The Bible is an important document of history of the ‘inhabited world’ which keeps the narratives of its geographical elements very wide and open for scholarly verification of ancient Jerusalem’s boundaries relating to most of its historical events.
The sanctuary at Bethany is related to the biblical story of Abraham as well as to that of Jacob who stopped at this place when he was going to the Kingdom of King Mesh. In the night while Jacob was still asleep, he had a dream of a ladder. Waking up, he thought of spending his night at a place of divinity; he took the stone which he had used as a pillow in the night and kept it in an upright position like an altar, and poured water on it as a sign of his devotion to the presiding deity of the holy land. Jacob becomes the part of historical Israel and his story of the story of ancient Israel.
Different authors of the Bible have narrated the story of Jerusalem from different angles but they have held one thing in common that the people of Israelites were thne in constant fear of God, and this element of fear often seems to have come very abruptly. This was the fear of the volcanic eruption that kept them always moving from one place to the other. Here the God is addressed as ‘Elohim’.
The story of ‘ladder’ which is linked to the story of Jacob sprung from the story of the Buddha who descended from Heaven along with Brahma and Indra by a ornamented ladder. This happened at a place known as Sankisa, After Buddha’s death some of his followers worshipped the symbol of a ‘ladder’ as well. And a group of monks carried a small wooden ‘ladder’ with them wherever they went in a dignified way to identify themselves as followers of the ‘Way’ of NIbbana.
It is seen from the biblical narratives that Haran, Bethel and Shechem were all neighbourly to each other,
Bethel, according to Jos(16:1), is indicative of the house of Joseph ; it was to the north of Jerusalem, and 10 mi from it. It was on the border of Benjamin. Before the time of Abraham and Jacob there was a sanctuary here. It was a place whose sanctuary was identified both with Davidic and Judahite peoples. It is said that worship at Bethel was almost the same as that of Jerusalem. Amos castigated the people here, and Hosea called it by the name of Beth-aven which scholars translated as the ‘House of Wickedness’l here meaning of ‘aven’ should be seen with meaning of ‘el-hem’. Jeroboam I established the temple of Bethel along with Dan temple during his time, even though his place of residence was marked by three places: Shechem, Penuel, and Tirzah. Here he set up a golden bull.
Bethel is accepted as a Canaanite shrine of Baal deities; simultaneously, this name is also seen as name of a deity whose seat of worship is considered as the chief shrine of Israel. And this God is held as a God of Israel. But Josiah became the cause of its destruction. A regular pilgrimage from Shechem to Bethel by Israelites in the period of the Judges has been recorded by history. The historic connection between the prophetess Deborah’s palm tree and Bethel again should be seen along with the ‘ladder’ and the ‘bull’. Bethel is also known with another name: ‘Beitin’ to which Indian puranas know as Baitarani, name of a river. But this river which passed through the seat of worship of the goddess at Bethany was known by the name of Baitarani itself. This has also another biblical name, Bochim.
Bethlehem is also called Ephra-thah, and this is known to Indian puranic tradition as ‘prastha’, name of a locality. It identifies a sacred region where Sages, Seers, Prophets, and Prophetess died, and their place of relics are still worshipped with much reverence even today. This region identifies the seat of Davidic dynasty; and Indian puranas find in the same region the puranic Dwarika which was built by Sri Krishna inside the sea to protect the Jadus from Jara-sandha. This region marks the birthplace of Jesus and Rachel’s Tomb also. The latter is at the north entry of Bethlehem, and is a place in Benjamiin itself. Most of the Indian puranas call this in different name-forms: ‘Brahma-desha’, ‘Brahmarshi-desha’, or ‘Brahma-varta’, and this includes the place of death of Abraham, as well as Jesus and other biblical Seers.