IN THE MASTER'S STEPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22084, 13 April 1935, Page 15

IN THE MASTER'S STEPS

Br H. V. MORTON

WHERE CHRIST WAS BORN A STABLE IN A CAVE THE LITTLE HOLY LAND

4 (Copyright) No. V. There are a number of old houses in Bethlehem built over caves in the limestone rock. These caves are exactly the same as the sacred grotto under the high altar of the Church of the Nativity, and they are probably as ancient. No one who has seen these houses can doubt that Jesus was bom in one of them, and not in the stable of European tradition. I suppose the idea that Christ was born in a stable was suggested by St. Luke's use of the word "manger." To the Western mind this word presupposes a stable or a barn, or some outbuilding separate from the house and . used as a shelter for animals. But there is nothing in St. Luke to justify this. These primitive houses in Bethlehem gave me an entirely new idea of the scene of the Nativity. They are oneroom houses built over caves. Whether these caves are natural or artificial I do not know: they are level with the road, but the room above them is reached by a flight of stone steps, perhaps 15 or 20. The caves are used to this day as stables for the animals, which enter from the road level. There are, in most of them, a stone trough, or manger, cub from the rock, and iron rings to which the animals are tied during the night. The family occupy the upper chamber, separated only by the thickness of the rock floor from the cave in which the animals sleep. No Boom in the Guest-chamber Now, if Joseph and Mary had visited the "inn" at Bethlehem and found it full, there would have been no stable for them to go to, because the "inns," or khans, in the time of Christ were merely open spaces surrounded by a high wall and a colonnade under whose arches were rooms for the travellers. The animals were not stabled in the European sense, but were gathered together in the centre of the enclosure. The Greek word katalyma used by St. Luke, and translated as "inn," would be more exactly rendered as "guestchamber." Therefore I believe we must imagine the Nativity tp have taken place in one of these old cave-houses of Bethlehem. The guest-chamber, or upper room, which it was the Jewish custom to offer to travelling Jews, was evidently already occupied, and therefore the host did his best by offering to the Holy Family shelter of the downstairs roam, or cave. The Tradition of a Cave It is interesting in this connection to remember that the earliest tradition in the Church was that Jesus was born not in a stable or an inn, but in a cave. Justin Martyr, who was born about 100 A.D., repeats a tradition current in his time that, as Joseph had no place in which to lodge in Bethlehem, he discovered a cave near by. But even before Justin's time it wsema that the cave below the Church of the Nativity was venerated as the scene of Christ's birth. It is not unreasonable to assume that the caverns below this church were once above ground and formed the bottom storeys, or basements, of inhabited houses. St. Matthew, describing the birth of Jesus, says: "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary his mother; and fell down, and worshipped him." One of the houses which I visited might have remained unchanged since the time of Christ. The man was attending to the animals, two donkeys and a foal, which were tied up to the rock in the cave. In the room above the woman was sifting some small grain, like millet, through a sieve. From time to time she talked to her husband as he busied himself in the room beneath. The living room was, like most rooms in the East,. bare of furniture. In a corner of it were the matting beds rolled up and tucked away out of sight. The Smallness of Palestine The thought came to me that the nearest approach to the kind of building in which Christ was born is probably a Connemara cabin. I remember once going to a wake .in a little white cabin rather like these Bethlehem houses, except that it was all on one floor. The living room was separated from the animals' quarters by a pole and a curtain of sacking. The noise of beasts stamping came clearly to us as we sat round the turf fire. I remember thinking at the time that perhaps the Nativity took place in the same humble surroundings. I once believed that the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" indicated the extremes of distance. Nothing, it seemed to me, could bo farther popart than these two places. In actual fact, a man in a good car can breakfast on the ruined hill of Dan under the Lebanons and eat his evening meal beside the wells of Abraham on the desert plain round Beersheba, in the south. Distances are surprisingly short. Jerusalem is only about 75 miles from Nazareth and about 100 miles from Tiberias and the Lake of Galilee. Bethlehem, as I have said, is only a fivemile walk from Jerusalem, and Jericho is under 20 miles from the capital. An Illusion of Size That the smallness of Palestine should be a perpetual surprise to m<J is probably because the Bible is pervaded by an atmosphere of spaciousness. When Jesus turned His back on Nazareth" and went to Capernaum, I used to think that He had made a long journey; but "He had only walked to a place about 25 miles away. The wanderings of the patriarchs suggest tremendous journeys, whereas, in reality, they could probably' be packed into two or three English counties. When David stood on the hills round Jerusalem he could actually see the country of his enemies, the Philistines, about 20 miles off to the west. All the dynastic dramas and the inter-tribal strife of the Old Testament occurred in a region not much larger than the Highlands of Scotland. In the old days, it is true, the illusion of size was present because of the mountains and the difficulty of transport. Old-fashioned guide-books, printed before the war, when travellers went through Palestine on horseback, allow five or six days for a journey that can now be accomplished comfortably by car and over excellent modern roads in a day. The motor-car has, of course, revolutionised transport in Palestine. It has unfortunately killed the picturesque. long-distance camel caravans and caused the romantic desert khans, or inns, to fall into ruin and decay. Only a few years ago the pace of Palestine was that of a string of baggage camels doing an average of 20 to 25 miles a day. Goods once carried by camels from Bagdad to Damascus, and on to Jerusalem, are now borne by powerful motor-lorries, driven at top speed by Arabs who have no fear of death-