This is what a nativity scene usually looks like.
But in this episode, we are going to check
the real scene of nativity
and find out that it's not quite the same.
(sheep bleating)
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(Rhoda) So, here we are at the Church of the Nativity,
right here.
The records go all the way back to the 2nd century
which show that already, in the 2nd century,
they believed this was the birth place of Jesus.
Remember when Jesus says:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God?
Well, if this is a giant door to the synagogue,
a place or a castle,
this little door would be the eye of the needle,
which is really cool.
They've got four confessions to this church.
They've got Roman Catholics,
Orthodox, Armenian, and Syriac Orthodox,
and they all live in this compound, the monks.
So actually, I read that they said
that the monks sometimes have fights,
like when they...
who gets to clean what.
And they even had to get Palestinian police
to intervene and stop the fights.
Like Shaolin monks fights? Maybe that's where it came from...
from Bethlehem.
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We are in the grotto in Bethlehem.
Right under the Church of Nativity,
in the middle of Bethlehem,
lies the cave where Jesus was in the manger.
They have excavations and archaeological evidence
that goes back all the way to the time of Jesus,
where they say this is the exact spot
where was the manger of Jesus.
And they would put the hay right here,
and they would place Him there.
And now, right over here,
is where they believe, according to tradition,
less archaeological evidence but more on tradition,
where Jesus was born.
But this is more tradition rather than archaeological evidence,
that this was the manger, right there.
That is archaeology.
So that's very cool.
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(no audio)
We are in the caves of St. Jerome.
This is the grotto where he translated the Bible
from Greek to Latin.
In this cave are also the tombs of the babies
that were killed by Herod the Great.
When he heard from the wise men that a king was born,
he ordered the murder of all the babies
from two years old and under.
So, according to tradition,
these tombs of the babies are right here.
We have two caves,
and that's the place they say they buried them.
Many tombs were carved in the rock,
and here we see many caves
that they look like they've been carved in the rock.
And inside the cave we see niches,
like little compartments,
and those were usually the places
where people were buried,
so here we see the same pattern.
This is not the only cave.
There are more of them underneath this place.
So, there's another right here,
and more right here.
We can see them through the windows.
♪ (music) ♪
Well, this is it for today.
But, in case you were wondering,
yes, we are in Bethlehem, which is in Palestine.
That means that we had to take a bus
and go through a security check point.
This check point is heavily guarded
by Israeli military,
and this area is surrounded by a very big wall.
From one side, the Israeli side,
the wall looks like nothing but a concrete wall.
But from the Palestinian side,
it is full of graffiti
and all kinds of writings.
And we came here with a church retreat.
A lot of the Arabic congregations of Israel
had gathered together in one place, in one hotel,
to worship the Lord, to study God's Word,
listen to sermons, and have fellowship together.
And it's been pretty exciting so far.
And Rhoda and I took the chance
to go to the old city of Bethlehem and explore.
So, today you have seen the Nativity Church in Bethlehem
where Jesus was born,
and Jesus was in a manger.
But next week,
we'll explore more of the city and some other places.
And we'll also share with you
something very interesting that we found
that the media doesn't show you about Palestine.
Very exciting stuff.
So, subscribe below to our channel
so you'll get notified when we release the next video.
And until then, have a wonderful week.
God bless you.
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