BETHSAN (Hebr. Beth-šé'an or Beth-šan; Septuagint Baššav, Bššav; Arabic Bejsán). — A Palestinian city whose Hebrew name means “house of rest”; but today it is preferred to see a divine name in the second element, commonly šan or šahan “serpent” (representing the Babylonian goddess of healing).
Very ancient, before entering biblical history, B. is mentioned in the letters of el-Amarna (289, 20, ed. J. A. Knudtzon) as Bit-sa-a-nu, in Egyptian bššir = bššir. It stood on the southern banks of the Nahr Gálud, 5 km from the Jordan, on the height now called Tell el-Hosn, immediately north of the present-day Bejsán. B. appears in the list of Palestinian cities conquered by Thutmose III (1501–1447), victor at Megiddo in 1479. To defend this strategic position, which controlled the passage from the Plain of Esdraelon to the Jordan valley and the road to Egypt, Thutmose left a permanent garrison there. Attempts by neighboring petty kings to wrest B. from the Egyptians, first in the time of Amenhotep IV (1371–56) and then under Seti I (1313–1292), were quickly crushed. Thus B. remained under Egyptian control for three centuries until the time of Ramses III (1198–67), when Pharaonic power was eliminated in the struggle against “the peoples of the sea” (c. 1194 BC). Soon after, the Canaanites took over, and B. was in their hands at the time of the Israelite conquest of Palestine.
Although within the territory of Issachar, it was assigned to the tribe of Manasseh (Josh 17:11), yet it could not be taken (ibid. 17:12, 16; Judg 1:27). At the death of Saul it seems to have been in Philistine hands, who hung the corpse of Saul and his three sons on the walls of B. (1 Sam 31:8–12; 2 Sam 21:12). Under Solomon it appears annexed to the kingdom of Israel and forms part of the fifth prefecture together with Megiddo and Ta’anak (1 Kgs 4:12). In the Hellenistic period it was called Scythopolis (Σκυθόπολις; cf. Judg 1:27 where it is a gloss; Judg 3:10; 2 Macc 12:29) and surnamed Nysa; it was occupied in 107 BC by John Hyrcanus, in 63 by Pompey, who enrolled it among the cities of the Decapolis.
Thus with the Roman era a new age began for B. At this time the city extended beyond the tell, except for the temple built on the ancient acropolis. Christianity then had in B. a flourishing center with several churches and monasteries; there the metropolitan see of Palaestina II was erected, which in the time of the Crusaders was transferred to Nazareth. Conquered by Saladin in 1183, B. soon saw its ancient glory fade, and today it is reduced to a poor village of about 3,000 inhabitants.
Systematic excavations carried out at Tell el-Hosn in three campaigns (1921–1933) under the auspices of the University Museum of Philadelphia enable us to reconstruct the cultural and religious history of B., from the Chalcolithic period (c. 3500 BC) down to the Arab era. Of particular historical-religious interest are: the star of the first year of Seti I, the temple of Thutmose III in honor of the god Mekal “lord of B.,” the double temple of Ramses II in honor of Mekal and the goddess Anath, and the fortress (mihdol) built by Amenhotep III (1411–1375), a head of Zeus—