Bible Location

Bethel

62 cross references · Modern-day map available

Bethel, about ten miles north of Jerusalem in the central hill country, is one of the Bible's most significant sanctuary sites. It is important as the place associated with Jacob's vision and renewed encounter with God, and later as a major religious center whose history also includes false worship in the divided kingdom. First appears in Gen 12:8.1

Coordinates

31.93, 35.22

First appears

Gen 12:8

AI summary: Bethel holds together some of the Bible's sharpest contrasts. In Genesis it is a place of revelation, worship, and covenant memory, especially through Jacob's ladder vision and later return to the site. That gives Bethel an enduring association with divine encounter and response. But in later Israelite history the same place becomes one of the chief sanctuaries of the northern kingdom, where political religion and idolatrous worship corrupt what had once been holy memory. Because prophets repeatedly address Bethel in that later setting, its significance is double-edged: it is both a place of genuine encounter with God and a warning about how sacred places can be misused. The cross references make Bethel one of the most theologically layered locations in the land.1

Latitude

31.93

Longitude

35.22

Bible references

62