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Concept
Bayt Nattif
Summary
Bayt Nattif or Beit Nattif (بيت نتّيف, בית נטיף and alternatively) was a Palestinian Arab village, located some 20 kilometers (straight line distance) southwest of Jerusalem, midway on the ancient Roman road between Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem, and 21 km northwest of Hebron.
The village lay nestled on a hilltop, surrounded by olive groves and almonds, with woodlands of oak and carobs overlooking Wadi es-Sunt (the Elah Valley) to its south. It contained several shrines, including a notable one dedicated to al-Shaykh Ibrahim. Roughly a dozen khirbas (deserted, ruined settlements) lay in the vicinity.
During the British Mandate it was part of the Hebron Subdistrict. Bayt Nattif was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation Ha-Har.
In Roman times the town was known as Bethletepha or Betholetepha, and commonly known by its Greek equivalent, Bethletephon.
The original Arabic version of the name was Bayt Lettif, which was eventually phonetically simplified to Bayt Nattif.
Bayt Nattif stood on the much-travelled ancient road connecting Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin, later Bayt Jibrin) with Jerusalem, about midway between the two towns.
In the Roman province of Judaea (6–135 CE), the town became the capital of one of the eleven toparchies or prefectures of the province, receiving certain administrative responsibilities, and is known from some classical sources by the name Betholetepha, probably identical with Pella, another name sometimes mentioned in the same geographical context and widely assumed to indicate the same toparchy and town.
According to Josephus Flavius, the city was sacked under Vespasian and Titus, during the first Jewish uprising against Rome (66-73). During the 12th year of the reign of Nero, when the Roman army had suffered a great defeat under Cestius Gallus, with more than five thousand foot soldiers killed, the people of the surrounding countryside feared reprisals from the Roman army and made haste to appoint generals and to fortify their settlements.
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