Cwic Clips- Bethany

- Bethany as the 'Poor House'

LDS Mormon

so Bethany is a what appears to be a

place of refuge a city of refuge it may

be that it was a place for sick people

to go to it may have been for the poor

and others who might have been afflicted

and so it is situated eighteen hundred

yards away from the actual walled city

of Jerusalem or the reason that is

important is because Jerusalem being the

holy city and a lot of cities at this

time would have done the same type of

thing being that it's a holy city in

Jerusalem where the temple is around the

city think of it as almost like a dry

moat there would be an area of purity

where if you were sick if you had

leprosy or other issues you could not

live within this area about 1,800 yards

around the city of Jerusalem and so

Bethany is right where it should be

outside of that area just outside of

that area you know maybe maybe a mile

and a half or more from the walls

of Jerusalem so it's also a place where

if you were a Galilean like Jesus and

many of his disciples here is his

apostles if you were a Galilean and you

did not want to come straight down south

coming to Jerusalem for the festivals

for example or to do business or

whatever it might be you might go to the

east side of the Jordan River and come

down south on the east side of the

Jordan River and end up at Bethany and

that could be a place where you would

stop so they've done a lot of

archaeological work there and they have

dug up a number of ossuaries where they

have a lot of names of people that were

there and it appears that it's very

and maybe likely that this was a mostly

Galilean community and so it would have

been a what basically the last stop for

someone coming down that non Samaritan

route so they didn't have to go through

Samaria

for a Galilean to come down south on the

east of the Jordan Jerusalem's on the

west of the Jordan and it'd be your last

stop before you would come into

Jerusalem and so this would be a normal

place for them to be and we hear more

about Bethany here during this week but

Bethany basically means there's a lot of

different interpretations given to this

this village here but it seems the

most likely meaning of Bethany is

basically the House of affliction or the

house of the poor or the poor house and

so this would be a place where you would

bring your sick so a lot of people were

doing they're sick they might it might

be from areas out in the desert and the

wilderness it might even be from inside

Jerusalem they need to take them out for

purity reasons and take them out to

Bethany and here they would be taken

care of there would be people there that

might be dedicated to helping the poor

and to helping the afflicted and the

sick and that may very well be what Mary

and Martha are doing there they may be

kind of humanitarian people you know and

they're there to act as kind of a nurse

or to health care individuals to help

people that are there and this is where

Lazarus was as well their brother and

it's where Christ ends up raising him

from the dead

so he was sick we also learned about

Simon the leper who is in Bethany the

leper is in Bethany someone who is sick

and so as Christ would maybe come toward

Jerusalem or even be in Jerusalem and

then maybe

take a break from inside the city he

would go out to Bethany which would have

been a place of refuge and maybe even a

kind of a religious center where they

would bring in these types of people I

think of the term I think of Bethany I

think of the term the French term lame

is a vibe right lame is a table is the

the book from Victor Hugo the musical

and the fabulous musical and so I

think about that term this is kind of

like maybe we're lame is a knob would

have gone the miserable people and

to try and find some refuge and some

help and healing and it what a natural

place for Jesus to go to