“650. THE CAVE OF THE NATIVITY—LUKE 2:16”

The Cave of the Nativity—Luk_2:16

Two evenings ago we produced what appeared to us needful for the correct apprehension of the particulars given by the evangelist respecting the birth-place of our Lord—the stable of an inn. We now propose to conduct the reader to that which is at this day shown and visited as the spot where Jesus was born.

We have already explained, that what is called the Convent of the Nativity, said to contain this interesting spot, is situated at the easternmost extremity of Bethlehem. It stands on the edge of a steep rock, overlooking a plain of several miles in extent, in which, at little more than a mile from the convent walls, is pointed out the place where the shepherds kept their flocks when the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth was made known to them. In this “field of the shepherds,” as it is called, is a walled enclosure some thirty yards across; and in the center of it a small cave, formerly used as a chapel by the priests of the Greek church. This is called the grotto of the shepherds, and is shown as the place where they were abiding in the fields.

The convent has the appearance of a rude fortress, and is well suited for defence against all the means of attack with which it could be threatened in the middle ages, or now likely to be brought against it by its only enemies—the wandering Arabs, who might visit it for plunder. It is accessible only at one entrance, secured by a massive iron door; so low, like the entrances of most houses, and of all places of defence in Palestine, that a tall man must stoop nearly double to pass, and even a short man, must enter bent and head foremost, in a posture little adapted either for aggression or resistance.

The church contained in this fortress-convent was built by the mother of Constantine, the empress Helena—so many monuments of whose zeal are still extant in the Holy Land. It is a magnificent structure, though now in a neglected and semi-ruinous state. It is thirty-four paces long, and forty broad, ornamented with forty-eight monolith columns of the Corinthian order, arranged in four rows of twelve columns each. The columns are about two and a half feet in diameter, by more than twenty in height. The church was once richly adorned with paintings and mosaics, of which only a few mutilated fragments remain. The pavement is out of repair. The roof is of timber (said to be cedar of Lebanon, but doubted), and the naked, rough pavement which it supports has an effect so bad and so incongruous, as to suggest that it must be a restoration rendered necessary by some casualty, and made in adverse days. In fact, the church is now little other than an outer court or thoroughfare, through which entrance is gained to the smaller churches, and the apartments of the convent. Formerly, the sects which claimed interest in the place had the use of the church by turns, and then it was kept in good order; but as this bred interminable quarrels among them, it was concluded to enclose certain parts as chapels for the separate and exclusive use of each: thus, the church being built in the form of a Latin cross, the nave is deserted, but the Greeks have appropriated the choir to their separate use; and the Latins and Armenians have each a wing of the transept. They still, however, have the use of the cave of the nativity, and other consecrated spots, according to an established order; and although one might suppose the difference between the old and the new style, Note: The Latins follow the new style; the Greeks, and other Oriental churches, the old. This makes eleven days’ difference. by giving to them different terms for the celebrations of Christmas, would prevent occasion of collision, the feuds and petty rivalries which are maintained among them are most disgraceful to the Christian name which they bear, and distressful to the European travelers who visit the place. The Latin, or Roman Catholic, portion is the smallest, but is the most richly adorned, and it possesses the only organ to be found in Palestine.

The Cave of the Nativity

The most holy place—the sanctuary—the final object of all these arrangements, is a small cavern, in which it is asserted that the Savior of the world was born. This lies under the Greek chapel; but the entrance to which is through a door on the southern side of that of the Armenians; whence, by a flight of marble steps, one descends into an irregular apartment, which we are taught to regard as the stable in which the Virgin gave birth to “her first-born son.” Its character as a stable, and even as a grotto, is quite concealed by the ornaments and decorations with which, in awfully bad taste, it has been overlaid, to the entire disguise of its real character. It is a long, narrow, and rather low room, fitted up and much occupied for religious worship. Its original features are quite concealed by the marbles, embroidered hangings, gold lamps, and other adornments, which shock and discourage the belief they were designed to foster. The grotto is about twelve paces in length by four broad, and contains three principal altars. Under the first, upon the marble floor, the precise spot of the nativity is marked by a star composed of silver and precious stones, around which the following inscription forms a circle—hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est,”—that is, “Here was Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.” Golden lamps continually burn over this sacred spot. Above it is a marble table, with the usual decorations of an altar in the Catholic church. Here the pilgrims prostrate themselves, offering up their prayers, and kissing the star and the pavement around it.

A few yards from the star of the nativity is the representative of the manger (the original being shown at Rome), in which the infant Jesus was laid in lack of a proper crib or cradle. One descends by two steps into a room, called the Presence, ten feet square, which has the altar of the manger on one side, and directly opposite to it another altar, marking the place where the magi worshipped. Here, too, the original features of the place, whatever they may have been, are disguised by polished marble and other decorations. The manger is a block of white marble, hollowed out in proper form. It occupies a recess in the grotto, and is less than two feet in height, by perhaps four in length. The altar of the wise men is fenced by a kind of screen, above which is seen a painting that represents them as doing homage, and offering precious gifts to the holy child Jesus.

In another subterranean chamber is shown the altar and sepulcher of the innocents slain by Herod; and a preserved tongue is exhibited as a relic of one of those infants. An altar also marks the spot of the circumcision, and of that where the angel appeared to Joseph, warning him to flee into Egypt. We are also shown the cell within whose narrow bounds, close by the birth-place of his Lord, St. Jerome spent so many years of his long life in his various learned and Biblical labors, including that translation of the Scriptures, which still remains “the authorized version” of the Latin church. There, also, is his sepulcher; but it contains not his ashes, which were early transferred to Rome. There, also, are the tombs of his disciples, Eusebius of Cremona and the noble Roman lady Paula, with her daughter Eutochia.

These at least are realities, and with the church which was built a hundred years before their time, carry back to a remote age the tradition, that this was indeed the spot where our Lord was born; and, in fact, the traditional evidence in favor of the site is very strong. If real, it would be a miserable affectation in those, who think the birth-chamber of one of their own noted men, worthy of being sought out and visited, to assume indifference to this—unless so far as indifference is engendered by the fripperies which have disguised the real character of the place. But is it the real spot? That is the question; and who shall answer it? The evidence is strong—seeing that the existing tradition can be traced up to within a generation or two of the event. The objections urged against it are, that it lies beyond the limits of the town, and that it is a grotto or rock-excavation. To the former objection much weight cannot be given; for, besides that the exact limits of the ancient town are unknown, Scripture states nothing as to the precise position of the inn, while custom is certainly in favor of a spot near the entrance of, or even outside, the town. In almost any other country it might be held a suspicions circumstance, that local or church traditions ascribe to grottos the scene of so many of the remarkable events of Scripture. But here, in this limestone region, natural caverns in the rocks abound, and others have been formed, or shaped and enlarged, by art. They are still used, as of old, as stalls for cattle, and places of shelter; and it cannot be disputed that, in such a country, such caves and cuttings in the rock must always have subserved a variety of domestic purposes. In an age when the population was more dense, and pastoral operations more extensive, this rise of grottos must have been exceedingly common; and there are probably few rocks in Palestine, rising at all above the surface, which have not at some time or other been hollowed out for the use of the living or the dead. There is, then, no intrinsic improbability in the use of a rock stable in the case before us. It is easy to conceive of a caravanserai built in front of a cavern, which might serve as a stable to it. One traveller sees a propriety in regarding this as the grotto of “a village inn.” But in the East there are no village inns like ours—several in a village, each with its small stable. There is one inn, or caravanserai—large in proportion to the village—with a stable, if any, of corresponding dimensions; and although the grotto of the nativity might be an adequate stable for one of our “village inns,” it would hardly be so for a public caravanserai—the sole resting-place for strangers in the village. On the other hand, as we lately stated, the caravanserais are often without stables—the open area, or the shady side of it, being used as a resting-place for the cattle; and a grotto existing on the spot might be used merely as a subsidiary aid to the accommodation of the place, without pretending to offer adequate stabling for the beasts of all the travellers who might repair thither; and these would be few, except on very extraordinary occasions, such as the present. For Bethlehem was too near Jerusalem to be needed as a resting-place for those who were journeying to or from that city; and there was no commercial, or other business, to draw many travellers thither, except such as visited their friends, and who would, of course, lodge with them. Upon the whole, the only solid objection to this cavern would be the fact of its insufficiency to be the stable of a caravanserai; and if this, for the reasons stated, cannot be insisted on, there seems to remain no valid objection against the site which has so long been connected with our Lord’s birth, and the identity of which has only of late years been called in question. A belief in the identity of a spot, or a leaning to that belief, may however be perfectly consistent with the rejection of many legends that have been grafted on it. And, in the Protestant mind, there can be no other feeling than one of pitying indignation at the paltry emptinesses which have been gathered around this spot, and the trumpery ornamentation, by which the cavern has been entirely divested of that natural character which might have been impressive, by showing or suggesting to what lowliness the King of Glory descended when He took upon him to deliver man.

Autor: JOHN KITTO