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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

BETHEL (Place), BETHELITE*

1. Important OT city located about 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) north of Jerusalem on the north-south ridge road at the tribal borders of Benjamin and Ephraim (Jos 16:1-2; 18:13). Hiel, a resident of the city, is referred to as a Bethelite in 1 Kings 16:34 (KJB). As a trading center, Bethel attracted merchandise both from the Mediterranean coast and from Transjordan via Jericho. Although the site was located in dry hill country, several springs supplied ample water for its inhabitants (the oldest artifact recovered from the site is a water jar dating from about 3500 BC).

The name of Bethel, meaning “house of El (god),” may have been used as early as the fourth millennium BC by Canaanites in the area. Archaeological excavations at Chalcolithic levels (i.e., between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age) indicate that pagan worship of the Canaanite deity El took place on top of the hill at that early period. The patriarch Jacob named the place Bethel, or gave the old name new significance, after having a dream from God there (Gn 28:10-22). The site was said to be known as Bethel to the patriarch Abraham (12:8); that designation, however, could be a scribal updating of a more ancient local name, since Bethel had earlier been known as Luz (28:19). Possibly the sanctuary was known as Bethel, the nearby settlement as Luz. No doubt the name Bethel was firmly established by the beginning of the intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2200 BC) and remained throughout its history. An OT passage mentioning both names records that a man from Luz founded another city of that name in Hittite territory (Jgs 1:26).

Although Bethel was assigned to Benjamin’s tribe, Ephraim’s tribe actually captured Bethel from its Canaanite fortress in their own territory (Jgs 1:22-26; 1 Chr 7:28). Under the judges, the ark of the covenant was located at Bethel, where the normal functions of Israelite worship were carried out; the ark was superintended by the high priest Phinehas, son of Eleazar (Jgs 20:18-28; 21:2-4). There is no archaeological evidence of Philistine occupation of Bethel in the time of the judges; in the days of King Saul it was bypassed when other Israelite centers were being attacked (cf. 1 Sm 12–14). Archaeological discoveries indicate that Bethel flourished in the early reign of Saul but declined when he made Gibeah his capital city.

When Israel and Judah became separate entities in the time of Jeroboam I (930–909 BC), Bethel returned to prominence as the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, thus becoming the counterpart of Judah’s capital, Jerusalem. Bethel was one of two northern cities where golden calves were worshiped (1 Kgs 12:28-33); the sanctuary area for that cultic practice has not been discovered. The city was the home of an elderly prophet (13:11) who may have been connected with the prophetic colony existing there in the time of Elijah and Elisha (2 Kgs 2:2-3). During the reign of Judah’s King Abijah (913–910 BC), Bethel fell under Judah’s control (2 Chr 13:19) but later was returned to Israel. The prophet Amos went to Bethel to deliver scathing denunciations about contemporary social and religious life in Israel, for which the priest Amaziah had him expelled (Am 7:10-13).

There is no archaeological evidence that Bethel was destroyed during the Assyrian conquest of Israel (722 BC). In fact, one of its deported priests was returned to Bethel to instruct Mesopotamian colonists in the ways of the Lord (2 Kgs 17:28). Under Judah’s King Josiah, the pagan shrine was demolished (23:15-20), but no damage was done to the city itself. Under either Nabonidus (555–539 BC) or Darius I (521–486 BC), however, the city was burned, so that by Ezra’s time Bethel had reverted to a small village settlement (Ezr 2:28).

2. Alternate name for Bethuel, a town in Judah’s territory, in 1 Samuel 30:27. See Bethuel, Bethul (Place).