Bethel
In the 4th century, Eusebius and Jerome described Bethel as a small village that lay 12 Roman miles north of Jerusalem to the right or the east of the road leading to Neapolis.
[3] Most scholars identify Bethel with the modern-day village of Beitin, located in the West Bank, 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northeast of Ramallah.
Bethel is widely identified by most scholars with the modern Arab village of Beitin, situated in the central part of the West Bank.
The name "Beitin," with the /n/ ending, was not documented until the 19th century, possibly coming into use after the Early Middle Ages.
[citation needed] These proposals have been rejected by Jules Francis Gomes, who wrote that "The voices of Livingston and Bimson have hardly been taken seriously by those who worked on the excavations of Bethel.
In the book of Judges 1:22 the descendants of Joseph capture the city of Bethel, which again is said to have previously been called Luz.
A story is told at 1 Kings 13:1 ff of how a man from Judah visited the shrine at Bethel and prophesied that it would eventually be destroyed by Josiah.
Despite his killing of the prophets of Baal and destruction of their temple, it is said that Jehu continued to tolerate the presence of the golden calves in Bethel and Dan (2 Kings 10:29).
The shrine at Bethel apparently avoided destruction in the Assyrian invasions of the Kingdom of Israel in c. 740 and 722, but was finally completely destroyed by King Josiah of Judah (c. 640–609 BC).
The shrine is mentioned with disapproval by the prophet Amos (c. 750): Do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba.
[14] During his excavation campaigns, James Kelso found a clay stamp in contextually challenging debris near a Middle Bronze Age wall on the site’s south-west side in 1957.
[15] Intriguingly, this find bore a striking resemblance to one Theodore Bent brought back from al-Mašhad Wādī Dawʿan (Hadhramaut, Yemen) in 1894.
[20] In the Middle Bronze Age (around 1750 BCE) its status was elevated from a village to a fortified Canaanite town which is believed to be biblical Luz.
[14]: xiv This settlement was continuously inhabited during the early and later phases of the Iron Age, although the exact date of its destruction remains uncertain.
[24] Robinson notes that after the writings of Eusebius and Jerome, he found no further references to Bethel in the written historical record.
[3] The town appears on the 6th century Madaba Map as Louza (Ancient Greek: Λουζα), also known as Bethel (Βεθηλ, Bethēl)".
