Bethel
The village of Jacob's dream.
Description
Arriving at the summit, there shines in the distance, already distinctly, a sea of light overlooking a completely white settlement, perhaps houses whitewashed with lime. "Do you see that point shining like gold? That is the House of the Lord.""Listen. Do you know where we are? At Bethel, where the holy Jacob had his angelic dream. Do you know him? Do you remember?" - "Yes, Lord. He saw a ladder that went from earth to Heaven on which Angels went up and down. Mother told me that at the hour of death, if you had always been good, you saw the same thing and that you went up that ladder to the house of God."[1]
"Where could we be?" asks Matthew, who is disoriented. "Between Shiloh and Bethel certainly," says Thomas. "I recognize the mountains. I passed here recently, with Judas, who at Bethel was received by Pharisees." "You could have been too. You didn't want to come. But neither they nor I told you: Do not come."[2]
Its name
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?
EMV 194
EMV 362
EMV 563 EMV 566
Learn more about this place
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 [[Kingdom, Royalty, Reign|] 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 cry. Listen. Do you know where we are? At Bethel, where the holy Jacob had his angelic dream” 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 houses whitening, and over there, beyond Bethel, 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
• 31° 55’ 27’’ N / 35° 14’ 08’’ E
• +880m.