Bethlehem in the Holy Land is a small city which stands on a prominent rocky height, 777 meters above sea level and l267 m. above the Dead Sea.

The origin is a canaanite town called "Beth Lahmu" meaning "the house of Lahmu", the local Canaanite war god.

Christ Jesus who will be born there (see Micah 5,1 and Matthew 2,1) will transform it into the house of peace, where He who is Peace will lead the nations.

Later, the Church Fathers attributed the name to 'Lehem", bread, "The House of the Bread", Jesus being "the Bread of Life".

Now Bethlehem is an entirely Palestinian arab city.

Until l948 it had a population of 7000 people. But today 37 000 refugees have been added to its population.

The hardships of the Turkish domination over Palestine (l516-1918) and the difficult economic and social situation because of repression and taxes under Israeli occupation, since l967, contributed to the emigration of large numbers of Bethlehem's original Christian inhabitants.

The earliest indications of life in Bethlehem came to light in l933 in the discovery of fossilised bones and ivory from the prehistoric age.

In the Bible, Bethlehem - identified with "Ephrathah", the fruitful, is first mentioned in connection with the death of Rachel. It is called "Bethlehem of Judah" to distinguish it from Bethlehem of Galilee , of the tribe of Zabulon.

Bethlehem was the scene of the idyll of Ruth, the Moabite widow who married Booz who was a landlord in the vicinity of Bethlehem, namely the town of Beit Sahoor, the traditional location of the Shepherds' Field.

Beit Sahoor is a 12 000 inhabitant town which did also receive many refugees since l948.

When king Saul had been rejected by the Lord, the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem anointed David, the youngest of Jesse's sons, to be king. So Bethlehem , city of David, became temporarily his capital.

Later he looked for a capital and decided on the powerful city of the Jebusite, namely Jerusalem.

In the year 747 or 748 from the foundation of Rome ("ab urbe condita"), the decree of Caesar Augustus commanding a census of all the provinces subject to the Roma Empire brought the Virgin Mary ans Saint Joseph , from Nazareth, to their native town, Bethlehem.

And Jesus was born exactly in Bethlehem, in a Grotto, as we are told by Saint Justin Martyr (+c. 165) and was laid in a manger.Through this divine Birth, Bethlehem of Palestine won deathless renown and is constantly visited by pilgrims and tourist, all over the ages and from all the parts of the world.

One of the earliest Popes St. Evaristus (supreme Pontiff from 100-109 and martyr) was born in Antioch. His father Juda was born in Betlehem.

The emperor Hadrian profaned the town by bringing into it the worship of pagan divinities.

St Jerome who lived under the Nativity Grotto writes in 395 A.D. :"Bethlehem, now ours, and the earth's most sacred spot..., was overshadowed by a grove of Thammooz, which is Adonis, and in the cave where the Infant Messiah once cried, the paramour of Venus was bewailed..."

In the year 325 the Bishop of Jerusalem acquainted the Emperor Constantine of the neglected condition of the Holy Places. Constantine ordered the construction at the public charge of monumental churches (called "basilicas", royal) to commemorate the three principal events of Jesus' life.

One of these was to be a church enshrining the scene of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus, King of Kings. The work began at once in 326. The shape of the Nativity cave was adapted to the architectural and devotional requirements.

In 529 the Samaritans revolted. They plundered the country-side. The patriarch of Jerusalem sent St Sabas to Justinian (emperor since 527) to help to restore the churches.

The church in Bethlehem seemed to have been badly damaged. The architect sent by Justinian pulled it down and built in its place the present church. Its essential form has not been altered since.

The mosaic floor was covered up with two feet of imported soil, and a new pavement was laid at a higher level. When in 614 the Persians overran Palestine ,they are said to have spared the Church when they saw the mosaic and other images where the Magi were represented in Persian dress.

The Crusaders arrived in l099. On Christmas Day, l100, Baldwin the first king of the Latin Kingdom was crowned in Bethlehem. His successor was in 1122. Little had remained, except the church itself, when the Crusaders had arrived.Therefore, they built a cloister and monastery which was given to the Canons of St Augustine.The monastery and church were encompassed with a high wall and tower which gave the appearance of a fortress.

In 1347, the Franciscans (who arrived in the Holy Land in 1333) were given the Basilica. In 1480 they obtained the persmission to renew the roof. Following an earthquake in l834, the church horrible repairs in l842. The Grotto was partly destroyed by fire in l869.

In l852, on the 8 th of February the "eternal" status of the Nativity Church was fixed by a Turkish firman.

No changes could be done since then. Bethlehem has also the "Milk Grotto" where, according to a medieval legend: the Blessed Virgin was breastfeeding the Infant Jesus. A drop of milk fell on the rock which instantaneously became white.

This a quick look on the City of the Nativity.

bethlehem.htm Any political solution of the Palestinian problem should take into account the holy and cosmopolitan character of this City.