Church News podcast: Bethlehem at the time of Jesus Christ’s birth - Church News

Each Christmas season, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and others across the world, turn their thoughts to the town of Bethlehem and the traditional interpretation of the Nativity.

This episode of the Church News podcast features Dr. Matthew Grey, a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.

He shares historical insights and biblical context on the village of Bethlehem, the archaeology and practices of Jewish daily life, and the religious and political atmosphere that existed in this area at the time of the Savior's birth. 

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Transcript:

Matthew Grey: So, I actually love the way in which archaeology and history work together to help us read scripture more carefully. And when the story comes to life, that just helps me to resonate even more clearly with the message of the story that's found, not only in Luke, but also in Matthew, of the birth of Jesus bringing the light into the world. And that light really is for all humanity. Luke focuses on that through the shepherds. Matthew focuses on that through the Magi, the wise man, and today as modern disciples, as modern believers and as modern historians, I think it's a message that is more needed than ever before, especially this Christmas season, as I'm thinking about the Christmas story in context, is just remembering that the love of God has no boundaries. And that's something that I feel deep in my soul, both as a historian, but also as a believer.

0:58  

Sarah Jane Weaver: I'm Sarah Jane Weaver, editor of the Church News. Welcome to the Church News podcast. We are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Each Christmas season, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and others across the world, turn their vision to the town of Bethlehem. This episode of the Church News podcast features Dr. Matthew Grey. He is here with us to share insights on the village of Bethlehem, the archaeology of Jewish daily life and the religious and political atmosphere that existed in this area at the time of Jesus's birth.

Dr. Grey is a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He completed studies in archaeology and the history of early Judaism from Andrews University, University of Oxford and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his PhD. For the past 12 years he has been teaching courses at Brigham Young University on archaeology and the New Testament, including a year of teaching at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. During this time, he has also been actively involved supervising archaeology work on an ancient village and synagogue. Welcome, Dr. Grey, to the Church News podcast.

2:16  

Matthew Grey: Thank you. It's great to be here.

2:17  

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I hope we can drop the formality. Do you mind if we just call you Mat  as we go through this podcast?

2:23

Matthew Grey: Matt is just fine.

2:24

Sarah Jane Weaver: Great, let's just start. Can you tell us a little bit about modern Bethlehem and then we can sort of turn our gaze back and focus on ancient Bethlehem?

2:33  

Matthew Grey: Sure, modern Bethlehem is a wonderful city. It's a large Palestinian city, which has its own rich, local culture. And every semester, we get to bring BYU Jerusalem Center students to Bethlehem to, not only visit this modern city, but also to visit the sites traditionally associated with the birth of Jesus. And in that we join pilgrims from all over the world who wish to explore the location where Jesus was born from the Gospels. But you're right, the city that you'll see today is quite different from the first entry village that is described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. So today, it's fairly densely inhabited. And it basically revolves around the modern Christian tourist industry.

The skyline of modern Bethlehem.

So downtown Bethlehem today, you'll see for example, marketplaces that have shops selling items for tourists that recall the Christmas story. There are lots of olive wood shops selling Nativity scenes and statues of the various characters from the Christmas story. You'll have baby blankets shops made from wool from Bethlehem. And you'll have all sorts of beautiful locations to visit including sites traditionally associated with the birth of Jesus. So right downtown Bethlehem, for example, you've got the traditional locations of the shepherd's fields. There's a Catholic and a Greek Orthodox site there. There's a location called the Milk Grotto, that commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph from Bethlehem to Egypt. And of course, right in the middle of all of it is the Church of the Nativity, which is an ancient church built around the fourth century, but that underwent several centuries of renovation that tourists can visit today to commemorate the traditional location of the cave in which Jesus was born. So all of this is a wonderful place to visit. It's got a rich culture of its own. But as you said, it bears very little resemblance to the ancient village of Bethlehem from the Gospel accounts.

4:17  

Sarah Jane Weaver: I actually love that there is a place where we can go and think about what happened in Bethlehem so, so many years ago. I, personally, collect nativities.

4:28

Matthew Grey: Oh, great.

4:29

Sarah Jane Weaver: I pick one up when I travel for work to different locations. But what I really want to talk about is what it would have been like during the actual time of the Savior's birth. Can you share some archeological insights of that First Century village?

4:44  

Matthew Grey: Sure. And this is what's kind of difficult to envision when you're there as a modern tourist, because it is such a busy modern Palestinian city. And this is where archaeology can come in to be very useful. Now, unfortunately, there has not been a lot of archaeological excavation work done in Bethlehem, precisely because it's still a modern city where modern houses and modern life is still very much present. But having said that, over the last century or two, there have been occasional archaeological surveys of the area, archaeological soundings or probes in various parts of the city. And this allows at least a modest insights into what the ancient village would have been like.

So if we combined these modest archeological insights along with what we know about the village, historically, I think we can reasonably reconstruct at least the basic idea of what this village was like in the time of Jesus, which itself, I think can help us to more carefully read the Gospel accounts at Christmastime and can help us to better envision what these events would have been like.

5:46  

Sarah Jane Weaver: And I noticed that you use the word "cave," when you were talking about where the Savior may have actually been born. What would it have been like? What insights can you share?

5:57  

Matthew Grey: That's a great question. So if we take what we know from historical sources and archaeological evidence, the modest reconstruction that we can give of the ancient village basically goes as follows: It seems that ancient Bethlehem was a small settlement throughout the entire biblical period. It never was a large town or a large city. But it always seemed to be a small, farming and shepherding village, just outside — about five miles to the south — of Jerusalem. So it always existed in the larger hinterland of Jerusalem, but itself was always a very small village, probably never had a wall around it, for example. It probably only had clusters of homes. And we know from the topography of the region that the village of Bethlehem existed along a small crescent-shaped ridge that's on the road right between Jerusalem and Hebron—  a road that's sometimes called The Way of the Patriarchs.

That's a road where, all the way back starting in the Old Testament period, for example, Rachel was buried. And so as travelers went between Jerusalem and Hebron, the small village of Bethlehem would have been just a small settlement just off of that main road and it would have been surrounded by agricultural fields and terraced olive orchards. And so we get a sense of the farming and shepherding nature of this village in the Biblical world.

7:12  

Sarah Jane Weaver: When each of us think about Bethlehem, we think about the scenes that we see in the manger. We think about, you know, sheep and shepherds. Tell us a little bit about the fields.

7:23  

Matthew Grey: Yeah, sure. So, the surrounding area around Bethlehem had always been very pastoral. Bethlehem is located just on the East Ridge of the Judean hill country, so a lot of low hills, and immediately to the east of Bethlehem would start the western edge of the Judean Desert. So, geographically, it's set right in the middle of those two zones within ancient Israel. And the area around Bethlehem typically consists of terraced olive orchards and lots of patches of exposed limestone bedrock. And it's in that area where shepherds naturally would have raised their sheep and their goats. And so that definitely, the pastoral setting, not only for the birth of Jesus, but going all the way back to the Old Testament, Bethlehem, of course, being most known biblically as being the hometown of David, the great King of Israel, who himself was a shepherd in those very fields.

The "shepherds' fields," small watchtowers, terraces and natural caves used for grazing sheep and goats along the hill slopes outside of Bethlehem.

Matthew J. Grey

So the tradition of Bethlehem not only being a place for grazing flocks and herds, but also a place where agriculture was fairly rich. A lot of wheat and barley can be grown there, which sets the context for the Ruth story. That might even be the background for why we call Bethlehem, Bethlehem. In Hebrew, "Beit Lechem" means the house of bread. And so between the agricultural activities that would have occurred in those fields and the shepherding activities that would have occurred on the hillsides in the area, we get really nice sense of Bethlehem starting at the time of Ruth and David, and going all the way into the Jewish settlement that existed there in the early Roman period, which is the setting for the birth of Jesus.

8:49  

Sarah Jane Weaver: And any light that would have come to those fields that night would have come from stars.

8:53

Matthew Grey: Of course, yeah.

8:54

Sarah Jane Weaver: I love that. So how does that help us envision the setting that we read about in the Gospel of Luke?

9:00  

Matthew Grey: Sure. So the Gospel of Luke, between the two Infancy Gospels, or the accounts of Jesus's birth in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke is the gospel that focuses on the shepherds in the fields in between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and coming to be the witnesses of Jesus's birth as He was laid in the manger after He was born. And so the area around Bethlehem can give us a really nice sense of what that setting was like. And so as we were mentioning earlier, between the terraced orchards, the olive trees, the patches of limestone bedrock that existed around the countryside, this gave great grazing lands for the sheep and the goats that may even have been part of the larger temple economy.

There's some evidence from ancient Jewish writings that the fields in the area between Bethlehem and Jerusalem may have actually been where the temple flocks were raised. And we don't know that for sure and the Gospel of Luke doesn't emphasize that point of it, but it does give us a sense of how important the shepherding activities were in this area. And so when the Gospel of Luke describes the shepherds in the fields and seeing the angel proclaim to them that Jesus had been born, that's a really nice setting to envision those events.

10:05  

Sarah Jane Weaver: And I think so often when I, personally, think about the story of the Savior's birth, I think about the phrase, "There was no room at the inn." Can we talk about what homes and stables would have looked like in this time of First Century Bethlehem?

10:20  

Matthew Grey: Sure, yeah. And you raise a very interesting point, as well. And that is that there is often a big difference between the way we envision the stories traditionally, like in modern films, or in modern Nativity scenes, all of which are wonderful. But there can sometimes be a big difference between those depictions of events and what we actually see in historically contextualized reading of the biblical accounts.

If we go back to the original biblical text, in the Greek text of Luke chapter two, it says that there was no room for them in the "Kataluma," is the Greek word. The word "Kataluma" in Greek just simply means a resting spot. 

The "shepherds' fields," small watchtowers, terraces and natural caves used for grazing sheep and goats along the hill slopes outside of Bethlehem.

Matthew J. Grey

And another aspect of the text in Luke that is interesting to note, is that it's not a rush, frantic dash to try to find space. The Gospel of Luke says that while they were there, Mary gave birth. And so it gives a sense that they settled in a little bit and they were preparing. And then when it came time for her to give birth, because there was no space for them, that they had to go to another part of the facility, probably a stable, where they housed their animals. And we can talk about that in a moment in terms of how these homes and how the stables interacted together. But that's probably a more careful and more contextualized reading of the Christmas story that's based less on modern imagination and tradition, and more on the actual sources themselves.

11:32  

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and the first time I had ever contemplated that was when I saw "The Christ Child" video that was produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And I understand that you were a historical consultant for that project.

Matthew Grey: I was, yeah, that was a wonderful opportunity.

11:44  

Matthew Grey: Yeah, that's one of the things that was so wonderful about "The Christ Child" film back from 2019, is that it was one of the first attempts, I think, in film anywhere, to try to portray these events in a way that's more historically informed and less traditional. 

I think it's really helpful to note how houses were designed. So what we know from ancient Bethlehem, and unfortunately, as I said, that we don't have a lot of excavated homes from ancient Bethlehem. But from around the larger region, we do have homes that date to the First Century that tell us a lot about what this home probably was like. So for example, we know that most homes in this Judean hill country region, were very modest homes, maybe one, two or three rooms at the most — mostly constructed of stacked field stones that were piled together and then mortared over with kind of a flat plaster roof. And there was probably some modest courtyard that would have been part of this home that, where the family members could have done some food preparation activities. So it's a fairly modest home itself, where the eating and the sleeping and the dwelling actually occurred. In fact, most of these homes either just simply had bedrock floors, or patched dirt floors, with the idea that you could lay a reed mat over those floors. And that that would be your space for eating where you'd all sit around shared cooking pots and dip bread into soups and stews. And then use that same space with a reed mat over a packed dirt floor for sleeping.

Part of the ancient cave complex, now used as a series chapels, under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. During the time of the New Testament, these and other nearby grottos may have served as stable, storage or water facilities for adjacent households.

Matthew J. Grey

And so that gives you a sense of kind of the modest nature of these First Century homes that were in this region. And it also gives you a sense of how there's very little privacy in these homes. There's not a lot of personal space. So that leads us into the next part of these homes, which is that often, especially in this hill country, where so much of the exposed limestone bedrock of the area contains natural caves, a lot of times these homes would be built either right next to or right over a cave that could itself, then be repurposed into the stables. So that would be the space that would house the animals, and maybe a donkey or two, probably some goats for milk and cheese, possibly some sheep, as well.

But when Mary's ready to give birth, there's really just no personal space for her to do so. And for Jewish ritual purity purposes, as well. It's just all around better to provide alternative space, in which case just let him have the stable. Let him have that repurposed cave that was usually used for sheep and goats, maybe some donkeys, and that is going to be the setting in which Mary gives birth.

And again, we think about our traditional depictions, is it just Mary and Joseph? Or is it more likely, Mary, maybe Joseph, but certainly some of the women, almost serving as midwives, to help Mary deliver the baby.

14:18 

Sarah Jane Weaver: And would there have been animals there, like we see in our modern Nativities?

14:22  

Matthew Grey: Possibly, because it was a stable, unless they cleared out all the animals just for this event. It's not impossible that there were some goats or some sheep there, probably not much more than that. We probably don't need to pack the stable with all all sorts of animals, as we often do in our wonderful Nativity scenes. But yeah, and in fact, we even have some indication from the Gospel of Luke, itself, that facilities for animals were part of the story, because when Luke says that Mary gave birth, and wrapped her baby in swaddling clothes and laid the baby in a manger, the manger facility was fairly common within some of these repurposed caves that are now stables. The manger being not a wooden box that we often imagine from a Northern European Nativity scene, but instead a manger being a stone carved trough for watering and feeding the animals that would have naturally been housed in those caves/facilities. 

A repurposed cave located under a first-century house excavated near Bethlehem. Carved into the upper part of the wall on the left is a row of small niches for holding oil lamps, and carved into the cave wall on the right is a row of feeding or watering troughs for animals. This latter feature likely resembles the "manger" into which Jesus was placed according to Luke 2.

Oren Gufteld

And we know from archaeological excavations in the area, that those stone mangers or those stone troughs for watering the animals for the sheep, the goats, maybe even the donkeys, can either be standalone limestone blocks that were just carved out to put the water or the food for the animals. Or it could also be permanent structures within the cave where you take exposed bedrock from within the cave and just carve it out and have temporary mangers or feeding troughs. And so either way, we don't know exactly which one would have applied here. But either way, we have a really nice sense of how this cave facility would have worked, usually for housing animals, but temporarily being the space where Mary could give birth to the baby Jesus, wrap the baby Jesus and put Him into a stone feeding trough that would normally be used for animals. And of course, it's while Jesus is in that stone manger, that the shepherds from the surrounding fields come to see the birth of Mary's baby.

16:08  

Sarah Jane Weaver: And while we're talking about everything going on at this time, can you give us some insight into the religious and political atmosphere that would have existed during this time period?

16:19 

Matthew Grey: Yeah, sure. So religiously and politically, this is a time of great transition in Judea more broadly. Herod the Great had been appointed king of Judea by the Romans, a few decades earlier. So around the year 40 BC is when Herod was declared by the Roman senate to be king of Judea, or king of the Jews. And while Herod was a very powerful figure, he didn't have any natural lineage connections or claims to Judea and kingship. His father, well actually I should say, his grandfather was an Idumaean. That's a region to the south of Judea. And his family was forcibly converted to Judaism about a generation or two before Herod was born, and his mother was Nabataean. That's the area down by Petra in southern Jordan. And so, genealogically, Herod has no claims to any kind of regional kingship, certainly not the Davidic kingship line that goes all the way back to the Old Testament. But being a very powerful political figure and being well aligned with the Roman world, the Roman Senate declares him to be king of Judea.

And so for his very long and powerful 40-year reign, there were many groups in Judea, many Jewish groups, who did not see Herod as legitimate, who still longed for more indigenous kingship, a king that would arise from the House of David. And so, this situation where you have local Jewish groups who are longing for a return of Davidic kingship and the rise of a king from the ancient line of David would have brought to mind, for example, the prophecy of Micah that suggested that there one day would be a new Davidic king who was born in Bethlehem, the original village of King David from the Old Testament. And this observation was not lost on Herod.

Herod, throughout his reign, was very aware that he was seen as an illegitimate ruler. And as a result, he developed quite a bit of paranoia where any potential threats to his reign and to his rule can be brutally suppressed, including among his own family. And so as Herod is trying to find ways to promote a legitimacy to his reign, one of the things that he seems to have done is taken advantage of the area around Bethlehem, the traditional ancestral seat of King David, as the location where he would personally build a monument to his reign and to his rule. In fact, the place where he would later be interred at a site called Herodium.

The monument and tomb of Herod the Great at Herodion, an artificial mountain and fortified palace built to the southeast of Bethlehem.

Herodium is a remarkable site built by Herod the Great just outside to the south east of the village of Bethlehem. It's an artificial mountain that Herod the Great had built using the latest in Roman construction techniques that was not only fortified, but had pleasure palaces, that had a theater, all sorts of Roman amenities, and it just towered over the neighboring region, including the small village of Bethlehem. And Herod built this site of Herodium, which can still be seen today, with the intention that that would not only be the place of his burial, ultimately, but that it would serve as an everlasting memorial to his reign. And as we wonder why Herod chose to build his own personal monument near Bethlehem, chances are very good that it's precisely because of Bethlehem's association with Davidic kingship, even though Bethlehem was a very small village, in the time of David, and in the time of Jesus, its symbolic resonance, its symbolic connection with Davidic kingship may very well have been the reason why Herod built his personal monument within view of Bethlehem, almost as if he's trying to associate himself with the Davidic line that he knows full well, he is not part of genealogically.

And so, what all of this does is paints a picture that reminds us that Bethlehem is also right at the center of a moment of religious and political turmoil in early Judaism, where claims of kingship are being debated and contested, where Herod is fully aware of this, and where the Gospel of Matthew now places the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. So just like Luke placed the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and highlighted the shepherds and the fields and so forth, Matthew, who also places Jesus's birth in Bethlehem, seems to focus almost entirely on this political tension, where it's almost a competing claim: "Who is the legitimate King from David's line? Is it Herod with his monument at Herodion overshadowing the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem or is it the baby Jesus who's born in this small village, itself? So I think that's a really important political context when we're reading the Gospel of Matthew.

20:40

Sarah Jane Weaver: And how do the wise men play into all of this?

20:43 

Matthew Grey: Yeah, so that's a fascinating story that, again, is only highlighted in Matthew, I think, precisely, because of this political tension that seems to be the framing of Matthew's Christmas account. So right in the middle of this moment, where Herod is very jealous and paranoid over potential threats to h...