The Hebrew Bible, which says that the city of Bethlehem was built up as a fortified city by Rehoboam, identifies it as the city David was from and where he was crowned as the king of Israel . The Gospels of Matthew and Luke identify Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Population.
Year | Population |
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2007 | 25,266 |
Bethlehem , Arabic Bayt Laḥm (“House of Meat”), Hebrew Bet Leḥem (“House of Bread”), town in the West Bank, situated in the Judaean Hills 5 miles (8 km) south of Jerusalem . According to the Gospels (Matthew 2; Luke 2), Bethlehem was the site of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. Bethlehem , West Bank.
Matthew also says that after Herod dies from an illness, Joseph, Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem . Instead, they travel north to Nazareth in Galilee, which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel.
The birthplace of Jesus Christ is only a bus or taxi ride away from the Old City of Jerusalem within the West Bank. Lots of tourists walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, but these days you have to walk on a big road. You cannot just walk across the fields because you have to pass through a military checkpoint.
Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2nd century AD people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity , Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born.
Jesus | |
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Born | c. 4 BC Kingdom of Judea , Roman Empire |
Died | AD 30 or 33 (aged 33–36) Jerusalem, Judea , Roman Empire |
Cause of death | Crucifixion |
Parent(s) | Mary Joseph |
King David , the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz was born and raised in Bethlehem , and there David’s mighty men lived. Bethlehem eventually came to be called the City of David as the symbol of his great dynasty. It grew into an important, strategic, and fortified city under King Rehoboam.
Walking through the border is easy Going from Jerusalem into Bethlehem is as simple as walking through a turnstile. It took less than a minute and there was no one checking documents. Getting back into Jerusalem takes a fraction longer.
You should be especially vigilant in this region. The cities of Bethlehem , Ramallah and Jericho see large numbers of tourists including on organised tours and there have been no recent reports of any serious incidents involving foreigners. However, you should take care when travelling anywhere in the West Bank.
Both of the gospels which describe the nativity of Jesus agree that he was born in Bethlehem and then later moved with his family to live in Nazareth . The Gospel of Matthew describes how Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to Egypt to escape from Herod the Great’s slaughter of the baby boys in Bethlehem .
Nazareth is known as “the Arab capital of Israel”. In 2019 its population was 77,445. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian. Nof HaGalil (formerly Nazareth Illit (lit. Nazareth .
Nazareth النَّاصِرَة an-Nāṣira נָצְרַת Natzrat | |
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Website | www. nazareth .muni.il |
Located in the beautiful Lower Galilee region of Israel, and famed for being the city where Jesus had lived and grown up, today Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel, and one of the largest cities in northern Israel. The majority of the people in Nazareth are Muslim or Christian.
Jesus ‘ name in Hebrew was “Yeshua” which translates to English as Joshua.
Dec. 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus’s birth; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth.
Hebrew was the language of scholars and the scriptures. But Jesus’s “everyday” spoken language would have been Aramaic . And it is Aramaic that most biblical scholars say he spoke in the Bible.