Pilgrims and tourists to Israel usually have a list of the holy places they want to see and visit. Working with an experienced travel bureau and guide will construct a memorable journey of faith and amazement. But occasionally, the question of “is this REALLY where this event happened?” Did the Savior really do this here? Sometimes archaeology and tradition clash. Added to this are the constant academic discourses and papers, excavations and controversies that archaeologists and scholars bring to the table.
When it comes to whether or not a holy place is authentic the only answer is “very possibly”. The proof is even more vague since we have two sources: tradition and excavation. The Land has seen more armies, re-use of building materials, name changes and environmental changes than anywhere else you can imagine. Let’s check some examples and start at the beginning: Bethlehem.
The Messiah was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem, David’s home. That is in Scripture and even when Herod asked the priests where the Messiah and King was to be born, they all said Bethlehem. The paranoid king sent agents to eliminate any threat to his power using the ancient tradition of killing off anyone who might claim the leadership to the kingdom. Any baby boy two years and under was terminated, Herod was taking no chances and did a thorough job of it.
The Gospels tell of the obedience to Caesar’s census and tax and the return of everyone to their ancestral home and village and the birth of the promised Messiah in Bethlehem. His birth in a place where livestock were kept, owned by an innkeeper has been explored and conjectured by many to mean different things based upon studies of 1st century social relationships among families. Some thought is given now to the possibility that Maryam and Joseph were staying with relatives and that a separate room that could be used for childbirth was where the event happened. Birth and death involved ritual cleanness issues and this needs to be brought into the equation. Even if they stayed at an inn or caravansary, moving the birthing would be an essential thing for the other guests. One way or another, laying the baby in manger does offer an opportunity for privacy and ritual cleanness for the process. Limestone is easy to work and the Bethlehem area is very rich in limestone deposits. A small sheltered area for a cow or several goats or sheep and a donkey or two could be easily constructed close to the residence.
The Church of the Nativity’s site is identified by the witness of Justin Martyr in the 2nd century. Here tradition seems to be the first step. Bethlehem was never a large place, today’s larger city bears witness to the weight that faith gives to seeing the actual or traditional places in Israel that has. By the time that Emperor Constantine’s Christian mother, Helena visited The Land, the tradition of the location of the Messiah’s birth was literally set in limestone. Leveraging her power over her Emperor son, a Roman basilica was built over the place, leveling all but a small grotto where a small area was covered with a silver star and venerated as exactly where the King was placed “in a manger”. Obviously no excavations, digs or other archaeological techniques were used so everything goes back to the 2nd through 4th centuries. Here is where tradition wins over documentation.
The next site is probably the best for confusion, discussion and at least some good documentation: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher guards the place of crucifixion, and the tomb of the Messiah. Pilgrims approach it in reverence, awe and confusion. What they see is a mass of architectural styles and periods, with its filled-in gates and doors, a jumble of stones and a place surrounded by other buildings from many cultures and occupiers of the Holy City. Inside the church is even more eye-filling and ear–filling as well. Over the centuries, as the church began to see separations into denominations and celebrations of differing rites and traditions, ownership of the place became an issue. It is often reported that on Christmas and Easter non-brotherly altercations occur with monk versus monk, priest versus priest and an occasional prelate joining in the “discussion” over whose turn it is for ceremonial space in one of the holiest of holy places.
Constantine had leveled the site of the execution as well as the place where the carved out tombs of the families of Jerusalem would intern their dead. This place was outside city walls in the 1st century, the city walls were extended after the time and the church now lies well inside and safe behind Crusader period walls and fortifications. Constantine built a magnificent Roman basilica over the site which Helena somehow connected through a trail of pilgrim’s stories and geography to the events of that day in Jerusalem when the Temple veil was torn asunder and the debt was paid in full by the Messiah.
Inside the church remains a small octagonal structure covering the stone of the anointing, considered to be the place from which the Messiah rose from the dead. This connects through a trail of historic images and other relics to the same place. Also, it is known that after the last revolt in 135 AD, the Romans put an altar over the Golgotha site to deface and deter Christians from any veneration; Jews had been banned already from the city of Aelia Capitolina. So far it all adds to an accurate site.
Visiting the places we have read about in the Bible helps us see further into the Bible, even with modern eyes and confused architecture and maps. The more we read the more we will know and the deeper we must delve into searching the Scriptures, even if just to ask for directions. Israel is truly a place of wonder and amazement.
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