Bethlehem, Galilee
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Bethlehem, Galilee is a city of the Zebulun, mentioned first in Joshua 19:15. It is located about ten kilometres west-north-west of Nazareth.
At first it was simply named "Beth Lehem", which confused it with the Bethlehem near Jerusalem, which is much better known today. To solve this problem some scripts refer to the two as "Beth Lehem of the Judea (tribe) territory" and "Beth Lehem of the Zebulun territory".
Evidence shows that it was a Jewish settlement until some time after the fall of the Second Temple. In the Jerusalem Talmud it is referred to as "Beth Lehem Zoria", as it was part of the kingdom of Tyre at the time. During the crusades, a small Christian settlement existed on the site, but was later abandoned. Because of the history of the place, and the proximity to Nazareth, many historians claim that it may actually be the true place of birth of Jesus. The site featured the ruins of a church and a synagogue until the late nineteenth century, and was found to have archeological evidence of a prosperous city; many scholars place Beth Lehem of Galilee as one of the birth places of Rabbinical Judaism — it is by all accounts a logical place for a spiritual leader with a small group of followers to develop his doctrines. The distance from Nazareth also settles the problem of Jesus crossing the distance between the two cities in six hours according to the New Testament.
Templar_Architecture_In_Bethlehem_galilee_2004.jpg
Bethlehem of Galilee and the birth place of Jesus
Israeli archeologist Aviram Oshri, who has excavated and mapped the site, found solid evidence of a flourishing Jewish community at the site well before 1 C.E, and a wall built around the settlement later (though neighbouring Jewish towns never built one). To some archeologists this is a sign of a separatist cult community of some sort, which probably feared the religious wrath of their neighbours rather than more enemies.
In comparison, the Bethlehem area south of Jerusalem has never produced any archeological evidence of a town existing around 1 C.E., until the first Byzantine town in that area some time in the 3rd century. The Judean Bethlehem location was the preferred mythical birthplace of Christ, backing up his lineage to King David.he:בית לחם הגלילית