| Not far South of Jerusalem lies the town of
Bethlehem, in the midst of a idyllic pastoral landscape, which has preserved almost
unchanged the bucolic and biblical characteristics of remote times.It is a white town on
the slope of a rough and rocky hill with patches of olive and cypress. Bethlehem may mean
either "the house of bread", from the hebrew Beit Lehem, or "the house of
meat" from the Arabic Beit Lahm. Originally Bethlehem was called Ephratah (Ephrath) (Gen.35:16
& Ruth 4:11). Its revered as the birthplace of David (1 Samuel 17:12)
and Jesus (Matthew 2:5). The birth of Jesus left an indelible imprint on the history of the human race. The story of the life of Christ on earth shows us a man whoes twin nature, human and divine, left an immortal message, which was handed down across the centuries and still today, two thousand years later, shapes a vast section of the conscience, the thought and the faith of the world. |
|
