The Nativity Decoded
Bethlehem
From 3rd century writings, we know that, within 250 years of the birth of Christ, pilgrims were visiting the ancient the site now marked by the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. But even during the lifetime of Jesus, questions were being raised about whether he was actually born in this town six miles from Jerusalem.
The two New Testament accounts – the Gospels of Luke and Matthew – conflict on other details of the story but agree that Bethlehem was his birthplace. According to the biblical accounts, Mary and Joseph had to travel to their ancestral town of Bethlehem to be counted in a census carried out by the Roman Governor Quirinius during the reign of King Herod. But Quirinius was in charge 10 years too late for this to have been the case and, in any case, some historians doubt that people would have travelled to – or even known – their ancestral homes.
The fact that King David’s Palace is located in Bethlehem links Jesus to the Old Testament prophecies which predicted that the Messiah would be descended from David. But as an adult, he was referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilee town where Mary and Joseph came from. Could the writers of the Gospels, who were trying to spread Christ’s teachings, have situated the story here precisely to connect him with those prophecies, which would have been instantly familiar to the Jewish population of Palestine at the time?
