Posted on 12/23/2014 7:51:22 PM PST by Squawk 8888
The New Testament says Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, but one rogue Israeli archaeologist says it is far more likely the Christian savior was born in Bethlehem of the Galilee, more than 60 miles from Jerusalem.
Aviram Oshri spent nearly eleven years excavating artifacts in Bethlehem of the Galilee — an ancient biblical village near Nazareth that was later settled by German Templers — which he believes show that the traditional account of Jesus’s birthplace may be wrong.
But when he produced his findings for his employer, the Israel Antiquities Authority, he found his proposal dismissed and called “worse than a joke.”
Oshri disagrees.
The town of Bethlehem of Judea, about six miles south of Jerusalem, has always been considered the birthplace of Jesus. According to the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were living in Bethlehem of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth and later moved to Nazareth up north. In another account, Joseph and Mary, who was then nine months pregnant, traveled more than 175 kilometers (68 miles) from Nazareth to Bethlehem of Judea, Joseph’s hometown, in order to be counted in a Roman census.
That never made sense to Oshri.
“How would a woman who is nine months pregnant travel 175 kilometers on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem of Judea?” he asked. “It makes much more sense that she would have traveled seven kilometers,” the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem of the Galilee.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
:)
Thanks for the thoughtful replies, and Merry Christmas to you!
He is not considering the traffic, I have heard that road was a real bear, back in the day, with all the goat stops and such.
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I hope they did not stop for lunch where we did in Tiberias.
Completely forgettable lunch in an off season tourist town.
I pulled into Nazareth, feeling about half past dead, but that was just to take a load off Annie, or was it Fannie?
I always enjoy this account of the nativity:
“In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation. The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to “number the people,” and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.”
“It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment — Joseph was authorized to register for his family — but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem being not far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible pleasurable visit with her kinswoman Elizabeth.”
“Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was of no avail; when the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth, Joseph was reconciled to Mary’s going along, and they cheerfully departed from Nazareth at the break of day.”
“Joseph and Mary were poor, and since they had only one beast of burden, Mary, being large with child, rode on the animal with the provisions while Joseph walked, leading the beast...”
You’re looking at it through a modern lens. Taxes at that time were levied against families. People were expected to pay as a privilege of Roman “protection”. It’s a little like Obamacare where you are taxed for being an American citizen.
Besides, it’s not like they were able to electronically track transactions. It’s a little like our government trying to get tax money out of cash transactions today... good luck!
I can see how Birmingham and Bethlehem could be confusing to a child hearing these words.
Now me and my mate were back at the shack, we had Spike Jones on the box
She said, “I can’t take the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk”
No, I’m looking at it through the lens of what we know about censuses of the time (a lot) and common sense. If the state wanted to know the tax base of an area, they sent tax/census workers to people’s homes to establish what they owned and what they did.
Having everyone move around the country to places where they don’t live or work is a recipe for a tax disaster. There’s no record of any Roman tax census requiring people to do such a thing and for very good r.easons
Beside, a couple of miles wouldn't be far enough away to hide a prematurely pregnant bride from her neighbor's ridicule. I can hear the old hens now: I visited my sister in Bethlehem, and guess who I saw? Yes, that snotty Mary who just got married...and she looked like she could have a baby any time now...Guess she put one over on Joseph.
Of course, the "modern" scholars claim they just thought of that too, even though pagans and others were spreading that story 1800 years ago to ridicule Christians. wikipedia quotes all these "modern scholars" who don't believe anything in the gospel is true, But ignore more modern scholarship that suggests there are reasons to believe the texts.
Yet if you scroll down, they also quote Justin Martyr: In the 2nd century, Justin Martyr stated that Jesus had been born in a cave outside the town, while the Protoevangelium of James described a legendary birth in a cave nearby.[106][107] The Church of the Nativity inside the town, built by St. Helena, contains the cave-manger site traditionally venerated as the birthplace of Jesus...the article mentions the pagan shrine, but some point out that it dates to after the suggested date of Christ's birth and was probably built by Hadrian.
Of course, why would a anyone believe someone who lived less than a century after Jesus died.
more on Justin Martyr HERE
Let me note: Bible Christians base their evidence on the Bible, but scholars use other means. The fact that other ancient writings mention the cave is valuable to scholars, and since the date of Justin Martyr’s death is known, helps to date what early Christians believed.
Wondering if there is an “American Nativity” story. One could base it in PA. Could be tried if they, Hollywood liberals, wouldn’t mess it up.
The Bible says Bethlehem, Judea. Does the scholar-type think Luke didn’t know the geography of his own country? After 2000 years the “scholar” thinks HE knows better. Bleh.
68 miles is 109 kilometers, not 175.
I think Bethlehem Steel once had a Jesus on the payroll.
As long as we’re looking for logical and sensible theories, My experience has been that pregnant women always want to be with their mothers when giving birth.
People didn’t move far from their original homes in those days and Mary’s family might have been in the nearby Bethlehem.
The tax and birthplace story never made much sense. How would the census taker know that anyone was born in such and such a place many years before?
As you said, people didn’t move far in those days. Also, the local yokels were the ones doing the levying, and they had an incentive to get the job done right, namely, there were legal and financial penalties.
http://www.orlutheran.com/html/census.html
All those even vaguely familiar with Luke’s Christmas story have heard of Caesar Augustus and his famous decree. It was this decree that sent Mary in the ninth month of her pregnancy 80 miles south to Bethlehem, along with husband Joseph... The three censuses are listed in the Acts of Augustus, a list of what Augustus thought were the 35 greatest achievements of his reign. He was so proud of the censuses that he ranked them eighth on the list. The Acts of Augustus were placed on two bronze plaques outside of Augustus’s mausoleum after he died. The three empire-wide censuses were in 28 B.C., 8 B.C., and 14 A.D. In all probability the one in 8 B.C. is the one the Luke mentions in the Christmas story. Even though scholarship normally dates Christ’s birth between 4 and 7 B.C., the 8 B.C. census fits because in all likelihood it would have taken several years for the bureaucracy of the census to reach Palestine.
Yeaah, but how many folks just told the census taker, “Dude, I was born right around here somewhere about 47 years ago. I don’t know the exact date or location because we didn’t keep those records in caves and such.”
As far as I know, not a single scrap of a record of the actual census has survived, which is a little suspicious in itself.
As the barbarians stormed and burned Rome, first priority was, save the census records. /s
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