homevideosguided toursarticleslocation profilespicturesiPIX

		Beth-shan Photos Scriptures ref.

Beth-shan - location profile

Location and Setting

• Beth-shan, "house of rest" or "place of quiet," lies some four miles west of the Jordan River, fifteen miles south of the Sea of Galilee, and about forty-five miles north of Jericho.
• The city was strategically located at the junction of the Jordan Valley and the Jezreel and Harod Valleys. The former provided a major north-south trade route while the latter offered an east-west trade route from Ramoth-gilead on the Transjordanian Highway to the Mediterranean coast.
• The soil in the area was very fertile. Numerous springs irrigated the land, making it a very productive region. The city and half of the Harod Valley lie below sea level.
• The three hundred-foot high tell is the highest tell in Palestine.
• Five or six major temple complexes and inscriptions mentioning several different deities have been found in the ruins, suggesting that Beth-shan was an important center for worship. Scripture records that there were at least two temples there during the time of Saul and David: the temple of Ashtaroth and the temple of Dagon (2 Sam 31:10; 1 Chr 10:10).

Historical and Biblical Significance

• Archaeologists have identified eighteen different levels of occupation in the tell, indicating that this was one of the oldest cities in Palestine.
• Beth-shan and the surrounding towns were assigned to the tribe of Manasseh, but fearing the iron chariots of the Canaanite inhabitants, the Israelites failed to drive the Canaanites out of Beth-shan (Josh 17:11,16).
• When Saul and his three sons died on Mount Gilboa, the Philistine victors carried their decapitated bodies to Beth-shan and hung them on the city wall to humiliate the Israelites. When they heard of this travesty, the men of Jabesh-gilead marched through the night, a distance of twelve miles, to recover the bodies of the king and his sons. They carried them back to Jabesh-gilead where they burned them and buried the ashes (1 Samuel 31).
• Israel finally conquered Beth-shan during the reign of King Solomon, some four hundred years after Joshua’s conquest of the area (1 Kgs 4:12).
• In Hellenistic times, the city of Scythopolis ("City of the Scythians") was built on the valley floor at the foot of the ancient tell. It became one of the chief cities of the Decapolis and the only city of the Decapolis west of the Jordan River.
• During the first century A.D., the Romans developed the city into one of the most imposing in all Palestine. It boasted a 7,000-seat theater, a colonnaded street and extensive buildings.

Bibliography

1. Houston, J. M. "Beth-shean" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.
2. Lockyer, Sr., Herbert, ed. Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986.
3. Mitchell, T. C. "Bethshean, Bethshan" The New Bible Dictionary. 2^nd ed. Ed. J.D. Douglas. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1982.
4. Smith, William. The New Smith’s Bible Dictionary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966.