O little town of Bethlehem
A couple of weeks ago I disagreed with Michael Halcomb about dismissing the early extra-canonical tradition that Jesus was born in a cave. (His response is here, and my further one here.) I still wish to take the cave tradition seriously as possible historical evidence. I was therefore intrigued to come across (HT Jim West) this argument from Jerome Murphy O’Connor, which makes a detailed historical and archaeological argument from the cave tradition for Bethlehem as Jesus’ birthplace. (He is arguing against this piece by Steve Mason.) All power to his elbow.
December 27th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Thank you. This is a sensible argument for Bethlehem as the birthplace, and the same argument implies also the historical reliability of the virgin birth accounts.
You have been rather busy posting over the last few days. Not enough Christmas services to take?
December 27th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Not enough sleep in between them!
December 28th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
On the subject of the Church of the Nativity: Armenian priests reportedly came to blows with Orthodox priests over the cleaning of the Church after Christmas!
It sounds like this is an annual source of tension. This year the melee lasted fifteen minutes, and a couple of policemen were hurt trying to put a stop to it. *sigh*