{"id":54210,"date":"2019-04-22T14:34:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T11:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54210"},"modified":"2022-11-13T13:54:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-13T11:54:08","slug":"just-how-many-bethels-are-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/just-how-many-bethels-are-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Just How Many Bethel\u2019s Are There?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[851,490],"acf":{"old_id":"54210","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"203","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From Abram, via Jacob, Joshua and Jeroboam - to today","content":"

The opening verse of this chapter names Beit-El as one the boundaries of the tribes of Joseph (i.e., Ephraim and half of Manasseh). We have made an earlier acquaintance with a place by that very symbolic name. Is it one and the same?<\/span><\/p>\n

Abraham, shortly after his initial arrival in the land, \u201cremoved [his camp] from there to the mountains east of Bethel where he pitched his tent. Bethel was to his west and the Ai was to his east; there he built an altar to the Lord and proclaimed the Lord\u2019s name\u201d (Genesis 12:8). Later, on his return from Egypt, \u201cHe continued on his way from the south towards Bethel where his tent had been previously, between Bethel and the Ai. To the site of the altar he erected previously\u2026\u201d (13:3-4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob, arising in the morning following his remarkable dream, declared that site to be awesome (<\/span>nora\u2019<\/span><\/i>) and exclaimed: \u201cThis is none other than the house of God (<\/span>Beth elohim<\/span><\/em>); the gateway to heaven\u201d (28:17), on account of which he subsequently changed its name from Luz to Bethel (19). Since Jacob\u2019s Bethel had been Luz heretofore, it would be reasonable to assume that it was someplace other than Abraham\u2019s Bethel, which would have been so-called even at the time of Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, it is also reasonable to assume that if Jacob knew that there was a site at which his grandfather had \u201cproclaimed the Lord\u2019s name,\u201d it would have been a natural place for him to have spent the night. Indeed, the aggadah (quoted by Rashi, Genesis 28:17), has Jacob, having initially bypassed the site on his way from Beersheba to Haran, say, rhetorically, \u201cCould I have passed by a place where my ancestors prayed and not have paused to pray there myself?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is another Bethel in the biblical future. When the Davidic kingdom split in two, the usurper, Jeroboam ben Nebat, determined to prevent continued pilgrimage to Jerusalem, erected a golden calf in Bethel, and made it a cultic center (1 Kings 12: 29 ff.). Since Jeroboam was from the tribe of Ephraim, it stands to reason that he would choose a \u201chometown\u201d that would continue to compete with the Temple until the eventual termination of the northern kingdom he founded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current Israeli settlement of Bethel (Beit El), some 10 miles (17 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, appears to be situated on or near the biblical site, as the Arabic name (Beitin) of a nearby village also testifies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: <\/span>Bethel, from the book <\/span>Holy Land<\/span><\/em> photographed by Daniel B. 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