BETH-SHAN (Hebrew Beth-Šē'ān or Beth-Šān; Septuagint Βαθθάγ, Βηθάγ; Arabic Bejān). - 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 šān or šāhan "serpent" (representing the Babylonian goddess of health).
Very ancient, before entering biblical history, B. is named in the el-Amarna letters (289, 20, ed. J. A. Knudtzon) Bit-sa-a-ni, in Egyptian bīt'ir = bīt'i. It stood on the southern banks of the Nahr Ġālid, 5 km. from the Jordan, on the height called today Tell el-Hoṣn, situated immediately north of the present-day Bejān. B. appears in the list of Palestinian cities conquered by Tuthmosis III (1501-1447), victor at Megiddo in 1479. To defend this strategic position of the first order, 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. The attempts by small neighboring 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 the power of Egypt for three centuries until the time of Ramses III (1198-67), when the power of the Pharaohs was eliminated in the struggle against "the peoples of the sea" (ca. 1194 B.C.). Shortly afterward the Canaanites took over, in whose hands B. was found at the time of the conquest of Palestine by the Israelites.
Although in the territory of Issachar, it was assigned to the tribe of Manasseh (Jos. 17, 11), but it could not be taken (ibid. 17, 12, 16; Iudc. 1, 27). At the death of Saul it seems to have been in the hands of the Philistines, who hung the corpse of Saul and 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 era it was called Scythopolis (Σωθάπολις, cf. Iudc. 1, 27 where it is a gloss; Iudc. 3, 10; II Mach. 12, 29) and nicknamed Nysa; it was occupied in 107 B.C. by John Hyrcanus, and in 63 by Pompey, who counted it among the cities of the Decapolis.
Thus with the Roman era a new age begins for B. At this time the city extends outside the tell, with the exception of the temple built on the ancient acropolis. Christianity then had in B. a most flourishing center with several churches and monasteries; there the metropolitan see of Palestine II was erected, which in the time of the Crusaders was transferred to Nazareth. Conquered by Saladin in 1183, B. immediately saw its ancient glory decline, and today it is reduced to a poor village of ca. 3000 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 allow us to reconstruct the cultural and religious history of B., from the Chalcolithic era (ca. 3500 B.C.) up to the Arab era. Of particular historical-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 of the goddess Anath, the fortress (mighdēl) built by Amenophis III (1411-1375), a head of Zeus Dionysios of the Roman era, as well as various vestiges of churches and monasteries from Byzantine and Crusader times.
Bibliography24 works
Teofilo Antolin