Bethel (
Ugaritic:
bt il, meaning "
House of El" or "House of God", , also
transliterated Beth El,
Beth-El, or
Beit El; ; ) was a border city described in the
Hebrew Bible as being located between
Benjamin and
Ephraim and also a location named by Jacob.
Edward Robinson identified the village of
Beitin in the
West Bank with ancient Bethel in
Biblical Researches in Palestine, 1838–52. He based this assessment on its fitting the location described in earlier texts, and on the philological similarities between the modern and ancient name, arguing that the replacement of the Hebrew
el with the Arabic
in was not unusual. During
Israelite rule, Bethel first belonged to the
Tribe of Benjamin, but was later conquered by the
Tribe of Ephraim.
Eusebius of Caesarea and
Jerome describe it in their time as a small village that lay 12 Roman miles north of
Jerusalem, to the right or east of the road leading to
Neapolis.