Beth-Shean (Beit She'an), Israel

Overview

Beth-Shean (Bet She’an, Beit Shean), a major biblical and secular city for thousands of years. Beth-Shean was a key city long before the arrival of the Israelites because of its location at the junction of the Jezreel and Jordan Valleys. This strategic geographic location made it a vital trade and military hub for millennia. After Joshua’s conquest, Beth-Shean and the surrounding towns were assigned to the tribe of Manasseh, but fearing the iron chariots of the Canaanite inhabitants, the Israelites failed to drive out the Canaanites (Joshua 17:11,16).

When Saul and his three sons died on Mount Gilboa, the Philistine victors carried their decapitated bodies to Beth-Shean and hung them on the city wall to humiliate the Israelites. When they heard of this travesty, the men of Jabesh-Gilead marched through the night (twelve miles) to recover the bodies of the king and his sons. They carried them back to Jabesh-Gilead where they burned them and buried the ashes (1 Samuel 31).

Israel finally conquered Beth-Shean during the reign of King Solomon, some four hundred years after Joshua’s conquest of the area (1 Kings 4:12). Later, in 732 BC, the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Pileser III, destroyed Beth-Shean after defeating the northern Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 15:29). In Hellenistic times, the city of Scythopolis ("City of the Scythians") was built on the valley floor at the foot of the ancient tell. It became one of the chief cities of the Decapolis and the only city of the Decapolis west of the Jordan River.

During the first century AD, the Romans developed the city into one of the most imposing in all Palestine. It boasted a 7,000-seat amphitheater, a colonnaded street and extensive buildings. The Romans used the amphitheater/hippodrome in Beth-Shean for pleasure events, games with animals, and gladiator-type activities, as well as a venue to persecute Christians during the early church period and later.

During the fourth century AD, Beth-Shean gradually became a Christian city, but went into gradual decline, becoming an Arab city around 636 AD with its named changed to Beisan. Much of the current city is Byzantine. The entire city was destroyed in October of 749 A.D. by a massive earthquake, leaving spectacular ruins to be found in modern times. Five or six major temple complexes and inscriptions mentioning several different deities have been found in the ruins, suggesting that Beth-Shean was an important center for pagan worship. Scripture records that there were at least two temples there during the time of Saul and David: the temple of Ashtaroth and the temple of Dagon (2 Samuel 31:10; 1 Chronicles 10:10).