Some scholars believe that Amos's message was recorded after he delivered it to the Northern Kingdom, upon returning to his southern homeland of Tekoa, a town eight kilometres south of Bethlehem.

The Hebrew Bible identifies Bethlehem as the city David was from and the location where he was crowned as the king of Israel.

The city was sacked by the Samaritans in 529, but rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Bethlehem was conquered by the Arab Caliphate of ' Umar ibn al-Khattāb in 637, who guaranteed safety for the city's religious shrines.

Archaeological confirmation of Bethlehem as an Israelite city was uncovered in 2012 at the archaeological dig at the City of David in the form of a bulla ( seal impression in dried clay ) in ancient Hebrew script that reads " From the town of Bethlehem to the King ," indicating that it was used to seal the string closing a shipment of grain, wine, or other goods sent as a tax payment in the 8th or 7th century BCE.

Biblical tradition holds that Bethlehem is the birthplace of David, the second king of Israel, and the place where he was anointed king by Samuel.

It was from the well of Bethlehem that three of his warriors brought him water when he was hiding in the cave of Adullam.

A church was erected in 326, when Helena, the mother of the first Byzantine emperor, Constantine, visited Bethlehem.

During the Samaritan revolt of 529, Bethlehem was sacked and its walls and the Church of the Nativity destroyed, but they were rebuilt on the orders of the Emperor Justinian I.

In 1099, Bethlehem was captured by the Crusaders, who fortified it and built a new monastery and cloister on the north side of the Church of the Nativity.

On Christmas Day 1100, Baldwin I, first king of the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, was crowned in Bethlehem, and that year a Latin episcopate was also established in the town.

However, Bethlehem suffered from the loss of the pilgrim trade, as there was a sharp decrease of European pilgrims.

Bethlehem — along with Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Sidon — was briefly ceded to the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem by a treaty between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil in 1229, in return for a ten-year truce between the Ayyubids and the Crusaders.

The treaty expired in 1239, and Bethlehem was recaptured by the Muslims in 1244.

By the end of the 16th century, Bethlehem had become one of the largest villages in the District of Jerusalem, and was subdivided into seven quarters.

Bethlehem was administered by the British Mandate from 1920 to 1948.

In the United Nations General Assembly's 1947 resolution to partition Palestine, Bethlehem was included in the special international enclave of Jerusalem to be administered by the United Nations.

Jordan retained control of the city until the Six-Day War in 1967, when Bethlehem was occupied by Israel, along with the rest of the West Bank.

During the time of the Judges when there was a famine, an Israelite family from Bethlehem — Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion — emigrate to the nearby country of Moab.

Officially incorporated in 1810, the town was created when the unincorporated town of Loudon annexed the adjacent District of Bethlehem in 1809.

Dropping its homage to Lloyd, a Loyalist, the town would be incorporated as Bethlehem on December 27, 1799, the name selected on the last Christmas Day of the century.

Alexandria was formed by Royal Charter on March 5, 1765, from portions of Bethlehem Township, and was incorporated as one of New Jersey's initial 104 townships by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798.

Bloomsbury was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 30, 1905, from portions of Bethlehem Township.

Glen Gardner is located at the extreme western border of Lebanon Township and was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 26, 1919, from portions of both Lebanon Township and Bethlehem Township based on the results of a referendum held that same day.

What is now Hampton was originally incorporated by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature as Junction Borough on February 20, 1895, from portions of both Lebanon Township and Bethlehem Township, based on the results of a referendum held on the previous day.

High Bridge was originally incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 29, 1871, from portions of both Clinton Township and Lebanon Township and Bethlehem Township.

Union Township was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 17, 1853, from portions of Bethlehem Township.

The city's incorporated area primarliy resides in the western half of Perry Township, with portions extending north into Jackson Township, west into Tuscarawas Township, and south into Bethlehem Township.

In 1917 it incorporated its shipbuilding division as Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Limited.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was incorporated, virtually as a company town, by uniting four previous villages.

He entered the University of Ingolstadt on 26 March 1515, and afterwards went to Bethlehem College, incorporated with the university, as an institution of the Dominicans at Heidelberg.

In 1917 it was incorporated as Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Limited ; otherwise known as BethShip.

St. Bethlehem has been incorporated into Clarksville city limits and is no longer a separate community, although locals still refer to that portion of Clarksville as " St. B ".

In 1099, Crusaders captured and fortified Bethlehem and replaced its Greek Orthodox clergy with a Latin one.

Bethlehem has a Muslim majority, but is also home to one of the largest Palestinian Christian communities.

Among Innocent I's letters is one to Jerome and another to John II, Bishop of Jerusalem, regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians at Bethlehem.

The church at Lydda is dedicated to St. George: so is a convent near Bethlehem, and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate ; and others beside.

* November 1: two Israeli soldiers killed in a shooting incident near Bethlehem, and another one while guarding a town in Jordan Valley.

In 1179, William was one of the delegates from Jerusalem and the other crusader states at the Third Lateran Council ; among the others were Heraclius, archbishop of Caesarea, Joscius, bishop of Acre and William's future successor in Tyre, the bishops of Sebastea, Bethlehem, Tripoli, and Jabala, and the abbot of Mount Sion.

The largest gun designed by Gathmann was the 18-inch Gathmann Gun, which was a coastal defense gun manufactured by Bethlehem Steel under Emil Gathmann ( head of Bethlehem Steel's Ordnance Section, and one of Gathmann's sons ).

Archaeological evidence in the form of an elaborate mosaic floor similar to the one in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and multiple fragments of an elaborate marble Templon ( chancel screen ) prove that an elaborate Byzantine church or monastery or other public building stood on the Temple Mount in Byzantine times, presumably the aforementioned Holy Wisdom Church.

The Church Father Jerome, who died in Bethlehem in 420, reports in addition that the holy cave was at one point consecrated by the heathen to the worship of Adonis, and a pleasant sacred grove planted before it, to wipe out the memory of Jesus.

The story of Ruth, on the other hand, testifies to the existence of a friendly intercourse between Moab and Bethlehem, one of the towns of the tribe of Judah.

Bethlehem Steel, once one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel, was located there prior to its closing in 2003.

Bethlehem is one of the two towns in Litchfield County served by the area code 203 / area code 475 overlay.

* In Jeffrey Archer's 1980 collection of short stories A Quiver Full of Arrows, one of the stories, " The First Miracle " tells of how a 12-year-old Pontius Pilate meets Joseph and Mary as they arrive in Bethlehem, and gives them the food that his mother had sent him to buy.

Noel is one of a few " Christmas Cities " in America, along with North Pole, Alaska, Christmas, Michigan, Santa Claus, Indiana and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Normansville still exists today, though it is unnoticed by most living in Bethlehem since it is accessible only by one downhill road ( which has no outlet ).

Leetsdale at one time had a formidable industrial manufacturing base, with a Bethlehem Steel mill that closed in the late 1970s.

Emmaus was one of the four leading Moravian communities in the northeast United States at the time of its founding ; Bethlehem, PA, Lititz, PA and Nazareth, PA were the three others.

The second Department, Bethlehem Township Fire Company Station 17, houses two engines, one rescue, one brush unit, and a multitude of special response vehicles.

Along with Allentown and Bethlehem, Easton is one of the primary cities that comprise the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania's third most populous metropolitan area.

Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel before its 2003 closure.