Bethlehem

(beth'le-hem.) (Heb., place of bread.] (Anc Geog.) The place of the NATIVITY, a small town of Judah, 6 m. S. of Jerusalem. It was generally called B.- Judah, to distinguish it from B. in Zebulun. It was also called Ephratah (the fruitful), and its inhabitants Ephratites. It has now a pop. of abt. 2,500, Greeks, Armenians, and Turks. Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, a post-borough, 51 m. N. of Philadelphia, on the Lehigh River. It was founded in 1741 by the Moravians, who have a fine church and important seminary here. Pop. 2,500. [s. 92]