Nadene Goldfoot
Bethlehem was an ancient town and is only about 5.25 miles south of Jerusalem. Bethleem was initially named after the Canaanite fertility god, Laḫmu. It was what we call today, a bedroom community of Jerusalem.
The earliest reference to Bethlehem appears in the Amarna correspondence (c. 1400 BCE). In one of his six letters to Pharaoh, Abdi-Heba, the Egyptian-appointed governor of Jerusalem, appeals for aid in retaking Bit-Laḫmi in the wake of disturbances by Apiru (Hebrews) mercenaries: "Now even a town near Jerusalem, Bit-Lahmi by name, a village which once belonged to the king, has fallen to the enemy ... Let the king hear the words of your servant Abdi-Heba, and send archers to restore the imperial lands of the king!" "Habiru, a variant spelling of Ḫapiru (Apiru), a designation of a class of people who made their living by hiring themselves out for various services. The biblical Hebrews had been in Egypt for generations, but apparently they became a threat, so one of the pharaohs enslaved them according to Egyptian texts."According to the Hebrew Torah, it was the growth of the Isralite population causing fear of a takeover that caused their imprisonment.
Archaeological confirmation of Bethlehem as a city in the Kingdom of Judah was uncovered in 2012 at the archaeological dig at the City of David in the form of a bulla (seal impression in dried clay) in ancient Hebrew script that reads "From the town of Bethlehem to the King," indicating that it was used to seal the string closing a shipment of grain, wine, or other goods sent as a tax payment in the 8th or 7th century BCE.
It is a city in the central West Bank (Judea-Samaria), Israel, about 10 km (5.25mi) or (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000, and in 2017 was 28,591. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. This was the birthplace of King David and the background of the book of Ruth.
The important holy site of Rachel's Tomb is at the northern entrance of Bethlehem, though not freely accessible to the city's own inhabitants and in general Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank due to the Israeli West Bank barrier. The Barrier was a last resort of ending attacks from the Palestinians against the Jewish Israelis and is working. This is a site of interest to Jews as Rachel was Jacob's wife and the one he first fell in love with. She bore him Joseph and Benjamin.
Rehoboam, Solomon's son and David's grandson, was crowned King here.
The Book of Ruth tells of Naomi who was from Bethlehem who had a cousin there named Boaz. Boaz was the son of Salmon and his wife Rahab, He was a wealthy landowner of Bethlehem in Judea, and relative of Elimelech, Naomi's late husband. (some of reference from Matthew and Josephus for genealogy as our Tanakh has no Salmon or Rehab).
Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, had moved with their 2 sons, Mahlon and Chilion, all 3 being Ephriathites of Bethlehem, to Moab as a famine had hit their land where one son had married Ruth, a Moabite. When both of Naomi's sons died after living there about 10 years, , Ruth and Orpah, Naomi's daughters-in-laws were both widows, as Naomi had also become. Orpah stayed in Moab but Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem. It was Naomi's place of birth. Naomi introduced Ruth to her to Boaz and they marry. This is important since they have a son, Oved, who has a son, Jesse, who has a son, who becomes King David. Evidently there was a lot of fighting going on in Moab since Naomi's husband and 2 sons died there.
Born in Bethlehem, David reigned from 1000 to 960 BCE. He was the youngest son of Jesse, his 8th. He was a soldier in the army and fought against the Philistines, being the king Saul's armor bearer at age 25. David was becoming famous with his military exploits, so much so that it caused the king to become jealous of him. David became the icon of the Jewish people and remains famous today. His family line was called "The House of David." Judah was ruled by this house till most of the population was attacked and taken to Babylon in 586 BCE, and then were able to return in 538 BCE. It was from the well of Bethlehem that three of David's warriors brought him water when he was hiding in the cave of Adullam.
Christians have special sanctity to Bethlehem as the scene of Jesus' birth. Of the four canonical gospels, only Matthew and Luke offer narratives regarding the birth of Jesus. Of these two, only Luke offers the details of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. Luke mentions the manger, but not the cave: "and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Few references are found of Jews there after that time.
Bethlehem was destroyed by the Emperor Hadrian during the second-century Bar Kokhba revolt; its rebuilding was promoted by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who commissioned the building of its great Church of the Nativity in 327 CE. The 1st Christian Roman emperor, was Constantine, at the influence of his mother Helena.
Jerome, of Illyrian ancestry, ( The Illyrians (Ancient Greek: Ἰλλυριοί, Illyrioi; Latin: Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European speaking peoples, who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. ... The name "Illyrians", as applied by the ancient Greeks to their northern neighbors, may have referred to a broad, ill-defined group of peoples.) Greece is a country of the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey, and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and the Libyan Seas, and to the west by the Ionian Sea which separates Greece from Italy. For instance, Bulgarians spoke Bulgarian, a Slavic language, and its closest relative is Macedonian.
Also known as St. Jerome, he lived there when translating the Bible into Latin. Catholic, Armenian and Coptic. Religious institutions are maintained there. He was born 342 or 347 in Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. Jerome died near Bethlehem on 30 September 420 but his remains have been transferred to Rome.
In 1948 when Israel announced their statehood, Bethlehem had 10,000 inhabitants (7,500 Christians, 2,500 Moslems). From 1948 to 1967, Bethlehem was under Jordanian rule. In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86 percent Christian. But by 2016, the Christian population dipped to just 12 percent, according Bethlehem mayor Vera Baboun. Across the West Bank, Christians now account for less than 2 percent of the population, though in the 1970s, Christians were 5 percent of the population. In Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, today there are just 11,000 Christians.
In the Six-Day War in June 1967, Bethlehem was captured by Israel. In 1968 it had 32,000 inhabitants.
Following an influx of refugees as a result of Israeli advances in the 1967 war, Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is still home to a significant Palestinian Christian community. It is now encircled and encroached upon by dozens of Israeli settlements and the Israeli West Bank barrier, which separates both Muslim and Christian communities from their land and livelihoods, and sees a steady exodus from both communities.
It is called "Bethlehem of Zebulun or Berlehem Zoria. Due to its proximity to Nazareth, one historian believes that it is the Bethlehem where Jesus of Nazareth was born. Aviram Oshri, a senior archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, supports this claim, but other researchers at the same institution reject it. The town existed as a Christian settlement in the classic era and was populated during the Middle Ages. It was reestablished as a German Templer Colony in Palestine in the 19th century and turned into Jewish moshav in 1948. In the Jerusalem Talmud it is referred to as Beth Lehem Zoria, as it was part of the kingdom of Tyre of Lebanonat the time. According to the Book of Judges, one of the so-called "Minor Judges" of early settlement Israel, Ibzan, came from Bethlehem and was buried there. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests that the Bethlehem referred to in this passage is Bethlehem of Galilee "rather than the more famous Bethlehem in the Tribe of Judah".
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_(biblical_figure)#:~:text=Naomi%20(Classically%20%2Fne%C9%AA%CB%88,pleasant%2C%20lovely%2C%20winsome.%22
Tanakh,The Stone Edition (Old Testament) Mesorah Publications, LTD.ArtScroll Series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_of_Galilee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus#:~:text=Early%20life%2C%20family%2C%20and%20profession,-Main%20article%3A%20Christ&text=Jesus'%20childhood%20home%20is%20identified,is%20made%20of%20him%20thereafter.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/luke-taxes-and-the-birth-of-jesus-85
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/bethlehems-declining-christian-population-casts-shadow-over-christmas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyrians#:~:text=The%20Illyrians%20(Ancient%20Greek%3A%20%E1%BC%B8%CE%BB%CE%BB%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%AF,Balkan%20Peninsula%20in%20ancient%20times.&text=The%20name%20%22Illyrians%22%2C%20as,ill%2Ddefined%20group%20of%20peoples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Bulgaria#:~:text=Bulgarian,-Main%20article%3A%20Bulgarian&text=Bulgarian%20is%20the%20country's%20only,its%20closest%20relative%20is%20Macedonian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Greece
No comments:
Post a Comment