What does the name Bethlehem mean?

Answer 1

In Hebrew, it means 'House of bread'. In his Notes on Malachi 5:2 Dr John MacArthur in "The MacArthur Study Bible" says that Bethlehem Ephratah is:-

'The town south of Jerusalem which was the birthplace of David and later of Jesus (1Sam 16:1, Matt 2:5, Lu 2:4-7). The name Bethlehem means "house of bread" because the area was a grain-producing area in Old Testament times. The name 'Ephratah' ("fruitful") differentiates it from the Galilean town by the same name.'

M.G. Easton in his 'Illustrated Bible Dictionary' says that Bethlehem meant "house of bread" and was:

Bethlehem ("House of Bread")

(1.) A city in the "hill country" of Judah. It was originally called Ephrath (Gen_35:16, Gen_35:19; Gen_48:7; Rth_4:11). It was also calledBeth-lehem Ephratah (Mic_5:2), Beth-lehem-judah (1Sa_17:12), and "the city of David" (Luk_2:4). It is first noticed in Scripture as the place where Rachel died and was buried "by the wayside," directly to the north of the city (Gen_48:7). The valley to the east was the scene of the story of Ruth the Moabitess. There are the fields in which she gleaned, and the path by which she and Naomi returned to the town. Here was David's birth-place, and here also, in after years, he was anointed as king by Samuel (1Sa_16:4-13); and it was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his heroes brought water for him at the risk of their lives when he was in the cave of Adullam (2Sa_23:13-17). But it was distinguished above every other city as the birth-place of "Him whose goings forth have been of old" (Mat_2:6; compare Mic_5:2). Afterwards Herod, "when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men," sent and slew "all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under" (Mat_2:16, Mat_2:18; Jer_31:15).

Bethlehem ... is about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, standing at an elevation of about 2,550 feet above the sea, thus 100 feet higher than Jerusalem....

(2) A town 6 miles WNW of Nazareth in the land allocated to the tribe of Zebulun

This other Bethlehem is now known as 'Beit-Lahm" near modern-day Haifa, and Nazareth is 26 miles North of Jerusalem as high as the Lake of Galilee, making this Bethlehem 30 miles NNW of Jerusalem almost on the coast near Mt Carmel.

Both Bethlehems are widely separated geographically, and Easton (op. cit) says it is only mentioned once in The Bible in Joshua 19:15. With this one exception, every time "Bethlehem" is mentioned it always refers to Bethlehem Ephratah in the south of the country below Jerusalem.

Answer 2

The settlement has been called by a name resembling "bethlehem" (to a greater or lesser extent) since prehistoric times, so ... who knows. Most Semitic languages have a word like "bet" or "bit" or "beth" meaning "house", so it's a pretty good bet (ha!) that's where that part of the name comes from. The latter part might have originally come from a Caananite god of fertility named "Lachama", to whom there was a temple there in the 3rd millenium BC. Having a city named for a foreign god wouldn't have gone over well with the Israelites, so when they took over the area, they seem to have changed the name (without really changing the SOUND much) to "bet lehem", "house of bread". The same basic sound can also be interpreted as "bayt lahm", "house of meat" in Arabic.

Answer 3

""House of bread" in Hebrew.