Bet She'an

What you see here are the ruins from the Roman period at Bet She'an (Beth Shan). This is another amazing find and excavation because this entire area was completely underground due to earthquakes and erosion, and it was just recently unearthed. In the bottom picture with myself standing in the middle of it, if you look in the distance you can see the ground level where the trees are. If you extend this ground all the way to where I am standing, then it is not hard to imagine how this entire area was underground. The story of the discovery is that a farmer was plowing his land and struck one of the pillars. Because of the thousands of years of history in this land, when such an event like that happens, it is the law to immediately stop whatever is being done and have the professionals come in to excavate. Imagine finding this in your backyard.



While here at Bet She'an, I was able to walk down the main street (lined with the pillars) and eventually into the center of the amphitheater. This came with mixed emotions because it had a very cool Gladiator-type feel to it, but at the same time it was bone chilling to think of all the Christians that would have been killed here.





Another interesting point of this stop was that it served to be my first real contact with an Israeli. This man intercepted me on my way back to the bus. His English was terrible, and I have no Hebrew skills so it became interesting. I think he probably saw my beard and my ball cap (head covering) and thought that I was an American Jew. His first words were, "You American?" We went back and forth trying to understand each other until eventually we worked out "Christian" pointing to myself, "Jewish" pointing to him, and then badly attempting to say each other's names. I couldn't even begin to say what his name was, but his wife was Rachel, so that was easy enough even though I am sure I messed up the guttural "ch" sound. We both smiled and parted ways. Both of us made a friend that neither of us can even talk to.





Old Testament Reference:
“But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan.” Judges 1:27

“And [the Philistines] fastened [Saul’s] body to the wall of Beth-shan.” I Sam. 31:10


Bet She'an is one of the cities that was instructed by God to have been completely cleared out of all non-Jews (Israelites), but that commandment was not followed and eventually the Canaanites took over the city and drove out and persecuted the Jews. Eventually, this would be the location that King Saul's body would be hung on the city walls.