Bethlehem

“City of David” and the birthplace of Jesus Christ. It is located eight kilometers (five miles) south of Jerusalem. To distinguish it from another Bethlehem in the region of Zebulun, this city is sometimes called Bethlehem-Judah or Ephrath (Genesis 35:19; Micah 5:2).

Bethlehem was originally a Canaanite settlement connected to the patriarchs. Rachel, the wife of Jacob, died and was buried near Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16, 19; 48:7). The earliest historical mention of Bethlehem comes from the Amarna letters in the 14th century BC, where it is referred to as bitil u-lahama, located south of Jerusalem. The name might have meant “house of the goddess Lahama.” A branch of Caleb’s family settled there, and his son Salma was known as “the father of Bethlehem” (1 Chronicles 2:51). Bethlehem was also the home of a young Levite who served as a priest to Micah (Judges 17:7–8), and of Boaz, Ruth, Obed, and Jesse—the father of David (Ruth 4:11, 17; 1 Samuel 16:18).

Bethlehem was the birthplace of David (1 Samuel 17:12) and the home of one of David’s mighty men, Elhanan (2 Samuel 23:24; 1 Chronicles 11:26). It was the site of a brave act by three of David’s soldiers, who broke through a group of Philistine raiders occupying Bethlehem to bring David water from the well near the city gate (2 Samuel 23:14–17). Much later, Bethlehem is mentioned as being near the village of Geruth-Kimham, where Jews fleeing from the Babylonians stayed on their way to Egypt (Jeremiah 41:17). People from Bethlehem were among those who returned from the Babylonian exile (Ezra 2:21; Nehemiah 7:26; 1 Esdras 5:17).

When Jesus was born there, Bethlehem was only a village (Matthew 2:1–16; Luke 2:4–6, 15; John 7:42). Because of a census ordered by Caesar Augustus, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, “since he was from the house and line of David” (Luke 2:4). It is possible that the family still owned property there. The birth of Jesus may have taken place in a cave outside the town, a belief held by early Christian writers like Justin Martyr and Origen. Origen, who lived in the Holy Land, wrote, “In Bethlehem, you are shown the cave where he was born and within the cave the manger where he was wrapped in swaddling clothes.”

Later, Jerome described the grotto (a small cave), which was a basilica built by Emperor Constantine. Archaeological digs in 1934–35 revealed that a second phase of the building occurred during the reign of Justinian in AD 527 to 565 when Constantine’s basilica was enlarged. Steps lead down to the grotto, which has a rectangular shape, suggesting that Constantine’s builders altered the original cave. However, there is no description of the grotto before Constantine’s basilica was constructed.

A town in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15). It was probably the home of the judge Ibzan, an early ruler of Israel (Judges 12:8–10). It is identified today with the village of Beit Lahm, some 11.3 kilometers (seven miles) northwest of Nazareth.