This village, about three kilometres from Jerusalem, has been thronged with sightseers all week following some of the most extraordinary events ever witnessed in Judea.
Lazarus, who was buried here last Saturday week, has been giving interviews to hordes of media people and the just plain curious since he emerged from his tomb on Tuesday last. Everywhere he has been mobbed by those who believe he rose from the dead and by the sceptical, who shout insults at him. For his part he has said repeatedly he remembers "nothing" since losing consciousness two weeks ago.
"It's as though I've had a long deep sleep," he said, "I feel great." But he still believed in life after death, he said.
This latest saga began with the arrival of the preacher Jesus in Bethany on Tuesday. A close friend of Lazarus's, he missed the funeral, which in itself caused considerable and frequently uncharitable speculation. Many friends of Lazarus were still in the village comforting the dead man's two sisters, Martha and Mary, when he arrived.
Martha went to meet him but Mary stayed at home. "If you had been here my brother would not have died," she said to him, more in sorrow than in anger, though it made little sense to those listening to her. "Your brother will rise again," Jesus said. "Yeah sure . . . on the last day!" Martha responded.
Then Jesus launched into another of his strange speeches. "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" he asked Martha. She said she did, though like most people there she didn't seem to have a clue what he was talking about.
Mary then arrived at the scene. The crowd expected fireworks, as Mary was known to have a temper and was said to be very angry at Jesus for missing the funeral. In what some interpreted as an accusatory tone she said to Jesus "if you had been here he wouldn't have died". Just as Martha had done. People began to wonder whether Jesus had some rare cure for Lazarus's illness. Jesus said nothing.
He saw how Mary wept and seemed unable to speak. "Where is he buried?" he asked eventually. They brought him to the tomb and he . . . sank. The grief closed in about his head and he wept. And he wept. People in the crowd began to weep too. "He really did love him," some said. Others were less generous. "If, as they say, he can make the blind see he could have saved Lazarus from dying," they said.
"Take away the stone," Jesus commanded, referring to the stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. "But Jesus," began an alarmed Martha, "there'll be a bad smell. He's in there four days." And the weather had been very hot.
Jesus insisted. The stone was moved and he called out "Lazarus my friend, come on out." And to the horror of the crowd, some of whom ran away, Lazarus came out, his grave clothes hanging off him. Jesus embraced his old friend with tears in his eyes. Martha and Mary were beside themselves with shock, wonder, and joy.
"No Sex After Death?" proclaimed the Moon tabloid in a front page headline the next day. It had another story on it headlined "HOAX". The Palestine Times headlined its story of the event "Lazarus: Probably In Deep Coma". It quoted a medical expert on a rare illness that has all the symptoms of death. "`Nothing' After Death" read a headline in the Judea Humanist, quoting Lazarus.
A spokesman for the High Priest, Dr Caiaphas, dismissed the Lazarus story as "an elaborate trick". He said it was designed to shore up slipping support for the Jesus campaign and was in fact an indication of the desperation to which that campaign had now descended. When it was put to him that people who were at the scene believed Lazarus had been dead and rose again he commented, "some people are prepared to believe anything. After all remember there are those who believe the Earth is round when the evidence of their own eyes tells them it is flat. There are fools everywhere. Even in Judea."