Bethlehem suffered no damage.
The city fell to Tancred’s forces during the First Crusade
without fighting. Baldwin I and II, the crusader kings of Jerusalem,
were crowned in the church of Bethlehem. The crusaders
built a fort in the city that was demolished in 1489 during
clashes between the Christians of Bethlehem and the Muslims
of Hebron. *Benjamin of Tudela visited the city (c. 1160)
and found 12 Jewish dyers there. The church of Bethlehem
remained in Christian hands during the rule of the Mamluks
and the Turks, even though the Muslim rulers oppressed the
Christian minority. The Christians continually reduced the
size of the entrance to the church for security reasons, so that
by now it is just a low and narrow opening. From time to time,
the Christian rulers in Europe concerned themselves with the
maintenance and repair of the church. The conflicts between
the various Christian communities in Bethlehem caused damage
to the church and served to motivate international friction;
the theft of the Silver Star from the church in 1847 was
one of the factors behind the outbreak of the Crimean War. In
the middle of the 19th century, the Turkish authorities determined
the division of the church among the various Christian
communities and the order of their ceremonies, according to
previous tradition; this decision has been observed, almost
without amendment, to the present.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
Modern Bethlehem
Until 1948, Bethlehem was a city with a Christian majority. Of
its 8,000 inhabitants in 1947, 75% were Christians and the rest
Muslims; this ratio, however, subsequently changed as a result
of the influx of Arab refugees from Israel who settled there.
During the Six-Day War (1967), Bethlehem surrendered to the
Israel army without a fight. In the 1967 census taken by Israel
authorities, the town of Bethlehem proper numbered 14,439
inhabitants, its 7,790 Muslim inhabitants represented 53.9%
of the population, while the Christians of various denominations
numbered 6,231 or 46.1%. The 1,874 inhabitants of the
refugee camp, lying within the municipal confines, raised the
percentage of Muslim citizens to 58.2%. However, the three
townships of Bethlehem, Beit (Bayt) Saḥur (the traditional
Field of Ruth), and Beit (Bayt) Jala can be considered as a
unit, as in 1967 they formed a continuous built-up area and a
social and economic entity. Their total population amounted
to 27,000, of whom 14,400 were Christians, constituting a 55%
majority. The main Christian denominations are the Latins
(Roman Catholics) and the Greek Orthodox. Other communities
with over 100 adherents include the Syrian-Orthodox,
the Syrian-Catholics, and the Melkites. There are also Protestants
of various denominations, Maronites, and Armenians.
Throughout most of its history, Bet (Bayt) Jālā was an exclusively
Christian town. It has numerous churches and Christian
institutions, including the Greek Orthodox St. Nicholas
Church, the Catholic Patriarchate’s Seminary, and a Lutheran
secondary school. Nearby is the Cremisan Monastery of the
Salesian fathers.
534 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3