Day 7

Yesterday we were south of Jerusalem. We went to Herodium, a fortress palace of Herod the Great (he had a few palaces), and Hebron the traditional burial site of Abraham/Sarah, Isaac/Rebekah, and Jacob/Leah. We couldn’t see the Isaac/Rebekah side because that is controlled by the Muslims. They split the site so part of the building is controlled by the Jews and part by the Muslims. It is a very interesting dynamic. I picked up a Jewish pamphlet, which had some interesting Jewish mysticism in it, which said that Eve also was buried there, and it was the location of the Garden of Eden. I didn’t read that in my Bible. It made me laugh. We also went to Bethlehem, and now I’m going to ruin all the traditional Christmas plays. Stop reading now if you want to preserve your traditional views. In Luke 2:6, it says “while they were there”, which means Mary probably didn’t give birth the night they arrived in Bethlehem. Josephs’ whole family was from Bethlehem which means they probably weren’t alone while traveling. And when they got to Bethlehem they would have had family there. The word “inn” in verse 7 can also be translated “guest room” (it’s the same word that is found in “the upper room” discourse of Jesus of the last supper…which nobody translates inn). The stable would have been the warmest room/area of the house and the area that Joseph and Mary would have stayed in if the guest room(s) were already full which is way Jesus was laid in a manager. Now that your memories of cold and lonely baby Jesus are ruined, I’ll let you know that I still bought a nativity set (wise men included, even though they didn’t come until later). I did NOT buy the enormous one in the picture.