BETHSAN (Hebr. Beth-šē'an or Beth-šān; Septuagint Βατθάγ, Βηθάγ, Arabic Bejān). — Palestinian city, whose Hebrew name means “house of rest”; today, however, it is preferred to see a divine name in the second element, commonly šān or šāhan, “serpent” (representing the Babylonian goddess of health).
Very ancient, before entering biblical history, B. is mentioned in the el-Amarna letters (289, 20, ed. J. A. Knudtzon) as Bit-sa-a-ni, in Egyptian bīt'ir = bīt'i. It stood on the southern bank of the Nahr Ġālid, 5 km. from the Jordan, on the rise now called Tell el-Hoṣn, situated immediately north of modern Bejān. B. appears in the list of Palestinian cities conquered by Tuthmosis III (1501-1447), victor at Megiddo in 1479. To defend this foremost strategic position, which controlled the passage from the plain of Esdrelon to the Jordan valley and the road toward Egypt, Tuthmosis left a permanent garrison in that stronghold. Attempts by neighboring petty kings to wrest B. from the Egyptians, first in the time of Amenophis IV (1371-56), then in the time of Seti I (1313-1292), were immediately crushed. B. thus remained in Egypt’s power for three centuries, until the time of Ramses III (1198-67), when the power of the Pharaohs was eliminated in the struggle against “the Sea Peoples” (ca. 1194 B.C.). The Canaanites took their place shortly thereafter, and B. was in their hands at the time of the Israelites’ conquest of Palestine.
Although in the territory of Issachar, it was assigned to the tribe of Manasseh (Jos. 17, 11), but could not be conquered (ibid. 17, 12, 16; Iudc. 1, 27). At Saul’s death it seems to have been in the hands of the Philistines, who hung the corpse of Saul and those of his three sons on the walls of B. (I Sam. 31, 8-12; II 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'annak (I Reg. 4, 12). In the Hellenistic period it was called Scythopolis (Σωθάπολις, cf. Iudc. 1, 27 where it is a gloss; Iudc. 3, 10; II Mach. 12, 29) and, nicknamed Nysa, was occupied in 107 B.C. by John Hyrcanus, and in 63 by Pompey, who included it among the cities of the Decapolis.
A new era for B. thus began with the Roman period. At this time the city extended beyond the tell, with the exception of the temple built on the ancient acropolis. Christianity then established at B. a flourishing center with several churches and monasteries; the metropolitan see of Palestine II was erected there, and in the time of the Crusaders was transferred to Nazareth. Conquered by Saladin in 1183, B. soon saw its ancient glory decline, and today it has been reduced to a poor village of ca. 3,000 inhabitants.
The systematic excavations carried out at Tell el-Hoṣn in three different campaigns (from 1921 to 1933) under the patronage of the University Museum of Philadelphia enable us to reconstruct the cultural and religious history of B., from the Chalcolithic period (ca. 3500 B.C.) to the Arab period. Of particular historical and religious interest are: the stele of the first year of Seti I; the temple of Tuthmosis III in honor of the god Mekal, “lord of B.”; the double temple of Ramses II in honor of Mekal and the goddess Anath; the fortress (mighdēl) built by Amenophis III (1411-1375); a head of Zeus Dio-
nysios from the Roman period; as well as various remains of churches and monasteries from the Byzantine and Crusader periods.