Heard an extension of the Bethlehem story this morning on the radio. I always believed that the visitors to Bethlehem -- the party from the east which bore the gifts for the baby Jesus -- was such a big deal for that tiny sheep town that nobody ever forgot it, and consequently the party of Queen Helena and her stone masons had no difficulty finding the place of Jesus' birth. They built the Church of the Nativity in the early 4th century over the cave where Jesus was born. Now I have heard even more detail, information that makes me surer that the place of His birth was never forgotten. Almost exactly 100 years after the crucifixion, Emperor Hadrian sent a building crew to Bethlehem to see if, like in so many conquered places, Rome could make the locals forget about Jesus and start worshipping Roman gods. Rome built a Temple of Adonis, directly over the cave of Christ's birth, only a century after He died. That temple was meant to complete the "replacement" of the savage and superstitious local religion with the traditional, long held beliefs of the Romans, wherever they were. Standard Roman policy, in other words. But in this case, rather than make the people FORGET about the place where Jesus was born, it served as a physical reminder of the birth of Jesus. The people of Bethlehem knew that the Roman temple over the cave was there because the cave WAS where Jesus was born. So when Helena showed up a couple hundred years later, asking where did it happen, they all just pointed to the Roman temple. But... "it's myth and legend, in faraway places lost to the light of history, a fable for telling to children, an ancient tale that never happened"... right? No, actually, it isn't. 🙂. The birth of Jesus might not have happened in December, or in winter, or in the year zero, or any of the stuff that has become the traditional story. But Jesus was born, and lived, and died on the cross in 33 AD. And the Church of the "Nativity" (the birth of Christ) is built over the cave where the birth of Jesus took place. There is simply no doubt. And I have seen it. The Romans... accidentally, to be sure... made certain that history would never forget that spot. Another Awesome Copy Paste Feel Free I did