This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Bethany (Ancient Greek: Βηθανία,[3] Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ Bēṯ ʿAnyā), locally called in Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya (Arabic: العيزرية, "[place] of Lazarus"), is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine, bordering East Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

The name al-Eizariya refers to the New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the Gospel of John, was raised from the dead by Jesus in the town.

Dixon quotes Emanuel Deutsch of the British Museum, who suggests a non-Hebrew root, a word transcribed in Syriac script whose meaning he gives as "House of Misery" or "Poor-house".

Additionally, the Aramaic beit 'anya (ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ) is the form used for Bethany in Christian Palestinian and Syriac versions of the New Testament.

Given this, and Jerome's familiarity with Semitic philology and the immediate region, Capper concludes that the "house of affliction"/"poor-house" meaning as documented by Jerome and in the Syriac New Testament usage is correct, and that this meaning relates to the use of the village as a centre for caring for the sick and aiding the destitute and pilgrims to Jerusalem.

The queen founded a large Benedictine abbey dedicated to Mary of Bethany and Martha near the Tomb of Lazarus.

[32] In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as 'Ayzariyya, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds.

They paid taxes on wheat, barley, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 14,000 Akçe.

[35] For 100 years after it was constructed, Christians were invited to worship in it, but the practice was frowned upon by European church authorities who preferred that adherents of both faiths remain separate.

[38] Socin found that al-Eizariya had a population of 113, with a total of 36 houses, from an official Ottoman village list from about the same year.

[41] Around 1890, Khalil Aburish, whose ancestors had officially been designated "guardians of the holy resting place of Lazarus", began promoting al-Eizariya as a tourist or pilgrimage destination.

[53] Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Bethany has been occupied by Israel, and lands to the east of the village were declared a closed military zone, cutting farmers off from the lentils and wheat crops they cultivated on the hilltops where Maaleh Adumim was later established.

[13] Much of the agricultural land that produced figs, almonds, olives and carob has been confiscated or cut down by Israeli authorities, or has been absorbed into the expanding built-up area of Al-Eizariya.

After the 1995 accords, 87.3% of Al-Eizariya land was classified as Area C and the remaining 12.7% as Area B. Israel has confiscated land from Al-Eizariya in order to build two Israeli settlements: Many of the original inhabitants now live in Jordan, the United States, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

[13] Real estate speculation and the opening of many bank branches briefly accompanied expectations that the Palestinian Authority would set up its seat of government in East Jerusalem.

[59] Archaeological excavations between 1949 and 1953, directed by Father Sylvester J. Saller for the Franciscans of the Holy Land, revealed details of the previous Christian places of worship erected near the tomb.

The tomb is the purported site of the miracle recorded in the Gospel of John in which Jesus raises Lazarus of Bethany from the dead.

[13] In 1143, the existing structure and lands were purchased by King Fulk and Queen Melisende of Jerusalem and a large Benedictine convent dedicated to Mary and Martha was built near the tomb of Lazarus.

The adjacent Roman Catholic Church of Saint Lazarus, built between 1952 and 1955 under the auspices of the Franciscan Order, stands upon the site of several much older ones.

[13] In 2014, a new mosque, the second largest in the wider-Jerusalem area, was opened, having been funded by the charitable foundation of named Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.

Since Bethany was, according to John, fifteen stadia (about 1.72 miles) from the holy city,[72] care for the sick there corresponded with the requirements of the Temple Scroll (the stadion being ideally 600 feet (180 m) or 400 cubits).

Such influence on the planning of Jerusalem and its environs (and even its Temple) may have been possible especially during the reign of Herod the Great (36–4 BC), whose favour towards the Essenes was noted by Josephus (Antiquities 15.10.5 [373–78]).

[76] It has also been suggested, based on the names found carved on thousands of ossuaries at the site, that Bethany in the time of Jesus was settled by people from Galilee who had come to live by Jerusalem.

[77] As Capper writes, Galilean pilgrims avoided potential conflict with Samaritans by travelling south on the eastern side of the Jordan.

A respectful distance from the city and Temple, and on the pilgrim route, Bethany was a most suitable location for a charitable institution.

It is not surprising that an Essene hospice had been established at Bethany to intercept and care for pilgrims at the end of the long and potentially arduous journey from Galilee.