Manger in Bethlehem

Away in a Manger

In the middle of the nineteenth century Rector Phillip brooks of Philadelphia took a pilgrimage tour to the Holy Land. On his return he was moved to compose a poem. It went:-

"O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie,

Beneath thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by. "  etc.  etc.

and became a well-loved Christmas carol. It is clear that the rector was very impressed with the peacefulness and serenity of Bethlehem.

More than two and a half thousand years earlier a local prophet, Micah, also made reference to this town. He wrote:-

" But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from old, from ancient times" ( Micah,5:2).

This was written in uncertain times when Assyrian forces were overrunning Judah and Bethlehem was a town which could easily be conquered. It was not an important town at that time.

Later Jewish writers saw these words as a prophecy that the Jewish Messiah would be born in this  town. So we have Matthew in his gospel describing how Joseph and Mary, who according to him were residents there in their own home, having a child who was named Jesus. Luke, in his gospel, had Joseph and Mary coming south from their hometown of Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem where Mary gave birth to her first child, Jesus. These two biblical writers, Matthew and Luke , firmly established the village of Bethlehem as the place where Jesus was born. People are still journeying to this place, today more than ever, to see for themselves this town.

Like the shepherds of old we also made our way to Bethlehem to meditate on Jesus' birth, remembered in its geographic setting. Unlike Rector Brooks who remembered the "silent stars" of his evening visit we were there in the midday warmth of a clear October day. And his "Little town" had grown into a scattered, in parts untidy, city of many thousands of people.

Our focus, however, was not on its size or appearance but on the Church of the Nativity, one of the most visited pilgrim sites in the Holy land. According to tradition, this old basilica is built over the place where Jesus was born. To be more exact the present building was built on the remains  of a previous church built over the cave where Jesus was born.

Hey, wait a minute! Did you say CAVE? Jesus was born in a CAVE?

Yes, well that's what the Church of the Nativity is telling us. The first church built here was constructed by Emperor Constantine the Great. It was mainly his mother, Helena, who travelled widely throughout the Holy Land locating places which had reference to the life of Jesus. According to the information she tracked down, Jesus was born in a cave here in Bethlehem. So in 327 Constantine had a church built over the cave to preserve the site for posterity.

This original church was burnt down in 550 but a replacement was built over the site fifteen years later. It is this sixth century church, with various renovations, which one can visit today. It is one of the oldest churches in the Holy Land.

So through the very low front door- the Door of Humility - walk up the aisle to the main altar, then down the steps into an underground cave. And there under an altar ( the Altar of Nativity) is a silver star. This marks the spot. But a CAVE? What about the stable one sees in all the nativity scenes which pop up in the months before Christmas?

A stable or a cave? Where was he born? That is the question. Matthew seems to indicate that Jesus was born in Joseph and Mary's home, for when the Magi arrived looking for him 18-24 months after his birth they came to "the house where they saw the child with his mother Mary"( Matthew 2:11). Luke on the other hand says that the Nazareth visitors couldn't find a place to lodge and so Mary had her baby where the only place to lay the child down was a manger. Luke writes: "She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn"(Luke 2:7). And later, the sign given to the shepherds by the angel of the Lord was that they would "find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger"(Luke 2:12).

These two references of Luke are responsible for the generally held impression that Jesus was born in a stable behind an inn. Here is just one of the many confusions which surround the birth of Jesus. Luke does not say that it was in a stable, simply that Mary lay the baby in a manger.

The written indication that the birth place was in a cave goes back a long way. Justin Martyr, born around 100 AD writes in a book entitled Dialogue with Trypho:"But when the Child was born in Bethlehem, since Joseph could not find a lodging in that village, he took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed him in a manger" (Chapter 78).

And so the biblical scholars argue one way and the other.

An so what about my personal visit to this traditional site of the birth of Jesus? Well, it left me all a little confused and, I must say, not spiritually uplifted because of my time there. My main memory of the Church of the Nativity is the small (low) entrance door. It is easy to see where the name Door of Humility came from. One really has to bow low where entering the building. Inside can be seen the old stone work which outlined the original entrance - much larger and grander. We were told that the entrance had been purposely lowered so that horsemen were not able to ride their steeds into the church. True or another urban myth?

Stooping low to enter the Church of the Nativity.

And the cave in which the Altar of the Nativity covering the fourteen pointed star was situated was very crowded with people eager to stoop down and photograph or kiss the star and meditate on the birth of the Lord. It was nearing the end of a long and tiring day during which many holy sites had been visited, and unfortunately this place did not receive the attention from me which it merited. The church next door awaited with its own caves and stories.

And let's face it. Most Christians are quite happy with the usual nativity scene we are used to seeing today. This is the one in which as many of the elements mentioned by Matthew and Luke (and some not mentioned by them) are crowded into a stable. We must not let the true facts (if indeed they can be discerned) stand in the way of this romantised  version.

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