Day Two Bethlehem and Shepherds' Field

September 12, 2008

Even though Bethlehem is only 3 miles from Jerusalem as the kingfisher flies (Iyad identifies every bird as a "kingfisher" no matter what species it is) the Separation Wall makes travel between the two cities very challenging, especially for Palestinians attempting to travel out of Bethlehem. We had no troubles at the Israeli check point and soon found ourselves standing on a plot of ground in the midst of what is called the Shepherds' Field on the slopes of a shallow, terraced valley.

The area is not really a field in the manner we might think of a field as grass or grain. Rather, after several thousands of years of continual human agricultural interaction with the dessert land old stonework terraces help prevent soil erosion for groves of olive trees and grazing ground for sheep and goats among them. The soil itself is composed of loose weathered and porous volcanic rock equally mixed with fine, ruddy dust. The valley floor and its slopes are swiss-cheesed with small openings to naturally occuring caves in which first century farm/ranch familes lived. The terraces towards the south rise gently toward the hill top town of Bethlehem. Odd to consider, perhaps, but the place we know as The City of David in the time of Jesus was a rural terraced warren of agricultural cave dwellers. Into such a humble dwelling came the Son of God.

Today the little town of Bethlehem spouts from the hill top as a small and dense collection of beige apartment buildings, beige shop fronts and beige city structures. Did I mention that things are beige? The stone tends to be from a common quary, and the buildings of New Jerusalem are the same. Turning from the south to the west while standing in Shepherds' Field, the slope of the valley obscures a direct view to Jerusalem which would be easily seen from the hillcrest town on that side. To the east is Herodian, the direction from which the stories tell us the Wise Men came at the request of Herod from within his mountain platue palace there.

The valley slope where we stood is called Shepherds' Field because of the belief that this is where the shepherds were with their flocks by night when heralded by the angel to go to Bethlehem, which they would have easily been able to see from where they stood and would have been a short walk to achieve.

Once in Bethlehem, as Virginia notes, we visted the Church of the Nativity and the Bethlehem Peace Center. We also visited the church built over the cave where John the Baptist is believed to have been born and yet another church chapel located within an ancient cave itself. The tour of area caves completed, one begins to understand just how important caves and cave sites would have been to the early church. Nearly every significant event associated with the life and ministry of Jesus is associated with a cave location. This goes for Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth as well.

In general, each cave site has about an 8' ceiling with a roughly circular shape anywhere from twenty to forty feet wide, depending on the cave. With herd animals penned in one side or another, the cooking area toward the back and the people doing most of their daily living and nightly sleeping toward the entrace of the cave, the overall arrangement is pretty cozy, especially considering the first century reality of extended families and rules of hospitality toward visiting strangers.

After returning to St. George's College in the evening, we had a chance for free time for about an hour and a half. I had the thought to guide some folks into the Old City to check out a really fine Armenian ceramic shop that I know. Even though tired, four game women hoofed it after me toward the Damascus Gate.

Okay. Do you remember that I mentioned that it is Ramadan? Well, Fridays (such as today was) are the Muslim sabbath day in the same way Sundays are for us. It happens that today is the second Friday of Ramadan. On this 12th day of the celebration, there are 18 more days to go. Muslims from all over the country side were literally bused in by the thousands today so that they could worship at the Old City mosque (on the Temple Mount). If you remember what Scripture says about Jerusalem being a particularly crowded place during the time of Passover as faithful Jews went to the Temple Mount to offer prayers, this day really gave me a sense of what that must have been like.

Israeli forces are so concerned about this particular day every year that multiple extra police patrols gate off all access to and from the Old City except by one route -- the Damascus Gate. In addition, only people over the age of 40 are permitted to enter the Old City. Every Muslim is subject to ID checks in order to enter.

So, there we were, our little group of five, attempting to enter the Old City through the Damascus Gate just at the very moment when 180,00 (the actual estimate from today's celebration) Arabs are trying to leave the city by the same pedestrian route. Talk about a sea of humanity! It was actually very awesome, even though we only got about 100 yards into the quarter before realizing the impossibility of getting any farther. If you can imagine trying to swim against a human rip tide, that might give you the feel of it. On the final Friday of Ramadan, the expected number of people who will come to the Old City to celebrate that day is estimated to be around 400,000.

Well go back next week. But it was fun and educational trying for it this time. One of our number even bought a scarf at one of the vending stalls we actually could get to.

Off to bed for another full day tomorrow!

Peace,
Pastor Rachel+