Places of Section 6: Mountain of Judah and Shephelah:72. Bethlehem

72. Bethlehem - (Bayt Laham)

A multiple-facet vignette without continued walls illustrates Bethlehem. Beneath the red inscription, we can make out: the Nativity Basilica, shown conventionally connected to another building with a similar red slope roof, and a city-door with a tower.	Bethlehem (Gen 35:19), in the tribe of Judah, where our Lord and Saviour was born, at the sixth milestone from Jerusalem to the south, beside the road leading to Hebron, and where the tombs of Jesse and David are shown. And about a mile thence is the tower of Ader (Migdal Eder), which means "tower of the flock", which name by a sort of oracle gives a previous hint of the announcement of the Lord's birth to the shepherds. And near Bethlehem itself they show the tomb of Archelaus, once king of Judaea, which marks the beginning of the path leading off the main road to our cells. And also the son of Ephratha, that is, of Mary, was called Bethlehem, as is written in full in the Book of Chronicles. Read carefully the story. (Eusebius, Onomasticon 42:10-14; Jerome 43:18-45,5)