Bethlehem

===Classical period===
{{see also|Census of Quirinius}}

[[File:Gerard van Honthorst - Adoration of the Shepherds (1622).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''Adoration of the Shepherds'' (1622) by the Dutch painter [[Gerard van Honthorst]]. According to the [[Gospel of Matthew|Gospels of Matthew]] and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]], [[Jesus]] was born in Bethlehem.<ref name="Brownrigg2002">{{cite book|last=Brownrigg|first=Ronald|title=Who's Who in the New Testament|chapter=Jesus: The Birth Stories|pages=121–123|publisher=Routledge|date=2002|orig-year=1971|location=New York City, New York and London, England|isbn=978-0-203-01712-8|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXqBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|access-date=October 14, 2020|archive-date=May 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529123059/https://books.google.com/books?id=JXqBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Sanders1993">{{cite book|last=Sanders|first=E. P.|author-link=E. P. Sanders|date=1993|title=The Historical Figure of Jesus|location=London, England, New York City, New York, Ringwood, Australia, Toronto, Ontario, and Auckland, New Zealand|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-014499-4|pages=85–88}}</ref><ref name="Casey2010">{{cite book|last=Casey|first=Maurice|author-link=Maurice Casey|title=Jesus of Nazareth: An Independent Historian's Account of His Life and Teaching|pages=145–158|publisher=T & T Clark|date=2010|location=New York City, New York and London, England|isbn=978-0-567-64517-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXK0auknD0YC&pg=PA194|access-date=October 14, 2020|archive-date=May 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529123059/https://books.google.com/books?id=lXK0auknD0YC&pg=PA194|url-status=live}}</ref>|left]]

The [[Gospel of Matthew]] Matthew 1:18–2:23<ref>{{bibleverse-nb|Matthew|1:18–2:23|9}}</ref> and the [[Gospel of Luke]] Luke 2:1–39<ref>{{bibleverse-nb|Luke|2:1–39|9}}</ref> represent [[Jesus]] as having been born in Bethlehem,<ref name="Brownrigg2002" /><ref name="Sanders1993" /><ref name="Casey2010" /> known at the time as [[wikt:בית לחמא|בית לחמא]] (Beit Lachma) in Aramaic, meaning "House of Bread". Modern scholars, however, regard the two accounts as contradictory<ref name="Sanders1993" /><ref name="Casey2010" /> and the [[Gospel of Mark]], the earliest gospel, mentions nothing about Jesus having been born in Bethlehem, saying only that he came from [[Nazareth]].<ref name="Casey2010" /> Current scholars are divided on the actual birthplace of Jesus: some believe he was actually born in Nazareth,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Raymond Edward|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dd1XAAAAYAAJ|title=The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke|date=1999|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-49447-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Meier|first=John P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zODYAAAAMAAJ|title=A Marginal Jew: The roots of the problem and the person|date=1991|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-26425-9|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ehrman|first=Bart D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pJjmCwAAQBAJ|title=Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium|date=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512474-3|language=en}}</ref> while others still hold that he was born in Bethlehem.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Murphy O'Connor|first=Jerome|date=2015-08-24|title=Bethlehem…Of Course|url=https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/16/1/14|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-17|website=[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815030904/https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/16/1/14|archive-date=August 15, 2020}}</ref>

Nonetheless, the tradition that Jesus was born in Bethlehem was prominent in the early church.<ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> In around 155, the apologist [[Justin Martyr]] recommended that those who doubted Jesus was really born in Bethlehem could go there and visit the very cave where he was supposed to have been born.<ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> The same cave is also referenced by the apocryphal [[Gospel of James]] and the fourth-century church historian [[Eusebius]].<ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> After the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] ({{circa}} 132–136 CE) was crushed, the Roman emperor [[Hadrian]] converted the Christian site above the Grotto into a shrine dedicated to the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] god [[Adonis]], to honour his favourite, the Greek youth [[Antinous]].<ref name="Giuseppe Ricciotti 1948 p. 276">Giuseppe Ricciotti, ''Vita di Gesù Cristo,'' Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana (1948) p. 276 n.</ref><ref>Maier, Paul L., "The First Christmas: The True and Unfamiliar Story." 2001</ref>

In around 395 CE, the [[Church Fathers|Church Father]] [[Jerome]] wrote in a letter: "Bethlehem... belonging now to us... was overshadowed by a grove of [[Dumuzid|Tammuz]], that is to say, [[Adonis]], and in the cave where once the infant Christ cried, the lover of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] was lamented."<ref name="Taylor1993">{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Joan E.|title=Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins|pages=96–97|date=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0-19-814785-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWAXbCNxH6YC&pg=PA96|access-date=October 14, 2020|archive-date=May 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529123100/https://books.google.com/books?id=KWAXbCNxH6YC&pg=PA96|url-status=live}}</ref> Many scholars have taken this letter as evidence that the cave of the nativity over which the [[Church of the Nativity]] was later built had at one point been a shrine to the ancient Near Eastern fertility god Tammuz.<ref name="Taylor1993" /><ref>Marcello Craveri, ''The Life of Jesus'', Grove Press (1967) pp. 35–36</ref> Eusebius, however, mentions nothing about the cave having been associated with Tammuz<ref name="Taylor1993" /> and there are no other Patristic sources that suggest Tammuz had a shrine in Bethlehem.<ref name="Taylor1993" /> Peter Welten has argued that the cave was never dedicated to Tammuz<ref name="Taylor1993" /> and that Jerome misinterpreted Christian mourning over the [[Massacre of the Innocents]] as a pagan ritual over Tammuz's death.<ref name="Taylor1993" /> Joan E. Taylor has countered this contention by arguing that Jerome, as an educated man, could not have been so naïve as to mistake Christian mourning over the Massacre of the Innocents as a pagan ritual for Tammuz.<ref name="Taylor1993" />

In 326–328, the empress [[Helena (empress)|Helena]], [[queen consort|consort]] of the emperor [[Constantius Chlorus]], and mother of the emperor [[Constantine the Great]], made a pilgrimage to Syra-Palaestina, in the course of which she visited the ruins of Bethlehem.<ref name="BMH" /><ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> The [[Church of the Nativity]] was built at her initiative over the cave where Jesus was purported to have been born.<ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> During the [[Samaritan Revolts|Samaritan revolt]] of 529, Bethlehem was sacked and its walls and the Church of the Nativity destroyed; they were rebuilt on the orders of the Emperor [[Justinian I]].<ref name="BMH" /><ref name="Brownrigg2002" /> In 614, the [[Sasanian Empire|Persian Sassanid Empire]], supported by [[Jewish revolt against Heraclius|Jewish rebels]], invaded [[Palaestina Prima|Palestina Prima]] and captured Bethlehem.{{sfn|Klein|2018|page=234}} A story recounted in later sources holds that they refrained from destroying the church on seeing the [[magi]] depicted in [[Persian art|Persian]] clothing in a mosaic.{{sfn|Russell|1991|pages=523–528}}<ref name="BMH" />