Bethany

Beth´uh-nee

1 A village on the lower eastern slope of the Mount of Olives (Mark 11:1; Luke 19:29), about fifteen stadia (approximately two miles) east of Jerusalem (John 11:18), where Jesus visited his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (Luke 10:38-42; John 12:1-8; Matt 21:17; Mark 11:11), raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44), and was anointed in the home of Simon the Leper (Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-50). Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem began here (Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-38). The name of the present-day village, El-Azarieh, is the Arabic form of Lazarion, the fourth-century name of the village and the church that was built over the traditional site of Lazarus’s tomb. 2 Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John the Baptist baptized (John 1:28); some manuscripts, however, give the location as Bethabara.