Bethany (biblical Village) - Location

Location

Bethany has traditionally been identified with the present-day West Bank city of al-Eizariya (Arabic (العيزرية), meaning "Place of Lazarus"), site of the reputed Tomb of Lazarus, located about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the east of Jerusalem on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. The oldest house in present-day al-Eizariya, a 2,000 year old dwelling reputed to have been (or which at least serves as a reminder of) the House of Martha and Mary, is also a popular pilgrimage site.

The tomb in al-Eizariya has been identified as the tomb of the gospel account since at least the 4th century AD. Both the historian Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 330) and the Bordeaux pilgrim in the Itinerarium Burdigalense (c. 333) mention the Tomb of Lazarus in this location.

Zanecchia (1899), however, argued that ancient Bethany may actually have been located higher up the Mount of Olives from al-Eizariya, closer to Bethphage. The Catholic Encyclopedia refers to Zanecchia (though the Encyclopedia article's author himself discounts his conclusion):

Some believe that the present village of Bethany does not occupy the site of the ancient village; but that it grew up around the traditional cave which they suppose to have been at some distance from the house of Martha and Mary in the village; Zanecchia places the site of the ancient village of Bethany higher up on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, not far from the accepted site of Bethphage, and near that of the Ascension. It is quite certain that the present village formed about the traditional tomb of Lazarus, which is in a cave in the village. The identification of this cave as the tomb of Lazarus is merely possible; it has no strong intrinsic or extrinsic authority. The site of the ancient village may not precisely coincide with the present one, but there is every reason to believe that it was in this general location, mostly by the local villagers who have become dependent on hearsay than on fact, to both the local council which leases this Christian site for an annual higher bid reached in 2007 to about 40,000 Jordanian Dinars per year, and those who lease the site, charging tourists a ONE US dollar fee per head,'an income otherwise non-existent""