Just Off the Highway

When you picture Bethlehem back in the days of the Bible do you see it off on a little country road, or next to a highway? And what about Herod's country palace, Herodium. How do you see the people getting there?

In my mind's eye I always pictured the travelers heading to Herodium turning off the main road before they reached Bethlehem. According to In The Footsteps of Jesus, by W. E. Pax, the only way to get to the town that serviced Herodium was through Bethlehem. I had no idea there was a town nearby. I also had the misunderstanding that Herodium was Herod's get-away palace. What I learned from W.E. Pax is that it was also an administration center for places south of Jerusalem. That was new to me.

After all these years of picturing Bethlehem as a quiet country town on a slow going road with a small inn for the few people passing by, my mind has to re-adjust how to picture this landmark town. And perhaps see a couple of the stories around the birth of Jesus in a new light.

Like, no wonder there wasn't any room in the inn. All the people coming in for the census plus the foreign business travelers going to or from Herodium would have left little room for a late arriving group.

Not only that, but to be honest, I thought the soldiers who did the killing of the children looked at it as going to a no-name town, killing babies and small children, and never having to return there again. Now I have to wonder, did the soldiers who killed the children also travel with Herod? Did they know these people? How difficult was it to then face the families each time they passed through town? What an ugly mess.

It's amazing how sometimes the small just-off-the-beaten-path places pack so much history. Bethlehem is one of those.