Bible Synapse
Tel Beth-Shean
Site · c. 1294–1270 BC · Before the kings · also called Beth-shan, Beisan, Beisan steles
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 1294–1270 BC (the Egyptian stelae of Seti I and Ramesses II)
- Found
- Tel Beth-Shean, Beit She’an, Israel, 1921. Excavated by the University of Pennsylvania from 1921 to 1933; the two royal stelae were found in 1923 and missing pieces of Seti I’s stela in 1925. The Hebrew University dug again from 1983, and in 1989–1996 under Amihai Mazar.
- Now
- At the site, Beit She’an, Israel
- Passages
- Joshua 17:11–16, Judges 1:27, 1 Samuel 31:8–13, 1 Kings 4:12
What it is
A high mound above the Jordan valley holding at least 18 towns built one on top of another. In the Late Bronze Age it was a seat of Egyptian government and a garrison in Canaan. Excavators found two victory stelae of Seti I, one telling how in his first year he sent troops when the rulers of Hamath and Pella attacked Beth-shan and Rehob, and a stela of Ramesses II. Seti I’s first stela is now in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, and Ramesses II’s in the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.
How it connects to the Bible
The Bible lists Beth-shean among the Canaanite towns that the tribe of Manasseh could not take (Joshua 17:11–16; Judges 1:27), and says the Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his sons to “the wall of Beth-shan” after the battle on Mount Gilboa. The excavations fit the picture of a strong town that long stayed outside Israel’s control, held first by Egypt and then by a Canaanite population.
What scholars debate
Nothing found at the site names Saul, and the Egyptian stelae are about three centuries older than his time.