BATHELEM AND JERICHO

Bethlehem and Jericho

BETHLEHEM AND JERICHO

Introduction

Bethlehem (House of Bread - House Lahmu) is located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south-west of Jerusalem, at Mount Judah on his way to Hebron. He is first mentioned in the letters Armand fourteen centuries before our era. Bethlehem is sacred to all three beliefs: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Christian traditions, perhaps in the second century AD, the caves are defined as the birth place of Jesus (Hichens 2010). About 338 CE Constantine, the Roman emperor and his mother, Helena, built a church over the grotto, and in 527 the Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire resettled in Bethlehem, his reign was one of the greatest prosperity and the expansion of the church. Site of the Nativity is a central place of pilgrimage for Christians from around the world.

Bethlehem was a city of importance to the Crusaders, who won it in 1100. During the war between the Crusaders and Muslims in the city was destroyed, and then later restored. The Turks decimated the town in 1244, but the church someway got away, Bethlehem was rebuilt once again.

When finally the Crusaders were expelled from Palestine in 1291, Muslim rulers used the holy places for political and financial goals. Although Bethlehem was still nominally endowed, revenue collection from the ground was impossible. In 1332 Pope John XXII wrote to Edward III of England, to David II of Scotland and Simon Meopham, Archbishop of Canterbury, asking them to help the Bishop of Bethlehem, to regain the interest and thus ensure his return to Bethlehem and to carry out repairs. It appears that little has been done. Disintegration and destruction carried out over many years by fighting between local Christian and Muslim residents.

Bethlehem plays a significant role in the Old Testament, the history of Israel, and before they entered Egypt and slavery, and after the Exodus. She appears in the Old Testament as the Euphrates, where Rachel's beloved matriarch of the Jewish people, beloved wife of Jacob, died during childbirth, Rachel's Tomb, a place of pilgrimage for Jews and Muslims. Among other Biblical mentions and Holy Places in Bethlehem: the tomb of Rachel, Naomi and Ruth, Samuel anointed King David and the well from which David's warriors brought him water. In the Bible it is called "Bethlehem of Judah" (belonging to the tribe of Judah), to distinguish it from other Bethlehem, who was in the North in Zebulon.

Bethlehem is located approximately 5 miles / 8 km south-west of Jerusalem in the hill country of Judea on the way to Hebron. It is believed that there are at least 1000 years before Christ was born.

Bethlehem figures in the history of the Bible, both before the Israelites entered Egypt and slavery, and after the Exodus, and their return. Rachel, beloved wife (he married the sister of Leah) Jacob / Israel was buried near Bethlehem.

The events of The Book of Ruth will be held in the region of Bethlehem. Ruth and Boaz were ancestors of King David, who himself was born ...