It is in the earl; meet first with Betli of Epluath.* 'When I came from Padan,' said Jacob on his deathbed, recounting to Joseph in Egypt his cliequered history, ' Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath : and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath ; the same is Bethlehem ' (Gn48', cf. 35""-). The sacred historian records that Jacob set a pillar upon her grave : ' that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day' (Gn 35^). Rachel's grave is marked now by a Mohammedan wely, or monumental mosque, at the point where the Betlileheiu road breaks ott' the road leading from Jerusalem to Hebron ; and though the monument has been repaired and renewed from generation to genera- tion, it serves still to recall a real event, and to distinguish the spot where Rachel's 'strength failed her, and she sank, as did all the ancient saints, on the way to the birthplace of hope ' (Dr. John Ker, Scrnums, 8th ed. p. 153). Bethlehem becomes more definitely associated with the Messi- anic hope when it becomes the home of Ruth the Moabitess, the ancestress of David and of David's greater Son. From the heights near Bethlehem a glimpse is obtained of the Dead Sea — tlie sea of Lot — shimmering at the foot of the long blue wall of the mountains of Moab ; and the land of Moab seems to have had close relations with Bethlehem and its people in patriarchal as well as later times. With Ruth the Moabitess, through lier niaiTiage with Boaz, the ' mighty man of wealth ' of Betli- lehem-judah (Ru 2'), there entered a strain of Gentile blood,— although we remember that Lot, the ancestor of Moab, was the nephew of the great ancestor of Israel— into the pedigree of Christ according to thefiesh (Mt P), as if in token that, in a day still far off, Jew and Gentile should be one in Him. With David, the great-grandson of Ruth, there entered the royal element into tlie^'enealogy of Jesus ; and Bethlehem has no associations more sacred and tender than its associations with the shepherd king of Israel, unless it be those that link it for ever with God manifest in the flesh. The stream of Messianic hope, aa it flows onwards ami broadens from age to age, is not unlike that river
"But see Driver, Genesis (in ' Westmiuster Commentaries '), p. 311, and in Hastings' DB iv. 193".
of Spain which for a considerable part of its course Hows underground, and only at intervals miles apart throws up pools to the surface, which the inhabitants call ' the eyes' of the Guadiana. The pools trace the onward progress of the river, till at length it bursts forth in a broad stream seeking the distant sea. So the hope of a great Deliverer from spiritual misery and death flows onward in the story of God's ancient people, throwing up its pools in the days of Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah and the prophets ; and Micah indicates the direction of its flow with more explicitness than any who went before when he says : ' But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting' (Mic 5-). When the fulness of the time had come, the Messianic hope became the place of broad rivers and streams which we so happily know and enjoy, and the glad tidings was heard "on the plains of Bethlehem, addressed to the watchful shepherds : ' Fear not: for, behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, whicli shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord ' (Lk
Tlie story of the Nativity is told by St. Matthew and St. Luke with a simplicity and delicacy and beauty which are of themselves an evidence of its historical truth. Both narratives, as has been indicated, assign to Bethlehem the high honour of being the place of the Nativity and the scene of the stupendous fact of the Incarnation. The de- tails are too familiar to require rehearsal here.
There is one particular handed dorni by early Christian tradition which may be regarded not as a variation from, but an addition to, the Evangelic narrative, — the statement made by Justin Martyr (a.d. 140-160), and repeated in the Apocryphal Gospels, that the birth of Jesus took place in a cave. Justin {Dialogue with Tri/pho, ch. TS) relates that, since Joseph had in that village no place where to lai^'e, he lodjred in a cave near by. Justni relates other particulars whicli may have come to him — he was a native of N;lI)1us, not ll' miles from Bethlehem — by oral tradition or from aporryithal ncirrati\ es : such as that the Magi came /n"" -1'"'"". :'"'! t'l't Herod slew nM the children of Bethlehem. Thi- 'I;. i Jilc where the Infant
Saviour was born mav !>;. . i . ■ w. is quite in keeping
with the practice of iir :, ne caves of the hill