BETHPHAGE (Hebrew Beth = "House"; Paggim = "Unripe Figs"). - Village to which Jesus sent two of his disciples to fetch the donkey on which he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt. 21:1; Mk. 11:1; Lk. 19:29). In the two Talmuds it is considered a suburb of Jerusalem.

The topographical identification is disputed. It seems to many that B. was located halfway between Jerusalem and Bethany, at the site today called el-Bi'ár = "the wells." But from the

BETHPHAGE - View from the Mount of Olives. Landscape of northern Judea as far as the Dead Sea.(by courtesy of the Superior of the House of Exercises of the Sacred Heart S.J. - Rome)

From the "Itineraries" it appears that, from the 11th century onward, B. was identified on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, between the summit of the mount and Bethany: there in 1876 a block of stone came to light with paintings from the era of the Crusades (the donkey led to Jesus, people with palms, the resurrection of Lazarus) and with the Latin inscription Bethphage. A few meters from there, in 1880, the foundations of an apse and those of a small chapel were discovered.

Domenico Trisoglio

@incollection{ec2_bethphage_ebr_beth_casa_paggim, author = {Trisoglio, Domenico}, title = {Bethphage (Ebr. Beth = « Casa »; Paggim = « Fichi Non Maturi »)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1509--1510}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/bethphage-ebr-beth-casa-paggim-fichi-non-maturi} }

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