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Place

Bethany

judea

Summary

The village near Jerusalem, home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and the setting of the seventh sign (John 11; 12:1).

  • A village on the Mount of Olives, less than two miles from Jerusalem, home to Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
  • Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead here after four days in the tomb, the last and greatest of John's signs.
  • In the same last week, a woman anointed Jesus for burial in Bethany, an act He said would be told wherever the gospel is preached.
  • Bethany was where Jesus lodged during His final week in Jerusalem.
  • Luke places the ascension itself "as far as Bethany," on the ridge above the village.

On this page

In Scripture

Verses
12
Books
4
See it on Reference map of ancient Palestine→

Near Bethany

Straight-line distances, computed from the gazetteer coordinates.

Where it is

the country around it

Coordinates
31.7717° N, 35.2621° Efind it on the Atlas →
Region
Judea
Kind of place
Town

1 place the record names with Bethany, the farthest 4.6 km away

The Dead SeaThe JordanBethelBethelJerichoJerichoNobNobBethany15 km · 9.3 miN
  1. 1Bethany's distance from JerusalemJohn 11:18 · 4.6 kmNow Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,
  • Located: the gazetteer fixes one site
  • ? Proposed: one candidate among several
  • A dashed line ends at a place the gazetteer does not fix
Each line joins Bethany to a place one of its verses names, and carries that verse. Every line is headed the way its verse sends it. The lines are straight between two coordinates and are not roads. A dashed line ends at a place the gazetteer does not fix. The Dead Sea and the Jordan are drawn from Natural Earth's public-domain outlines. Every mark sits at the coordinates the gazetteer records for it. Mount of Olives lies about 1.6 km NW, too near to mark separately at this scale.
Reference map of ancient Palestine: the coast, the hill country, the Jordan rift and the Dead Sea, with the towns of the biblical narrative marked.
Reference map of ancient Palestine: the land from Dan to Beersheba: most of the historical books happen on this one sheet.Rand McNally reference map (1926), public domain.Open this plate full size in The Atlas →

Why Bethany matters

Bethany sat on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, on the road down toward Jericho, a little less than two miles from Jerusalem. It was home to two sisters, Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus, and Jesus loved all three. When Lazarus fell sick, the sisters sent for Jesus, but He stayed where He was two more days before setting out. By the time He arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Martha met Him on the road and heard Him say, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies." At the tomb itself, with Martha warning that the body would already smell, Jesus called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" and the dead man came out, still bound in his graveclothes. That sign changed everything. Many who saw it believed, but others reported it to the religious leaders, and from that day the plot to kill Jesus began in earnest. Caiaphas, the high priest, said it was better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish, not realizing he was prophesying Jesus's death for the nation and for the scattered children of God besides. Six days before the last Passover, Jesus came back to Bethany, and Lazarus's household gave Him a dinner. Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume, anointed His feet and wiped them with her hair. Judas objected that it could have been sold and given to the poor, but Jesus answered that she had kept it for the day of His burial. The same week, at the house of a man called Simon the leper, a woman broke open an alabaster jar of the same kind of perfume and poured it on His head; Jesus said what she had done would be told wherever the gospel is preached, in memory of her. Bethany was where Jesus stayed each night that final week, walking into Jerusalem by day and back out again after dark. And Bethany is the last place Luke names before the ascension: Jesus led the disciples out as far as that village, lifted His hands, blessed them, and was carried up into heaven while He was still blessing them.

The raising of Lazarus, outlined

John 11, in the order it happens

Read John 11, in the order it happens
  1. Lazarus falls sick in BethanyJohn 11:1At this time a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
  2. Jesus stays two more days before goingJohn 11:6So on hearing that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was for two days,
  3. Martha's confession on the roadJohn 11:25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
  4. Jesus weepsJohn 11:35Jesus wept.
  5. "Lazarus, come out!"John 11:43After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
  6. The plot to kill Jesus beginsJohn 11:53So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.
  7. Mary anoints Jesus's feet for burialJohn 12:3Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
  8. A different anointing, at Simon the leper's houseMark 14:3While Jesus was in Bethany reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke open the jar and poured it on Jesus’ head.

The same week, at Bethany, a woman anointed Jesus for burial. Mark 14 and John 12 describe the anointing from different angles; both are quoted below rather than merged into one account.

The Raising of Lazarus: the full study

What happened here, in order

in the order the canon tells it

  1. Bethany's distance from JerusalemJohn 11:18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, a little less than two miles away,
  2. Martha warns the body will smellJohn 11:39“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. “Lord, by now he stinks,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man. “It has already been four days.”
  3. Lazarus comes out, still boundJohn 11:44The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them.
  4. Caiaphas's unwitting prophecyJohn 11:50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.
  5. Jesus returns to Bethany six days before PassoverJohn 12:1Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.
  6. Jesus answers Judas's objectionJohn 12:7“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.
  7. Told in memory of her, wherever the gospel is preachedMark 14:9And truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
  8. Jesus lodges at Bethany during His last weekMatthew 21:17Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night.
  9. Martha welcomes Jesus into her home, in an unnamed villageLuke 10:38As they traveled along, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.
  10. Mary's chosen portionLuke 10:42But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
  11. Jesus leads the disciples out as far as BethanyLuke 24:50When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them.
  12. Carried up into heaven while blessing themLuke 24:51While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven.

Bethany in Scripture

12 verses name it, in 4 books

Open a book to read its mentions here. Text: Berean Standard Bible.

First namedMatthew 21:17Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night.Last namedJohn 12:1Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

Old TestamentNew Testamentsegment width = share of mentions

New Testament4 books · 12 mentions

Matthew2 mentions

All of Matthew→

Mark4 mentions

All of Mark→

Luke2 mentions

All of Luke→

John4 mentions

All of John→

Common questions

Was Luke's story of Mary and Martha set at Bethany?

Readers differ; the positions are named

Luke does not name the village. He says only that Jesus entered "a village" where Martha welcomed Him and her sister Mary sat at His feet. Readers commonly assume this is the same Martha and Mary of John 11 and 12, since the names and the household match, but the text itself leaves the place unnamed. This page names the assumption rather than asserting it as settled.

Are the anointing in John 12 and the anointing in Mark 14 the same event?

Readers differ; the positions are named

Both happen at Bethany in the last week before the crucifixion, both use a jar of pure nard, and both draw an objection that the perfume should have been sold for the poor. Mark names the house as Simon the leper's and does not name the woman; John names Mary, sister of Lazarus, and sets it at a dinner in her own household. Many readers take these as one event told from two angles; others hold them as two separate anointings in the same week. This page quotes both Gospels as they stand rather than merging them into one account.

Why does Bethany appear at the very end of Luke, at the ascension?

Bethany was already the place where Jesus lodged through His final week, walking into Jerusalem by day and back out again at night. Luke's phrase, that Jesus led the disciples out "as far as Bethany," places the ascension on the ridge of the Mount of Olives above the village, the same slope Jesus had been climbing and descending all that week.

What is the modern name for the site, and how far back does the Lazarus tradition go?

The modern town is called el-Azariyeh, a name that derives from "Lazarium," the place of Lazarus. Christian writers already knew the village and a tomb shown as his by the fourth century: Eusebius names it in his Onomasticon, and the pilgrim who left the Bordeaux Itinerary in AD 333 records it as a fixed local site. That is a naming tradition with early, dated witnesses, not an inscription proving the tomb itself.

Why did the raising of Lazarus lead to a plot against Jesus?

Many who saw Lazarus raised believed in Jesus, but others reported it to the Pharisees, who convened the Sanhedrin fearing that if everyone believed, the Romans would come and take away both their place and their nation. Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said it was better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish, and John notes that without knowing it he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation and for the scattered children of God.

Sources cited

Every source behind MannaFest →

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