Bethel

An ancient city located about 18km north of later Jerusalem, identified with the modern village of Beitin in Palestinian territory. According to the account of Jacob's dream in Gen 28, the place was originally called Luz; as a result of his dream of the angels ascending and descending on a ladder reaching up to heaven and of the promise Yahweh reaffirmed to him, Jacob renamed the place Bethel, literally 'house of God.'

Bethel served as one of Abraham's earliest settlements when he first arrived in Canaan, and there built an altar toe Yahweh (Gen 12:8). He may have returned there after his sojourn in Egypt before he separated from Lot (Gen 13:3). So did Jacob after his return from Paddan Aram (Gen 35:1ff).

Conquered by Joshua, Bethel remained an important city during the time of the judges, and the Ark of the Covenant was kept there for some time, attended to by Phinehas (Judg 20:26-28), and seemed to have remained as a popular place of pilgrimage long afterwards (see, e.g., 1 Sam 10:3). Most famously Bethel became—together with Dan in the extreme north—the most important center of idol worship in Israel when Jeroboam son of Nebat established the cult of the golden calf there, in opposition to the temple in Jerusalem (1 Ki 12:28ff). From its very beginning it became the object of prophetic judgment, beginning with the un-named man of God (1 Ki 13) to Hosea (10:15) and especially Amos (3:14; 4:4; 5:5-6). Bethel was destroyed during the upheavals of the Assyrian conquest, but it retained its religious importance when the new rulers appointed a new priest to minister there (2 Ki 17:28). As part of his religious reforems, Josiah dismantled most of what was left of the cultic architecture there and elsewhere in Samaria in the late 7th Cent BC (2 Ki 23:15-18). The city, though great diminished, survived until it was destroyed by the conquering Arabs in the 6th Cent AD.

Read the entry in

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (longer) M

Eaton's Illustrated Bible Dictionary (shorter) M

Further Reading & Resources:

W.J. Dumbrell, "Role of Bethel in the Biblical narratives from Jacob to Jeroboam I," Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology 2.3 (1974-75): 65-76. Pdf N 6-7 (Open on Phone)