country of Judiea as pi ^ ■ ! i i.ir cattle and other beasts. Those Apocr_\|il' il i. -|.. i> \.i,ii ti deal with the In- fancy, notably the Pnlfntiiiniium Jaaibi and the peeudo- ilat'thceus, make mention of the cave. Pseudo-Matthseus (ch. 13) says, ' The angel commanded the beast to stop, for her time to bear had come ; and he directed the Blessed Mary to come
which there was never any light, hut always darkness, because it could not receive the light of d,ay. .\nd when the Blessed Mary had entered it, it began to become light with all lightness, as if it had been the sixth hour of tlie day. . . . And then she brought forth a male child, whom angels instantly surrounded at His birth, and whom, when born and st^mding at once upon
1 earth
and took her in, and set his sons by her, and he went out and sought a midwife in the country of Bethlehem. And I Joseph walked and I walked not ; and I looked up into the sky and saw the sky violently agitated ; and I looked up at the pole of heaven, and I saw it standing still and the birds of the air still ; and I directed my gaze on the earth, and I saw a vessel lying and workmen reclining by it and their hands in the vessel, and those who handled did not handle it, and those who presented it to the mouth did not present it, but the faces of uU were looking up ; and I saw the sheep scattered and the sheep stood, and the shepherd lifted up his hand to strike them and his hand remained up ; and I looked at the stream of the river, and I saw that the mouths of the kids were down and not drinking ; and ever; thing which was being impelled for- ward was intercepted in its course.'
The Protevatigeliuvi Jacobi is generally recognized as belong- ing to the 2nd cent., and its testimony is a valuable confir- mation of the early Christian tradition. Few scholars, if any, will agree in assigning it the place of unporlance attributed to it recently by the fantastic theory of Conradv (Die Qxielle der kaiioiiischen Eind?ieitsge8chichten Je^'tt. Gottingen, 1900), who regards the Protevmigetium as the source of the Gospel narra- tives of the Infancy. The author of it, according to him, is an Egyptian, most likely of Alexandria, who introduces Bethlehem of its place in Hebrew prophecy,
BETHLEHEM
BETHPHAGE
197
hut liL-c.ause it was formerly a seat of the worship of Isis, and he wishes to incorporate this worship with Christianity. In toncerc with the priests of Isis and Serapis, he aided with his inventive pen the appropriation of this sacred site by the Church, and it was from the Protevangdium that the writers of the First and Third Gospels drew their separate narratives of the Infancy. Conradv returns to the subject with an article full of equally curious and perverted learning in SK, 1904, Heft 2, ' Die Flucht nach .Egypten.'
It is in the 4th century that Bethlehem herins to receive that veneration as a Christian Holy Place in which it is now equalled only by Jeru- salem and Nazareth. As early as Justin Martyr attention is specially directed to Bethlehem as the birthplace of the world's Redeemer. In addition to the reference, already mentioned, to the cave, we find Justin quoting the well-known prophecy of Isaiah (33"="), ' He shall dwell in a lofty cave of a strong rock,' in the same connexion (Duiloqiie with Trijpho, ch. 70). Even earlier tlian Justin's day it would appear that this particular cave was venerated by the followers of Christ ; for, as Jerome tells in one of his letters to Paulinus, the emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), in his zeal to extirpate the very remembrance of Clirist, caused a grove sacred to Adonis to be planted over the grotto of the Nativ- ity, as he caused a temjile to Venus to be erected over the site of the sepulchre of our Lord. Origen (c. Celsuin, i. 51) says : 'If any one desires certainty as to the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem apart from the Gospels and Micali's prophecy, let him know that in conformity with the narrative in the Gos- pel regarding His birth there is shown at Bethle- hem the cave where He was bom and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And this sign is greatly talked of in surrounding places, even among the enemies of the faith, it being said that in this cave was born that Jesus who is worshipped and reverenced by the Christians.' The site is now marked by the oldest church in Christendom, the Church of St. Mary of the Nativity, built by order of the Emperor Constantine. It i.s a massive pile of buildings extending^ along the ridge from west to east, and comprising the church proper with the three convents, Latin, Greek, and Armenian, abutting respectively upon its north - eastern, south - eastern, and south - western extremities. The proportions of the church and its related structures are more commanding from its eleva- tion and from the sliabbiness of the town in comparison. The nave of the church is common to all the sects, and is shared by tlieni togetlier — Latins, Gi'ceks, Armenians. Fidiu tlie dimlile line of Corinthian pillars .sustaiiiin.L; (lie basilica sixteen centuries look down upon the visitor, iiiid the footsteps of nearly fifty generations of Chris- tians have trodden the ground upon which he treads. Says Dean Stanley : ' The long double lines of Corinthian pillars, the faded mosaics, the rough ceiling of beams of cedar from Lebanon still preserve the outlines of tlie church, once blazing with gold and marble, in which Baldwin was crowned, and whicli received its latest repairs from our own English Edward iv.' {Si iiai and Palestine, p. 433). It is the subterranean vault that con- tinues to be of perennial interest. Descending the steps from the raised Hoor of the eastern end of the nave, and turning sharply to the left, the visitor finds a half-sunk arched doorway which leads down by thirteen steps to the Chapel of the Nativity— the rude cave now paved and walled with marble and lighted up by numerous lamps. This chamber is about 40 feet "from east to west, 16 feet wide, and 10 feet high. Tlie roof is covered with what had once been striped cloth of gold. At the east end there is a shrine where fifteen silver lamps bum night and day, and in the floor, let into the pavement, a silver star of Greek