Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a small hill town about six miles south of Jerusalem in the territory of Judah, yet few places carry more weight in Scripture. Its Hebrew name, Beth-lehem ("house of bread"), proved fitting for the town that would give the world the "bread of life."

The town of Ruth and Boaz

Bethlehem is the setting of the book of Ruth. It was to "the house of bread" that Naomi returned from Moab, and there that Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz and was redeemed in marriage (Ruth 1:19; Ruth 4:11). Their great-grandson was David.

The city of David

Bethlehem was the home of Jesse and the birthplace of David, where Samuel anointed the shepherd boy as Israel's future king (1 Samuel 16:1, 16:13). For this reason it is repeatedly called "the city of David."

The prophecy and the Nativity

The prophet Micah foretold that from Bethlehem would come a ruler over Israel "whose goings forth have been from of old" (Micah 5:2). The Gospels record its fulfilment: Joseph and Mary travelled there for the census, and Jesus was born and laid in a manger (Luke 2:4–7), visited by shepherds and later by wise men from the east (Matthew 2:1–11).

Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the region, mentioned in the 14th-century BC Amarna letters as Bit-Lahmi. The Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional cave of Jesus' birth, was first raised by Constantine and Helena around AD 327 and rebuilt by Justinian in the 6th century — making it one of the oldest surviving churches in the world. It is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.