Whatever happened to Lazarus’ Bethany?

by Michael Shackleton · July 22, 2013

Why is it that Bethany is never regarded as a holy place, the way Bethlehem and many others are? We hardly read about Bethany, except that it was the home of Lazarus. Isn’t it the place of Christ’s Ascension? It is rarely mentioned in pilgrimage tour ads. Rebecca Sauls

The raising of Lazarus is depicted on an altar in Bethany

Bethany, a Christian Arab village now known as al-Azariyyah (the place of Lazarus), is part of the West Bank. It is governed by the Palestinian Authority but is simultaneously under Israeli military occupation. This obviously creates several problems.

Some pilgrim groups do visit Bethany and its church of St Lazarus, but not all. It depends mostly on which local ground operators the tour company uses.

Pilgrim groups that use Israeli ground operators will not visit Bethany simply because Israeli tour buses don’t go there. They also don’t go to Bethlehem, although sometimes pilgrims are taken on a quick tour on a local bus before being returned to the checkpoint that separates the city from Israel.

Palestinian ground operators, which usually are Christian-owned, do offer to go to Bethany.

However, because there is so much to do in Jerusalem and nearby Bethlehem, and because the Israeli occupation makes access to Bethany so difficult, many tour companies exclude Bethany from their programme in favour of other places.

This is a shame, because the gospels tell some important stories set in Bethany (Lk 10:38-42; Jn 12:1-8).

The best known is probably the one you mention, that is, that Bethany was the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, and it was there that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:1-44).

In his book The Holy Land Trek, Gunther Simmermacher writes that Jesus probably often stayed with his friends in Bethany. This was because during the pilgrimage seasons, accommodation in Jerusalem was scarce and expensive, so travellers of modest means, such as Jesus and his followers, would stay in nearby villages, such as Bethany.

The Ascension is, however, commemorated on the nearby Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Scripture gives us no clue as to the exact location from which Christ ascended into heaven, and various churches make competing claims.

The Catholic Church traditionally places the Ascension on top of the Mount of Olives, in what is now a tiny mosque but once was part of a large Crusader church. Catholic pilgrims commemorate the Ascension on that site, which includes a rock featuring what appears to be the imprint of a foot. According to tradition, this is the footprint left by Christ as he ascended.