Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/599

 BETHABARA

531

BETHANY

kiio\\-n as yet of this official, who has left such val- uable -works on the Indian traditions and language of Peru. He was a Spaniard by birth and came to Peru at an early day. Whether or not he was still on the Island of Santo Domingo in 1539, as notary or scribe, is uncertain. He was at Cuzco in 1.542 and officiated as quasi-interpreter at the investigation of Indian historical traditions ordered by Vaca de Castro. (See Peru.) Even then he had acquired a solid ac- quaintance with the Quichua idiom. He married an Indian girl of the Inca tribe and composed the first catechism known to us in the Quichua language. The manuscript is now in the National Archives at Lima. In 1551 he finished his book entitled "Suma y Narracion de los Incas &c" (dedicating it to the \nceroy Antonio de Mendoza), one of the most im- portant sources for ancient Peru\'ian historj'. Un- fortunately only a part of this work is still known to

of the Mount of Olives. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament; in the New Testament it comes into prominence as the Village of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and as the scene of the great miracle of the raising of Lazarus to life by Jesus. Here Jesus often received hospitality in the house of his friends, !Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; and near this village Jesus ascended into Heaven. The most accepted etymology of the name is Beit-'Ania', "House of Misery". The Talmud derives the name from Beit-Hine, or Bet'uni, "House of Dates''. The modern name of the village is el-'Azariye, so caUed from the memory of Lazarus. The initial letter of the name Lazarus is elided in Arabic after the / of the article.

Some believe that the present village of Bethany does not occupy the site of the ancient village; but that it grew up around the traditional cave

The Village of Bethany

exist. It embodies the earliest accounts of Indian traditions from Bolivia and extreme southern Peru, and as they were gathered by Betanzos within less than fifteen years after the landing of Pizarro, they can hardlj' be much tainted by contact with Euro- peans. Of (lie life of Betanzos, after 1551, practically nothing is known.

Betanzos, .Suma y Narracion de los Incos que los Indies Ltamaron Capaccuna (1.551, published by Jim(5nez dela Espada, Madrid. 1880); Espada, Tres Relaciones de Antiauedades peruanas (Madrid. 1878, Introduction); Garcia. El Origen dt: los Indios (Father Garcia owned the complete manuscript of Betanzos a-* late as 1607); Espada, Una Antii/uatta peruana (Madrid. 1892). The report on the Incas bears the title I)wc!ir«o sobre la Descendenda y Gobiemo de los Ingas, and is dated 1542; Bandelier, Aboriginal Myths and Traditions concern- ing the Islind of Titicaca (1904. Am. Anthropologist. VI, No. 2); Idem, The Cross of Carabuco (ibid., VI, No. 5); Mendiburu, JJiccionario, etc. (Luna, 1876), II.

Ad. F. B.vndelier.

Bethabara. See Beth.^ny beyond the Jord.\n.

Bethany (BriSaula). a village of Palestine, fifteen furlongs, or one mile and three-quarters, east of Jerusalem, at the base of the south-eastern slope

which they suppose to have been at some distance from the house of Martha and Mary in the village. Zanecchia (La Palestine d'aujourd'hui, 1899, I, 445 sq.) places the site of the ancient village of Bethany higher up on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, not far from the accepted site of Bethphage, and near that of the Ascension. It is quite certain that the present village formed about the traditional tomb of Lazarus, which is in a cave in the village. The identification of this cave as the tomb of Lazarus is merely possible; it has no strong intrinsic or extrinsic authority. The site of the ancient village may not precisely coincide with the present one, but there is every reason to believe that it was in this general location. St. Jerome testifies: "Bethany is a village at the second milestone from .\elia [Jerusalem], on the slope of the Mount of Olives, where the Saviour raised Lazarus to life, to which event the church now built there bears witness " (Onom. ed. Lagarde, 108,3). In the early ages this church was called the " La-