town or village

Bethlehem

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Events

1. c. 5 BCBirth of Jesus
2. c. AD 326Helena, Constantine's mother, founds churches at Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives
3. c. AD 405Jerome completes his Latin translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew in Bethlehem
4. AD 1100Baldwin I is crowned the first king of Jerusalem in Bethlehem

Questions

• When was Jesus born, and who ruled then?

History

Bethlehem lies on a ridge in the hills of Judah, about 9 km south of Jerusalem, where the farmland of the hills gives way to the desert to the east. A town called Bit-Lahmi in one of the Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BC may be Bethlehem, but the reading is uncertain. Genesis also knows the place as Ephrath, on the road where Rachel died and was buried.

In the Bible Bethlehem is the town of Boaz and Ruth and of their descendant Jesse, and there Samuel anointed Jesse's youngest son, David. Rehoboam fortified it, and Micah foretold a ruler in Israel coming out of Bethlehem Ephratah. A seal impression of the eighth or seventh century BC found in Jerusalem in 2012 bears the town's name, apparently from a shipment sent to the king. Men of Bethlehem were among those who returned from Babylon.

Matthew and Luke tell that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the Great, whose death is usually dated to 4 BC, and Matthew tells of Herod's killing of the town's young children. In the second century Justin Martyr and later Origen speak of a cave near Bethlehem shown as the place of the birth. Jerome writes that a grove of Adonis once overshadowed the spot and that Adonis was mourned in the very cave of the birth.

When Constantine's mother Helena visited the Holy Land in about 326, a basilica was founded over the cave: the first Church of the Nativity. In 386 Jerome settled in Bethlehem with Paula, who founded monasteries there; in the town he completed his Latin translation of the Bible in about 405, and he died there in 420.

Scripture: Gen 35:19; Ruth 1:1–2; Ruth 4:11–17; 1 Sam 16:1–13; 2 Chr 11:5–6; Mic 5:2; Ezra 2:21; Matt 2:1; Matt 2:16; Luke 2:4–7

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (52)

Gen 35:19

And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.

Gen 48:7

And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Beth-lehem.

Judg 17:7

And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

Judg 17:8

And the man departed out of the city from Beth-lehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

Judg 17:9

And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.

Judg 19:1

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah.

Judg 19:2

And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there four whole months.

Judg 19:3

And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.

Judg 19:18

And he said unto him, We are passing from Beth-lehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Beth-lehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.

Ruth 1:1

Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

Ruth 1:2

And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

Ruth 1:19

So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

Ruth 1:22

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 2:1

And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

Ruth 2:4

And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

Ruth 4:11

And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem:

1 Sam 16:1

And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

1 Sam 16:4

And Samuel did that which the LORD spake, and came to Beth-lehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably?

1 Sam 16:18

Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Beth-lehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.

1 Sam 17:12

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

1 Sam 17:15

But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem.

1 Sam 17:58

And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Beth-lehemite.

1 Sam 20:6

If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

1 Sam 20:28

And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem:

2 Sam 2:32

And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Beth-lehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.

2 Sam 21:19

And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

2 Sam 23:14

And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem.

2 Sam 23:15

And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!

2 Sam 23:16

And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.

2 Sam 23:24

Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem,

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Tours through this place

• Jacob →
• Ruth →
• The life of David →
• The childhood of Jesus, after Luke →
• The life of Jesus →