Bethany #42

Bethany was a village on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, close to Jerusalem, and the home of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus (John 11:1). John gives its distance from Jerusalem as about fifteen stadia, which is roughly two miles (John 11:18). Its nearness to the city made it a natural place for Jesus to retreat to during his final visits to Jerusalem.

Biblical Significance

Bethany is the setting for one of the most dramatic signs in the Gospels. When Lazarus fell ill and died, Jesus arrived to find him four days in the tomb. He told Martha that he is the resurrection and the life, wept with the mourners, and called Lazarus out of the grave (John 11:17-44). The event is the last of the signs John records before the Passion, and it sharpens the opposition of the authorities (John 11:45-53).

Six days before the Passover, Jesus returned to Bethany for a supper at which Martha served, Lazarus was present, and Mary anointed his feet with costly perfume, an act he linked to his burial (John 12:1-8). Mark places a similar anointing in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany (Mark 14:3-9), and readers have long discussed how the accounts relate. During the week that followed, Jesus approached Jerusalem by way of Bethany and the Mount of Olives (Mark 11:1), lodged in Bethany in the evenings (Matthew 21:17; Mark 11:11-12), and set out from there the next morning when he cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:12-14). After the resurrection, Luke records that Jesus led the disciples out as far as Bethany, where he blessed them and was taken up (Luke 24:50-51). Luke also tells of Martha and Mary receiving Jesus in an unnamed village (Luke 10:38-42), which tradition has connected with Bethany.

A different Bethany, described as beyond the Jordan, is named as the place where John was baptizing (John 1:28). It is a separate location and should not be confused with the village near Jerusalem.

Today

The modern town of al-Eizariya, whose Arabic name preserves the memory of Lazarus, occupies the traditional site of Bethany in the West Bank, just east of Jerusalem. A tomb venerated as that of Lazarus has been shown to pilgrims since at least the fourth century, and churches, including a Franciscan church built in the twentieth century, stand nearby. As is often the case, the exact placement of the ancient village and of the tomb rests on long tradition and on the general fit with the Gospel description, and it has not been established beyond question. Bethany beyond the Jordan is associated by tradition and by many scholars with sites on the eastern bank of the river, in modern Jordan.