Beth'-plielet (Neh. xi, 26). Sec Beth-palet.
Beth'-rapha (Heb. Beyth Rapha', NSn ma, aottst <>f Rapha, or r/"the giant; Sept. Ba9pt(pd v. r. Badpata . a name occurring in the genealogy of Judah as apparently the eldest of the three sons of Eshton, '• men of Rechah" (1 Ohron. iv, 12). B.C. post 1618. There is a Rapha in the line of Benjamin and else- where, but no apparent connection exists between those and this, nov has the name been identified as be- longing to any place. — Smith, s. v. See Refhaim.
Beth'-rehob (Heb. Beyth-Rechob', airrrlVa, how of Rehob; Sept. o7i>-oc 'Poo>/3 [v. v. 'Pat ; I and BatSrpowfi \ v. r. 'Po<i/3, BaiBpaafi, and even Tw/3]), a place mentioned as having near it (lie valley in which lav the town of Laish or Dan (Judg. xviii, 28). It was "iie of the little kingdoms of Aram or Syria, like /ot ali. Maachah, and [sh-tob, in company with which it was hire 1 I \ the Ammonites to fight against David (2 Sam. • . ■ i. See Aram. In ver. 8 the name oc- curs in the shorter form of Rehob, in which form it is doubtless again mentioned in Num. xiii, 21. Being, however, "far from Sidon" (Judg. xviii, 28), this I'l"" "in t nol he confounded with two towns of the n on o ■ f Rehob in the territory of Asher. See Rehob. Robinson conjectures t./.a/<r Researches, p. .".71") that this ancient plai e U represented by the modern Hunin, a fortress commanding the plain of the Iluleh.in which the city of Dan (Tell el-Kadi | lay. See Oesarea- Piiii.ii-it. Hadadezer, the King of Zobah, is said to have i eeri the g0n of Rehob 2 Sam.; iii :;, 12 1.— Smith.
Eetfceai'da (JltjSaaiSa, for the Aramaean ma ffl,,S, fithingJoicn, Buxtorf, /.,.,-. Talm. col. 1894), a
name which nearly all writers on Palestinian geog- raphy since Reland have assigned to two places, not far from each other, on the opposite shores near the head of Lake Tiberias (sec Raumer, Palasiina, p. 109), but which there appears to be no good reason for dis- tinguishing from each other (sec Thomson, L'.nd and Book, ii, 31 sq.).
1. A town (ttoXic, John i, 45) in Galilee (John xii, 21), apparently on the western side of the sea of Tibe- rias, being in " the land of Gennesareth" (q. v.), and yet toward the northern extremity of the lake (Mark vi, 45). It was the native place of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and the frequent resort of Jesus (John i, 44; xii, 21, etc.). It was evidently in near neighbor- hood to Capernaum and Chorazin (Matt, xi, 21 ; Luke x, 13; and comp. Mark vi, 45 with John vi, 16), and, if the interpretation of the name is to be trusted, close to the water's edge. By Jerome (Cumm. in Esai. ix, 1) and Eusebius (Onom.) these towns and Tiberias are all mentioned together as lying on the shore of the lake. Epiphanius (adv. Harr. ii) says of Bethsaida and Capernaum that they were not far apart. AVili- bald (A.D. 722) went from Magdakim to Capernaum, thence to Bethsaida, and then to Chorazin. These ancient notices, however, though they fix its general situation, none of them contain any indication of its exact position, and as, like the other two- towns just mentioned, its name and all memory of its site have perished, no positive identification can be made of it. It is true that Pococke (ii, 99) finds Bethsaida at Irbid; Seetzen at Khan Minyeh (Zaeh's Monatl. Corresp. xviii, 348); Nau at Mejdd (Voyage, p. 578; Quares- mius, ii, 866), apparently between Khan Minyeh and Mejdel ; and others at Tabi;Ji:di (so Robinson — all different points en the western shore of the lake. The Christians of Nazareth and Tiberias are indeed ac- quainted with the name, as well as that of Capernaum, from the New Testament ; and they have learned to apply them to different places according to the opin- ions of their monastic teachers, or as may best suit their own convenience in answering the inquiries of travellers. It is thus that Dr. Robinson (Bibl. He- searches, iii, 295) accounts for the fact that travellers have sometimes heard the names along the lake. Whenever this has not been the consequence of direct leading questions, which an Arab would always an- swer affirmatively, the names have doubtless been beard from the monks of Nazareth, or from the Arabs in a greater or less degree dependent upon them. The position of this Bethsaida mainly depends upon that of Capernaum, from which it was not far distant, to the north, on the shore (Robinson, new ed. of Re- *< an-h(.o, iii, 358, 359). If Capernaum be fixed at Khan Minyeh, then Bethsaida was probably at '.1/// cl-Tabig- hah ; but if (as on some accounts is more likely) Caper- naum is to be located at 'Ain el-Mudawarah, then Bethsaida itself must be placed at Khun el-Minyeh; and in that case it may have sprung up as a restoration of the more ancient Cinnereth, but nearer the shore. See Capernaum.
2. Christ fed the 5000 "near to a city called Beth- saida" (Luke ix, 10); but it has been thought from the parallel passages (Matt, xiv, 13; Mark vi, 32-45) that this event took place, not in Galilee, but on the eastern side of the lake. This was held to be < ne of the greatest difficulties in i acred geography (Cellar. Nolit. Orb. ii, 536) till the ingenious Reland scented to have afforded materials for a satisfactory solution of it by distinguishing two Bethsaidas, one on the western and the other on the north-eastern border of the lake (I'lilnxt. p. 653). The former was undoubtedly "the city of Andrew and Peter;" and, although Reland did not himself think that the other Bethsaida is men- ' tioned in the New Testament, it has been thought by later writers to be more in agreement with the sacred text to conclude that it was the Bethsaida near which