JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

The Bethlehem town group has close economic and social
ties with Jerusalem. In 1968 farming, trade, and tourism
continued to constitute the mainstay of Bethlehem’s economy.
Inhabitants of the town own olive groves, vineyards, and deciduous
fruit orchards. Bethlehem is a market town where
Bedouin from the nearby Judean Desert trade their produce
for local and imported goods. The town has a number of small
hotels and restaurants catering to tourists and, more important,
many workshops producing Christian souvenirs. Christian
institutions contributed to raising the educational level
and provided employment to a large number of inhabitants.
The main building in Bethlehem is the Church of the Nativity
(sections of which are maintained by the Greek Orthodox
and the Catholics, the latter holding St. Catherine’s Church
adjacent to the main basilica). It is a major attraction for
Christian pilgrims, especially at the Christmas celebrations
of the Latins (Dec. 24 and 25), Orthodox (Jan. 6 and 7), and
Armenians (Jan. 19 and 20). Bethlehem has numerous other
Christian buildings, including convents of the Franciscans and
the Rosary Sisters, edifices above the Milk Grotto, the Syrian-
Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, parish schools,
orphanages, and a French hospital. Near Bethlehem is the
traditional “Shepherds’ Field.” Between Bethlehem and Jerusalem
is the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Elias, the
traditional resting place of Elijah the prophet when he fled
from Jezebel.
In 1997 the populations of Bethlehem numbered 21,673,
among them 6,568 refugees, while the population of Beit
Jala was 11,957, including 5,329 refugees, and the population
of Beit Saḥur 11,285 with 1,913 refugees. The city was transferred
to the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo agreements.
In 2002 a group of Palestinian terrorists took over the
Church of the Nativity and held hostages there for more than a
month under siege by the Israeli army. During the second (“al-
Aqsa”) Intifada Beit Jala sheltered snipers firing at the nearby
Jerusalem residential neighborhood of Gilo, consequently
taking return fire from the Israel Defense Forces and in
effect turning the once tranquil area into a frontline battleground.
[Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: Lewy, in: JBL, 59 (1940), 519–22; EM, 2 (1965),
86–88; Press, Ereẓ, 1 (1951), 88–89; R.W. Hamilton, Guide to Bethlehem
(1939); L.H. Vincent and F.M. Abel, Bethléem (Fr., 1914). Website:
www.bethlehem.org.
BETHLEPTEPHA, town in Judea which, in the time of
Herod, replaced Keilah as the headquarters of one of the
toparchies into which the province was divided. It is sometimes
written “Betholeptephon” and is mentioned by Josephus
(Wars, 4:445) as “Pella.” Schuerer regards the name as
a distortion of the Hebrew *Bet Netofah (Beit Nattif) a village
six miles (10 km.) north of Bet Guvrin. The identification
has now been generally accepted, though some identify it
with Bet le-Tappu’aḥ (the Tappuah of Josh. 15:34). Vespasian
destroyed Bethleptepha and killed all its inhabitants on his
bet-horon
way from Emmaus to Edom. A mosaic floor of a fifth-century
Byzantine church was discovered there as well as other
mosaics, tombs, cisterns, and pillars from the Roman-Byzantine
period.
Bibliography: A. Reland, Palaestina… (1714), 648; Schuerer,
Gesch, 2 (19074), 232n.; S. Klein, Ereẓ Yehudah (1939), 214; A. Schalit,
Hordos ha-Melekh (19643), 111ff.
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
BET(H)-HORON (Heb. ןור ֹ וח ֹ תי ּב; ֵ Upper, ןוי ֹ ְלע ֶ (Elyon), and
Lower, ןֹ ותְחַּ ּ ת (Taḥton)), two adjacent biblical towns named after
the Canaanite deity Horon mentioned in Ugaritic literature
and other texts. The towns, known as Upper and Lower Horon,
were strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road and
guarded the important “ascent of Beth-Horon.” Biblical tradition
attributes their founding to Sheerah, daughter of Beriah,
son of Ephraim (I Chron. 7:24). They were located on the border
between the territory of the tribe of Ephraim and that of
Benjamin (Josh. 16:3; 18:13–14). One or both of the towns was
a levitical city (Josh. 21:22; I Chron. 6:53). Solomon fortified
Beth-Horon (the lower town only, according to I Kings 9:17;
both towns according to II Chron. 8:5). Beth-Horon is mentioned
together with Gibeon in the list of towns conquered by
Pharaoh *Shishak (tenth century B.C.E.). It then became part
of the kingdom of Judah (cf. II Chron. 25:13). In the Persian
and Hellenistic periods, Beth-Horon was in Judea. During the
Hasmonean Wars, *Bacchides fortified both towns (I Macc.
9:50). The Mishnah (Shev. 9, 2) states that the Maritime Plain
begins at Beth-Horon. It is located by Eusebius (Onom. 46:21)
12 (Roman) mi. from Aelia Capitolina (i.e., Jerusalem) and
within its territory; on the *Madaba Map the two villages are
marked as one place. Upper Beth-Horon is now identified with
the Muslim Arab village ʿUr al-Fawqā (pop. 298 in 1967) and
Lower Beth Horon with Beit ʿUr al-Taḥtā (pop. 920 in 1967).
The road passing the two and the ascent between them were
of military importance in ancient times. *Joshua pursued the
Canaanite kings along this ascent after the battle of Gibeon
(Josh. 10:10–11); the *Philistines passed this way after their
setback at Michmas (I Sam. 13:18); here also *Judah Maccabee
defeated Seron, the Seleucid general (I Macc. 3:16), and
a Zealot force defeated the Roman governor *Cestius Gallus
on his retreat from Jerusalem (Jos., Wars, 2:538ff., 546ff.).
Archaeological finds indicate that Lower Beth-Horon, where
potsherds from the Late Bronze Age onward have been uncovered,
was established before Upper Beth-Horon, where the
finds date only from and after the Iron Age (the Monarchy).
An ostracon found at Tell el Qasīle (north Tel Aviv) mentions
a consignment of gold for “Beth-Horon,” but it is uncertain
whether the name of the place Beth-Horon is meant or “the
temple of [the god] Horon.”
[Michael Avi-Yonah]
Bibliography: Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 274; B. Maisler (Mazar),
in: JNES, 10 (1951), 266ff.; Mazar, in: VT, Suppl., 4 (1957), 61; Aharoni,
Land, index; J. Garstang, Joshua-Judges (1931), 224; EM, 2 (1954),
73–75.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 535