Monday's Journey Up to Jerusalem - Stop at Beth Shean

Posted by Kitty Scott

Beth Shean lies where the Valley of Jezreel and the Jordan River Valley meet. You may be saying “so what?” It was an important crossroad city for both commerce and military control. Saul and his sons Johathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua died on the nearby hill of Mt. Gilboa during a fight with the Philistines. The Philistines cut off Saul’s head and hung the bodies of Saul and his boys on the walls of Beth-Shean. Later, David removed their bodies for burial.

During the Roman and Byszntine times, the city was known as Scythopolis. Again, you may say “so what?” Although Scythopolis was not mentioned by name in the New Testament, it was one of the cities of the Decapolis. Jesus visited the cities of the Decapolis, therefore visiting Scythopolis.

The ruins at Scythopolis were fabulous. John Scott said that it reminded him a lot of Pompeii. Pompeii was destroyed and covered with the ash from a volcanic eruption, similarly Scythopolis was destroyed after an earthquake that set off a mud slide that buried the city. The site was excavated during a downturn in the Israeli economy. They asked welfare recipients to volunteer to work on the excavation. The result was finding a beautiful Roman that the mud had preserved complete with mosaics on the floors. We walked the original streets and saw their ritual baths, markets, ampitheater and more.

Just above the Roman city on the hill was the Jewish city of Beth Shean. Beth Shean was a tel that rose above at least 20+ layers of ruins. Some of the interesting finds included an Egyptian Stella, some Egyptian made clay bricks in which you could still see the straw!

The people of the land of Israel from the beginning until the Greek period built their cities on hills for visibility, safety, and advantage in battle. Greeks and Romans built their temples on the hills and would establish cities at the base of the mount. Hence, this site had two separate and exciting ruins to explore.

To add to the excitement, we found pieces of Roman glass in the dirt which made us feel like “real archeologists.” One of the jewelers we visited in the Jewish quarter said “that only God could bring the Jews back to the land and have them make money by selling jewelry made out of Roman glass. [the Romans being the ones that ripped them from the land] In fact he said, he makes a very good living using the ancient glass.” [he makes necklaces, ear rings, and other artistic pieces with the glass that he finds ]