O Little Town of Bethlehem

Door to Church of St. Catherine
in Bethlehem

In a humble shack built to shelter a few barnyard animals, a frightened but exhilerated teen named Mary gave birth to a sweet baby boy she named Jesus, as she'd been instructed.  Her young husband Joseph lay the babe in a trough lined with straw that served as a makeshift crib.

An unusually bright star shined above, attracting three wise Magi from the east who saw this as the final sign to guide their quest for a newborn king.  They stood outside the small manger, amid peaceful livestock in this tiny oasis in the desert.

I suppose I should have rationally imagined a barn, but I can't honestly say that I thought there was a wall to keep the elements out.  I simply imagined a life-sized version of that manger scene my sweet mom set out every Christmas, a tradition carried out by Julie in our home.  I'm sure you've seen similar displays, including life-sized civic recreations that used to be more prevalent before a handful of intolerant atheists began suing communities that re-created them in order to protect their freedom to be killjoys.

Wes in Bethlehem

However, as this linked Los Angeles Times article from twenty years ago attests: "It is widely agreed that Jesus was born in a cave used for housing animals."

It makes perfect sense in an age before energy-smart homeowners could self-install R30 insulation that in the desert, where temperatures fluctuate dramatically, livestock would have been sheltered in caves. In the 1970s I read many Mother Earth News articles advocating earth-sheltered dwellings that have naturally high R-values in order to save heating and cooling costs.

Grotto's Eastern Orthodox adornments unfortunately
appear garish to Westerners.

After repeat warnings in everything from the online excursion description to the port presentation on board to guide speeches that the manger would be crowded and quite possibly too crammed for us to enter, we received a pleasant surprise.

Nobody was there when our group of 32 arrived, so we had the manger to ourselves. No, it was not a private tour like the Pope or President Obama would receive, but it was definitely possible to see everything and experience the ambiance.  And yes, it is a cave.

Our group sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem" in the Grotto. 

Our Palestinian guide seemed quite knowledgeable about Islam, but his smiling persona and enthusiastic presentation of the Christmas story hinted that he's probably Christian.  He suggested singing an appropriate Christmas carol. Someone called out, "Jingle Bells," which elicited laughter, given 95 degree sunshine outside.

Our guide suggested "O Little Town of Bethlehem," which is a song of special significance to our family because my sister's husband Brooks is a descendant of the lyricist, Phillips Brooks, the Episcopal priest who wrote the poem following his visit to Bethlehem in 1865.  For those keeping score, that was two years ahead of Mark Twain's visit to the Holy Lands.

View of kibbutz buffer area in distance from Bethlehem

Before coming to Bethlehem, we had stopped for lunch at a modern restaurant operated by a kibbutz.

A kibbutz is a communally-owned farming community set just inside Israel's borders, in this case abutting the Palestinian-controlled West Bank.  The Israeli farm land doubles as military buffer against ground attack.

Shrine at the star venerated as the exact spot of Jesus's birth,
as indicated by the star in the marble floor.

All of the food in the buffet had been grown on these collective farmlands.

This particular kibbutz had apparently been quite successful at creating bountiful harvests that created surpluses, funding construction of that large complex serving tourists.  The hotel/restaurant is also communally owned and operated.

 

I don't personally understand how anyone other than Mary and
Joseph could possibly know the exact spot of birth,
and I doubt they marked it before heading  home to Galilee.

The kosher food served was diversified, plentiful and quite palatable.


To actually reach Bethlehem, we had to pass through an armed gate into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, which is essentially a separate nation within Israel.

Our Israeli guide had to be replaced by a Palestinian guide, although Miki didn't have to leave the bus at the border, as we had expected.

John the Baptist Souvenir Shop in Bethlehem

The general appearance of Bethlehem is somewhat drab and outdated, often making a mockery of names revered by Christians, but the streets are clean.

There's a great deal of controversy about whether Palestinians have been deliberately mistreated by Israel or they have simply squandered aid intended for schools and other civic projects by diverting the funds to buy weapons and build tunnels under the wall in order to conduct terrorist activity against greater Israel.

KFC apparently appeals to Palestinian palates.

We visited Bethlehem on Friday, which is the Islamic day of rest and worship, like Sundays for Christians and football fans in the USA.

The Muslims seem to take an approach more like orthodox Jews (who basically stay at home or walk to temple on their Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), because there seemed to be almost no locals out on the streets in cars and few on foot.

I couldn't help thinking some sacred shrines in the Church of
the Nativity looked more like gypsy fortune-telling booths.

Back to history, why were Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem in the first place?

You may have read Shakespeare's play about Julius Caesar in high school and know he was assassinated by Roman Senators.  "Et tu Brute?"

Shortly before the murder of Julius Caesar by politicians, he unexpectedly adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius and made Gaius Octavius his heir.

After the assasination of his new father Julius, Gaius Octavius formed the Second Triumverate with fellow generals Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus in order to rule the vast Roman Empire together, assuming none could fill Julius Caesar's sandals alone.

Our good-natured guide.

The Second Triumverate immediately began avenging the death of Julius Caesar by hunting down the perpetrators.

There had been a First Triumverate, made up of Julius Caesar, Marcus Crassus and Pompey the Great, who captured Jersualem when he was still only a Roman General.

Just as Uncle-Father Julius Caesar became Emperor as the last man standing from the First Triumverate, the man born Gaius Octavius became Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus after eliminating the other two contenders.

The Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem.

Facing certain defeat at the hands of Julius's adopted son, Marc Antony commtted suicide.

Marc Antony is the same guy you may remember from a movie featuring his hot romance with Egypt's sultry Queen Cleopatra.

Before Cleo went with Marc, however, she had previously had a stormy affair with Julius Caesar that resulted in a son, Ceasarian.

Tying up loose ends, Octavius (soon to be Emperor Caesar Augustus) ordered his step-brother Caesarian killed, too, even though he was just a child.

The new Senate apparently took a considerably better view of Julius Caesar than the assassins, because they named him a god, post-mortem.

As such, coins minted under Caesar Augustus included many bearing the new Emperor's profile with a caption, "Son of God."

Yes, Julius Caesar (JC, just like Jesus Christ) was called "god," and his successor Augustus was called "son of god," in the closing decades Before Christ, a rather dramatic bit of foreshadowing by God the author.

Stained glass at Church of St. Catherine

Anyway, back to how Mary and Joseph ended up in Bethelehem, according to the Gospel of Luke, Caesar Augustus ordered a census.  In that primitive time, this required everyone to return to their ancestral homes.

Bethlehem had been the childhood hometown of Joseph's forefather David and the place where the prophet Samuel anointed David King of Israel.  Hence Bethlehem was the City of David to which Joseph returned for tax assessment reasons.

I find it a bit confusing that Bethlehem was called the City of David for those reasons, but Jerusalem was also called City of David, because it was the capital from which King David ruled.

Another door at Church of St. Catherine

In any case, it played out that finding no room at the inn, Joseph and Mary took shelter for the night in a manger exactly where three wise men from the east found them beneath an amazingly bright light and delivered their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrhh to honor the newborn King.

The Church of the Nativity houses the cave in where Jesus arrived on earth.  The Church was built between 327 and 339 AD on the site designated by Christian Roman Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena.

The original basilica was destroyed by the Samaritan Revolt (not exactly being Good Samaritans) and rebuilt by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the sixth century.  Please note that all this occurred before the birth of Mohammed, who founded the religion of Islam.

In 135 AD, Emperor Hadrian (whose statue we had recently seen at the Athens Agora) had built a temple to Adonis, the Greek god of desire.  It happened to be directly above the Grotto, according to Helena.  Make of that what you will.  Perhaps Hadrian intended to stomp out the legend of Jesus before it could grow, beginning with His birthplace, or alternatively maybe Helena was misled by opportunists seeking royal coin.

Monument to Christian Crusaders
in Church of St. Catherine

The Church of the Nativity certainly deserves its UNESCO World Heritage designation, but aesthetically, nearby Church of St. Catherine is far more beautiful, primarily because it was re-built in the late 19th Century using more Western standards.

The Church of St. Catherine has a great deal of historic significance it its own right, built on the site of a Crusader church and monastery.

That monastery had been built on the site of an even older 4th Century monastery.

In 1347, a small chapel within a Franciscan Convent on the site was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, the martyred daughter of a governor of Alexandrian Egypt, which was part of the Roman Empire.

Upon seeing a supernatural vision of the Madonna and Child, Catherine had converted to Christianity.

An outspoken scholar despite being only a teenager, Catherine went before Roman Emperor Maxentius and protested the persecution of Christians.

The emperor brought in fifty top pagan scholars to debate Catherine, but she defeated their arguments, eventually resulting in 200 conversions to Christianity among attendees, including the Emperor's wife.

Church of St. Catherine

Maxentius tried to force her to recant her faith with torture, but Catherine stood by her religion.

The emperor changed tack, proposing that he would marry this beautiful and wise virgin, but she refused like a nun, saying she was married to Jesus Christ.  As a result, Catherine was sentenced to be killed on a spiked wheel, but it broke.

Jerusalem Cross, or Crusader's Cross, on doors to church

One legend says the straps holding her down miraculously snapped, with spikes spinning off to kill many accusers who were onlookers at the torture.

Shortly thereafter, she was beheaded anyway, and the 200 Christians converted by her were also martyred, so it wasn't exactly a happy ending, but she did have this beautiful church named after her.




Overshadowing the rest of history of Bethlehem, however, remains the fact that it was the birthplace of Jesus Christ, who would be tortured and crucified for claims of divinity.