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BETH-SHAN, BETH-SHEAN*
Strategic Palestinian town located in the subtropical Jordan Valley 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) south of the Sea of Galilee and 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) west of the Jordan River. Beth-shan (alternately Beth-shean) stood at the eastern end of the valley of Jezreel, guarding an important Jordan River crossing. It lay at the junction of two trade routes, one leading north toward Galilee and Damascus, the other leading from the mountains of Gilead west through the Jezreel Valley and the hills of Samaria.
When the Philistines defeated Israel under King Saul at the battle on Mt Gilboa, Beth-shan was a Philistine city. The slain bodies of Saul and his sons were hung in disgrace on the city wall, and Saul’s head was displayed in the temple of Dagon, a Philistine deity (1 Sm 31:10-13; 2 Sm 21:12-14; 1 Chr 10:8-10). The city later became a part of David’s kingdom.
Identification of Beth-shan with Tell el-Husn is confirmed by two Egyptian texts found there that mention its name. The tell, or mound, is 213 feet (64.9 meters) high and about one-half mile (804.5 meters) in circumference at its base. At the time of Israel’s conquest of Canaan, the area that included Beth-shan was allotted to Issachar’s tribe, but Manasseh’s tribe evidently took it over (Jos 17:11). Under King Solomon it was incorporated into the administrative district of Baanah (1 Kgs 4:12). The city is thought to have been destroyed by Shishak (Sheshonk I), pharaoh of Egypt in the 10th century BC. It was insignificant during the remainder of the OT period; occupation during the Babylonian exile and the postexilic Persian period seems to have been sporadic.
In the Hellenistic period Beth-shan received the name Scythopolis, presumably because it was settled by a colony of Scythian mercenaries serving the Egyptian king Ptolemy II. Temples to the Greek deities Dionysus and Zeus were built. Under the Hasmonean dynasty, Beth-shan became an important administrative center. It prospered as a member of the league of Greco-Roman commercial cities called Decapolis (Mt 4:25; Mk 7:31) and was the only league member west of the Jordan.