Beth Shean (Scythopolis)

Large portions of the First Testament become comprehensible when we stand on the tell of Beth Shean and look around. In addition, an immense Roman city is being unearthed below, bringing home to us what it signified, physically, when Rome appeared in the land.

Beth Shean was important. Several things signify this:

1. In the mid-second millennium BC, it became the chief Egyptian military base in the area, as indicated by numerous Egyptian finds on the tell, more than anywhere outside Egypt.

2. When the Romans organized the Decapolis around 58 BC, they made Scythopolis (as the city was then called) the capital of the league. It was the only Decapolis city west of the Jordan.

3. On again organizing the land in 400 AD, the Romans made Scythopolis the capital of Palaestina Secunda. Caesarea Maritima became the capital of Palaestina Prima, Petra (in Jordan today) of Tertia. 

What made Beth Shean important? First, its geography. As a result of faulting, the Jezreel Valley branches off to the west from the Jordan. The latter has several good fords nearby. (At the time of the First Testament there were no bridges in the land.) One could come down off the King's Highway in Transjordan, ford the river, and then make a gentle ascent to Megiddo, there joining the Great Trunk Road to Egypt. Thus the way through Beth Shean was the best link-road joining the two international routes.

We may put the matter as follows: Whoever controlled the Great Trunk Road and the King's Highway held the land in a pincers. But a pincers requires a screw to join the two pieces. That screw was Beth Shean.

The city had abundant water. Two streams flowed on either side of the mound, although today there is only one, the Harod. The soil was extremely good. In the Byzantine period Scythopolis became famous for its linen, which it manufactured from the flax it grew in the Jezreel Valley.

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© 2003 Near East Tourist Agency (NET)

Text © 2003 Stephen Langfur