Bethel
The village of Jacob's dream.
Description[edit | edit source]
- «And when they reach the summit, they can distinctly see in the distance a huge bright light shining above an agglomeration, perhaps whitewashed houses.(...) Can you see that golden spot? It is the House of the Lord.»
(...) «Listen. Do you know where we are? This is Bethel. Holy Jacob dreamt of the angels here. Do you know? Do you remember?»
- «Yes, Lord. He saw a ladder that from the earth reached up to Heaven and the angels went up and down, and my mother used to say that when one dies, if one has always been good, one sees the same thing and goes up that ladder to the House of God.»[1]
«Whereabouts are we?» asks Matthew who finds his bearings with difficulty.
«We are certainly between Shiloh and Bethel. I recognize the mountains» says Thomas. «We passed here not long ago with Judas, who was the guest of a Pharisee at Bethel.»
«You could have been his guest, too, but you would not come. Neither he nor I said to you: "Do not come".»[2]
Its name[edit | edit source]
Bethel, בֵּית אֵל (Beth El)[3], (Beitîn)
Beth-El means "the house of God". Today Beit El, near Beitîn (Baytin) about 20 km north of Jerusalem.
Where is it mentioned in the work?[edit | edit source]
GRM 194
GRM 362
GRM 563 GRM 566
Learn more about this place[edit | edit source]
Abraham's camp upon his arrival in the Holy Land, it is also the place where Jacob saw in a dream the ladder connecting him to Heaven[4]. Its region was the seat of the prophetess Deborah. After the schism of the kingdom of Israel, King Jeroboam I built a rival Temple there to the one in Jerusalem to divert his people from David’s successors. A pagan worship of the golden calf, performed by a schismatic clergy, developed there. Bethel, at the time of Jesus, had become a simple town.The apostolic group passed several times through this border city between Ephraim and Benjamin. During the pilgrimage for Passover of the second year, Jesus comforts the young Jabé (Martial): «Do not weep. Listen. Do you know where we are? This is Bethel. Holy Jacob dreamt of the angels here.»[1] It is indeed at Bethel that Jacob had the vision of the ladder reaching heaven[5].And a few days before the Passion, from a summit west of Ephraim, Jesus points out to a disciple: «Look. There is Bethel. You can see its white houses and there, beyond Bethel, there is Beeroth.»[6]
Only a meticulous topographical study can confirm the accuracy of this description, Bethel being located 4.5 km from where Jesus then is, and visible from there.
An ancient place of Canaanite worship, Bethel witnessed the passage of Abraham and Jacob. The Ark stayed there around -1100. In -930, Jeroboam installed the main sanctuary of the Northern Kingdom there, which was destroyed in -724. The city is mentioned more than sixty times in the Bible. Yet its exact location is still debated today among archaeologists between Beitin and El Bireh. Several clues in Maria Valtorta's work point rather to Beitin, which corresponds well with tradition (Eusebius and St Jerome) that places Bethel twelve Roman miles north of Jerusalem.[7]
Explore[edit | edit source]
• 31° 55’ 27’’ N / 35° 14’ 08’’ E
• +880m.