Bethlehem

Birth of Christ

Micah 5: “1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.”

It was prophesied that the ruler of Israel woulf come from Bethlehem, and be of the tribe of Judah, and that He would be smitten. The prophecy in Micah also reveals, by necessity, that the ruler is Yahweh Himself, because it states that – while he is coming in the future – he is also one “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting”, which can only describe God Himself.

Slaying of Firstborns

Matthew 2:16 Then Herodas, seeing that he had been mocked by the magi, had been exceedingly angered, and sending he slew all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all of its borders from two years and below, according to the time which he exacted from the magi. 17 Then that which had been spoken through Ieremios the prophet had been fulfilled, saying: 18 “A voice was heard in Rama, much weeping and wailing; Rachel crying for her children. And she did not desire to be comforted, for they are not!”

There is no historical verification of this event, and especially in the pages of Josephus. For this reason many scoff, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. Bethlehem was a small pastoral community in the mountains about 10 kilometers south of Judaea. It was so small, that there is no archaeological evidence from the period which even can be used to verify its existence, so today the jews argue over whether it existed at all. There is no solid assurance that they are even looking in the right place. Some jews even claim that Christ was born at a different Bethlehem, in Galilee, an idea which flies in the face of Scripture. It cannot, therefore, be imagined that the population was very large. It may well be that, because of the relatively small population of this remote pastoral village, only a few dozen children perished in such an incident, if that many. Contrasted with the many other evil deeds of Herod, the murder of a few dozen children would hardly be worthy of notice!   Josephus says in Antiquities Book 15:

“since Herod had now the government of all Judea put into his hands, he promoted such of the private men in the city as had been of his party, but never stopped avenging and punishing everyday those who had chosen to be of the party of his enemies”.

When Herod secured power in Judaea, he put all of the principle men of the land to death, who were connected to the Hasamoneans (the Maccabees). Later, he murdered his own wife and several of his own sons. Not long before his own death, after a failed sedition against him, he again had all of the principle men of Judaea gathered into the Hippodrome, and had them all slain. This would have been right around the time of the birth of Christ, and surely would have been a distraction from any of his other misdeeds. Herod died in 1 B.C., only a little over a year or so after Christ was born.