The elevation of David to the kingdom does not ap- pear to have aft'ected the fortunes of his native pi ice. The residence of Saul acquired a new title specially from him, by which it was called even down to the latest time of Jewish history (2 Sam. xxi. G ; Josephus, War, v, 2, 1, ra/3a9oaov\n), but David did nothing to dignify Bethlehem, or connect it with himself. The only touch of recollection which he manifests for it is that recorded in the statement of his sudden long- ing for the water of the well by the gate of his child- hood (2 Sam. xxiii, 15). Bethlehem was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi, G), but it does not appear to have been a place of much importance ; for Micah, ex- tolling the moral pre-eminence of Bethlehem, says, "Thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, 1h mgh thou he littk among the thousands of Judah," etc. (Micah v, 2). Matthew quotes this as, "And thou, Bethlehem of Jndah, art not the least of the cities of Judah," etc. (Matt, ii, G),
which has the appearance of a discrepancy. But it is answered that a city may be littk without being the least, or that the evangelist may have quoted from memory, and hence the slight difference in expression, while the sense remains the same. By the time of the captivity, the inn of Chimham by (b^IN = " close to") Bethlehem appears to have become the recognised point of departure for travellers to Egypt (Jer. xli, 17) — a caravanserai or khan (WIS ; see Stanley, App. § 90), perhaps the identical one which existed there at the time of our Lord (KaTuXiifia), like those which still exist all over the East at the stations of travellers. Lastly, "children of Bethlehem" to the number of 123 returned from Bain Ion (Ezra ii, 21), which, with the 56 from the neighboring Netophah, slightly differs from the sum IMS of the parallel passage (Neh. vii, 26). In the New Testament Bethlehem retains its distinc- tive title of Bethlehem-judah (Matt, ii, 1, 5), and once, in the announcement of the angels, the " city of Da- vid" (Luke ii, 4; and comp. John vii, 42; Kw^rj; cas- tellwn). Its connection with the history of Christ is too familiar to all to need any notice here ; the remark should merely be made, that as in the earlier history less is recorded of the place after the youth of David than before, so, in the later, nothing occurs after the birth of our Lord to indicate that any additional im- portance or interest was fastened on the town. In fact, the passages just quoted and the few which fol- low exhaust the references to it in the N. T. (Matt, ii, 6, 8, 16 ; Luke ii, 15).
After this nothing is heard of it till near the middle of the 2d century, when Justin Martyr speaks of our Lord's birth as having taken place "in a certain cave very close to the village," which cave he goes on to say had been specially pointed out hy Isaiah as "a sign." The passage from Isaiah to which he refers is xxxiii, 13-19, in the Sept. version of which occurs the following : " He shall dwell on high ; His place of de- fence shall be in a lofty cave of the strong rock" (Justin. Dial. c. Tryph. §78, 70). Such is the earliest supplement we possess to the meagre indications of the narrative of the Gospel ; and while it is not possi- ble to say with certainty that the tradition is true, there is no certainty in discrediting it. There is noth- ing in itself very probable — nor certainly is there in mo? t cases where the traditional scenes of events are laid in caverns — in the supposition that the place in which Joseph and Mary took shelter, and where was the "manger" or "stall" (whatever the Q&rvT) may have been), was a cave in the limestone rock of which the eminence of Bethlehem is composed. Yet it is not nec- essary to assume that Justin's quotation from Isaiah is the ground of an inference of his own ; it may equally be an authority happily adduced by him in support of the existing tradition. Still the step from the belief that the nativity may have taken place in a cavern, to the belief that the present subterraneous vault, or crypt is that cavern, is an equally doubtful one. (See below.) Even in the loOj'ears that had passed when Justin wrote, so much had happened at Bethlehem that it is difficult to believe that the true spot could have been accurately preserved. In that interval not only had the neighbor- hood of Jerusalem been overrun and devastated Iv (lie Romans at the destruction of the city, but the Emperor Hadrian, amongotherdesecrations, is saidto have plant- ed a grove of Adonis at the spot (h/riis hntmhrabat . I dm, '- dis, Jerome, Ep. Paid.). Tins grove remained at Beth- lehem for no less than 180 years, viz. from A.D. 135 till 315. After this the place was purged of its abom- inations by Constant inc, who, about A.D. 330, erected the present church (Euseb. Vit. Const. 3, 40. See Tob- ler, p. 102, note'). The brief notice of Eusehius in the Onomasticon (s. v. BiftXti/i} locates it 6 miles S. of Je- rusalem, to which Jerome (i'>. s. v. Bethlehem) adds a reference to the " tcwer of Edar" and his own cell in the locality. The Crusaders, on their approach to Jcrusa-