Bethany in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("house of dates".) Bethabara, though dates have long disappeared from the locality, and only olives and figs remain (whence Olivet and Bethphage are named). (See BETHABARA.) Bethany is not mentioned until the New Testament time, which agrees with the Chaldee hinee being the word used for "dates" in the composition of the name, Beth-any. Associated with the closing days of the Lord Jesus, the home of the family whom He loved, Mary, Martha. and Lazarus where He raised Lazarus froth the dead; from whence He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem; His nightly abode each of the six nights preceding His betrayal; where at the house of Simon the leper He was anointed by Mary (Mark 14:3); and where, most of all, we are introduced to the home circle of His private life. In John 11:1 His arrival at Bethany is recorded, namely, in the evening. The sending of the two disciples for the colt was evidently on the following morning, to allow time for the many events of the day of His triumphal entry and visiting the temple, after which it was "eventide" (Mark 11:11), which coincides with John's (John 12:12) direct assertion, "the next day"; at the eventide of the day of triumphal entry He "went out unto Bethany with the twelve," His second day of lodging there. On the morrow, in coming from Bethany, He cursed the figtree (Mark 11:12-13), cast out the money- changers from the temple, and at "even" "went out of the city" (Mark 11:19), lodging at Bethany for the third time, according to Mark. "In the morning" they proceeded by the same route as before (as appears from their seeing the dried up fig tree), and therefore from Bethany to Jerusalem (Mark 11:27; Mark 12:41) and the temple, where He spoke parables and answered cavils, and then "went out of the temple" (Mark 13:1), to return again to Bethany, as appears from His speaking with Peter, James, Jehu, and Andrew privately "upon the mount of Olives" (Mark 13:3), on the S.E. slope of which Bethany lies, 15 stadia or less than two miles from Jerusalem (John 11:18), the fourth day, according to Mark, who adds, "after two days was the feast of the Passover" (Mark 14:1). Thus Mark completes the six days, coinciding (with that absence of design which establishes truth) exactly with John, "Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany" (John 12:1.) Though John does not directly say that Jesus went in the evenings to Bethany, yet he incidentally ...