BETHANY (BOavia). 1. Lightfoot (Opp. ii. 202) derives this name from the Aramaic compound house of dates ;' others affirm that it is from 71.)3/713, house of sorrow' (Simon. Onom.
s. v.). T The former is the more probable deriva tion. Bethany is mentioned in connection with Beth-phage, house of figs.' We also know that palm trees were plentiful in the environs of Bethany (John xii. t3) and on the Mount of Olives (Neh. viii. 15) ; while they were sufficiently rare in Pales tine to give to each locality where they were found a distinctive name (comp. Gen. xiv. 7; Deut. xxxiv. 3 ; Judg. iv. 5). It is worthy of note how the seve ral places here take their names from their peculiar products. We have the ' Mount of Olives ;' Beth phage, ' the house of figs ; ' and Bethany, ' the house of dates.' The village of Bethany is unquestionably ancient, though it was probably so small, and its situation so retired, that it never came into notice until the time of our Lord. Then, however, it became the scene of two events which have served to place it in the highest rank among the sacred towns of Palestine. At Bethany Christ raised Lazarus from the dead (John xi.) ; and at Bethany, during His last interview with His disciples, He ascended into heaven (Luke xxiv. 5o). This little quiet village appears to have been the home of our Lord during His periodical visits to Jerusalem (John xii. ; Mark xi. 12 ; Matt. xxi. 17). Some of the most inte resting and affecting incidents in His private life occurred here (Matt. xxvi. 6, sq. ; Mark xiv. 3 ; John xi. 2). What Capernaum was in Galilee (Matt. iv. 13), Bethany was in Judea. After the labours of the day in the great city, after the tur moil of its crowded thoroughfares, and the wanton insult and persecution of its fanatical populace, it must have been sweet and soothing to the Saviour's troubled soul to walk over Olivet in the still even ing or starry night, and seek repose and sympathy in the peaceful homes and genial society of Bethany.
Bethany was never afterwards lost sight of by Christian scholars and travellers. The Bourdeaux pilgrim who visited Palestine in A. D. 333 mentions the crypt in which Lazarus was buried as being shewn in Bethany (Itin. Hieros, ed. Wessel. p. 596). And Jerome, writing nearly a century later, says that a church then marked the site of the miracle (Onomast. s. v. Betkania). A few centuries later, piety or superstition added other churches, with convents for both monks and nuns, and discovered or invented numerous holy places' (see Early Travels in Palestine, Bohn, pp. 6, 28, 44). The churches and convents, like most others in Pales tine, were destroyed when Mohammedanism be came triumphant. One church was used for a time as a mosque, and thus outlived the others ; but in the t6th century nothing remained of any of them except a few fragments of massive walls and heaps of rubbish (Robinson's Bib. Res. i. 433).
Bethany still exists, though it has long lost its old name. It is a remarkable fact that its new name serves to distinguish it as the site of Christ's great miracle. It is called El-Azartych, which may be rendered the place of Lazarus.' It is mile distant from Jerusalem, on the opposite, or eastern side of the Mount of Olives ; and about a mile below the summit of the mount. The village
consists of some twenty wretched houses, huddled together on the side of a shallow rocky glen, which runs down the declivity. The slopes around are almost covered with bare crowns and jagged frag ments of gray limestone ; but among these are still some straggling fig-orchards, intermixed with olive and carob trees. Bethany stands on the border of the desert. Beyond it there is not, and appa rently never was, any inhabited spot. It seems as if excluded from the world of active life, and one would suppose, from the look of its inhabitants, that they had given up industry in despair. The view from it is dreary and desolate. Olivet shuts out Jerusalem and the country westward ; and the eye roams eastward down the bare, gray, wilder ness of Judma ' into the deep valley of the Jordan, and then up again to the long wall of the Moab mountains on the distant horizon. The houses are massive and rude, built chiefly of old hewn stones. On the top of a scarped rock to the south is a heavy fragment of ancient masonry, which may be part of one of the old churches. The tomb of Lazarus is still shewn. It is a deep vault, partly excavated in the rock, and partly lined with masonry. Of course there is nothing to connect it with the great miracle of our Lord except the imagination of the people.
The leading, and indeed the only, road from Jerusalem to Jericho runs past Bethany. It is one of the dreariest in all Palestine, and it is now, as it was in the time of our Lord, one of the most dangerous (Luke x. 3o). The road does not pro ceed direct from the Holy City to this village ; it winds round the south side of the Mount of Olives ; thus making the distance as nearly as possible fifteen furlongs (John xi. 18). It was up that road through the wilderness from Jericho Christ came to raise Lazarus ; and on it, without the village, the weeping sisters met Him (comp. John x. 40, and xi. 1--20). It was along that road to Jerusalem He went in triumphal procession, and from the 'palm trees' in the adjoining fields the multitudes cut down branches (Mark xi. 1-r ; John xii. 13). A steep and rugged footpath leads from Jerusalem to Bethany over the summit of Olivet. It was pro bably by it Jesus led out ' His disciples as far as to Bethany '—the same place where He was often wont to retire—and there He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And while He blessed them He was parted from them, and received up into heaven' (Luke xxiv. 50, 51). By the same path the disciples returned to Jerusalem (Acts i. 12). It is a singular fact, and one calculated to shew the value that ought to be attached to eastern traditions, that a tradition as old as the beginning of the 4th century fixes the scene of the ascension on the summit of the Mount of Olives, and there, in honour of it, the Empress Helena built a church (Eusebius, Vit. Court. iii. 43) ; yet Luke distinctly states that this event occurred at Bethany. (The fullest ac counts of Bethany are given in Robinson's Biblical Researches ; Wilson's Lands of the Bible; Stanley's Sinai and Pal. ; Murray's Handbook for Syria and Palestine.)—J. L. P.
2. Bethany on the Jordan. [BETHABARA.]