BETHLEHEM (bethle-hem or beth'le-hem), (Heb. bayth-leh'khem, house or place of bread, i. e. Bread-town, or house of flesh, Sept. B720Xeeii, Bethlehem).
1. A city of Judah (Judg. xvii :7), six miles southward from Jerusalem. on the road to Hebron. It was generally called Bethlehem-Judah to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in Zebu lun (Josh. xix ; Judg. xii :10). It is also called Ephratah (the fruitful), and its inhabitants Ephratites (Gen. xlviii :7 ; Mic. v :2). Bethlehem is chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of David and of Christ and as the scene of the Book of Ruth. It was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi :6) ; but it does not appear to have been a place of much importance, for Micah, extolling the moral pre-eminence of Bethlehem, says : 'Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,' etc. (Mic. v :2). Mat thew quotes this as—'and thou, Bethlehem of Judah, art not the least of the cities of Judah,' etc. (Matt. ii :6) which has the appearance of a discrepancy. But it is answer.-ci that a city may be little without being the least, or that the evan gelist may have quoted from memory, and hence the slight difference in expression, while the sense remains the same.
There never has been any dispute or doubt about the site of Bethlehem, which has always been an inhabited place, and, from its sacred as sociations, has been visited by an unbroken series of pilgrims and travelers. It is now a large vil lage, beautifully situated on the brow of a high hill, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding mountainous country, and rises in parterres of vineyards, almond-groves and fig plantations, watered by gentle rivulets that mur mur through the terraces ; and is diversified by towers and wine-presses. It is a straggling vil lage, with one broad and principal street. The houses have not domed roofs like those of Jeru salem and Rumla ; they are built for the most part of clay and ,bricks, and every house is pro vided with an apiary, the beehives of which are constructed of a series of earthen pots, ranged on the house-tops.
Travelers differ as to the site of the well by the gate of Bethlehem, from which David longed so much to drink. But certain it is, that by the gate of the city there is a well with a covered piazza. The Latins, Greeks and, Armenians have each a convent there, and there still exists a fine church supposed to have been built by Helena, A. D. 326. The monks pretend to show to visitors the stable where Christ was born, and the manger where he was laid. The spot where Christ's birth took place is marked by a silver star. Like the show of Holy places at Calvary, the whole appears to be miserable profanation, and wretched deceit. The • stable is a grotto or cave cut out of a rock, a cave into which one must descend. And there is no evidence that such stables were ever in use in the East. The fields where the angels appeared to the shepherds are pointed out to the east of the town, about half a mile distant (Matt. ii :1 ; Luke ii The city was sacred to Christians from the earliest times, and the first care of the Crusaders was to secure the safety of its Christian popula tion in A. D. io99, before Jerusalem was taken. It was subsequently made a bishopric. One of the most remarkable Christian texts is that on the font in the Basilica, which is said, with true modesty, to have been presented by 'those whose names are known to the Lord.' The glass frescoes are of high interest. and were presented by Michael Comnenos in the twelfth century, A. D. The crests of knights who visited the church in the Middle Ages are drawn upon the shafts of the Basilica pillars. (C. R. Conder, Hastings' Bib. Diet.) 2. A town in the portion of Zebulun named in Josh. xix :t5; Judg. xii :to. It has been iden tified with Belt Lahm, six miles west of Nazareth. by Dr. Robinson.