Welcome to the Bethlehem Guide. This guide will provide you with information about the different parts of the Bethlehem program presented by Santa Clara First Baptist Church.
Follow the star to get to Bethlehem! The program is at 3111 Benton St. in Santa Clara. You will be able to see the Star of Bethlehem shining over the city as you get close.
When Jesus was born, a star appeared over the town of Bethlehem, and it led Magi from the east to look for Him. There is much speculation as to what it was that the Magi saw. One possibility is a nova that Chinese and Korean astronomers noticed and recorded as a new bright star. It was visible in the year 5 BC and was recorded as being visible for around 70 days. A recent theory suggests it may have been a supernova. Whatever the case, we know that its appearance was significant enough to draw the Magi to Israel.
In the Bible, the book of Numbers predicts a star appearing over Israel when the savior is born:
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. — Numbers 24:17a
Bethlehem is a very old town. References to its existence go back almost 3,500 years. It was the birthplace of King David, the most celebrated of Ancient Israel’s kings.
Despite this claim to fame, Bethlehem was always an unimportant town. Its biggest claim to fame — being the birthplace of Jesus Christ— came about only because a Roman Census forced his parents Joseph and Mary to travel from their home in Nazareth to Joseph’s family home in Bethlehem.
The city of Bethlehem still exists, located about 5 miles south of Jerusalem. Despite its fame, it is still a small town, and its economy is mostly based on tourism.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” — Micah 5:2
According to the Bible, after Jesus was born, he was placed in a manger. A manger is a trough that is used by cattle and other animals to eat from. The manger is usually illustrated as being in a stable, but many scholars now believe that the manger was in a cave carved into the side of a hill. The story is recorded in the Bible in the book of Luke:
She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. — Luke 2:7
What happened next? After being born, the family eventually settled in the town of Nazareth. When Jesus became an adult, he started His ministry. He preached that God loves everyone, and that everyone can have eternal life by trusting in him. If you have questions about what Jesus did during His ministry, and what it means for you, ask one of the people in the big white tent. They will be happy to answer your questions.
Bethlehem was a small, rural town. There would have been many animals to watch. Shepherding was considered an unclean job, because shepherds lived and spent all their time around the animals. They lived outside the town, and when they went into town, people would avoid contact with them.
The shepherds were the first people to hear about the birth of Jesus. This is important, since Jesus’ birth is a gift to everyone, how better to demonstrate this than by having the city outcasts receive the news first! The story of the shepherds is told in the Bible, in the book of Luke:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. — Luke 2:8–20
Not much is known about the people from the east who visited Jesus after he was born. We don’t even know how many people came to visit. We assume that there were three since only three gifts are mentioned, but there could have been more. Sometimes they are referred to as the “Three Magi” or the “Three Kings.”
It is most likely that they were Magi, a group of people from Persia who studied stars. The Bible records that they noticed a new star, and people who regularly study the night sky (such as Magi) would be the first to notice a new star.
The star appeared when Jesus was born and by the time they reached Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph were living in a house. The full story is recorded in the Bible in the book of Matthew:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people”s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. — Matthew 2:1–12
Joseph and Mary were originally from Nazareth, a small town near the Sea of Galilee, located about 65 miles north of Jerusalem. The Roman census required everyone to travel to their family home, so Joseph was forced to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife. With others in town for the census, it would have been very difficult to find room. by the time Joseph and Mary arrived, there were no more rooms left, and the were forced to spend the night in a stable.
The inn is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Luke:
She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. — Luke 2:7
Bethlehem, at the time Jesus was born, was part of the Roman Empire. In order to determine taxation for a region, a census had to be performed, and they were performed on a regular basis, to guarantee that the correct amount of taxes was being collected. This particular census required everyone to return to the family home. This is how Joseph ended up travelling to Bethlehem with a pregnant wife.
The story of the census is recorded in the Bible in the book of Luke:
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. — Luke 2:1–5
The beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth began with prayer. “One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.” (Luke 3:21–22).
Jesus was wise enough to know that without the Father he could do nothing. He sought the Father in prayer. He waited in the Father's presence until He was filled with power. So He said to them:
When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. — Luke 11:2–4
We should follow their example and the example of church leaders throughout history who had a lifestyle of prayer.
Now we invite you to receive prayer from one of our counselors in our Prayer Tent. This is an intimate and private setting where you can experience God’s love and grace. Come expecting God to give you guidance and to change your circumstances. “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). The parable Jesus shared is not meant to depict an annoying disciple who finally pressures God enough that he chooses to respond, but about perseverance in prayer and waiting on God and his perfect timing.
Bread was the staff of life in the ancient world. Without bread, no meal was complete. The father of the house gave thanks, broke the loaf, and passed pieces around before anyone could start eating. Bread was so basic to life that it became an idiom for every necessity. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he told them to provide for their needs by petitioning the Lord: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11)
Women made bread every day from wheat or barley flour, salt, water and leavening — usually a bit of old dough to make the new dough rise. Unleavened bread eaten during the seven days of Passover to remind the Israelites that their ancestors had had no time to leaven their bread when they left Egypt. Baked on hot stones or in an oven, bread typically emerged as a round flat loaf about half and inch thick and up to a foot in diameter.
Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. — Proverbs 9:5
According to Genesis, soon after God created the earth, it “brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind” (Genesis 1:12). Many plants provided edible seeds and other parts. In biblical times, the common vegetables were beans, lentils, cucumbers, chickpeas, onions, leeks, and garlic. All were normally bought in the marketplace, where vendors sat on the ground surrounded by their produce.
…Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden… 1 Kings 21:2
The Bible names several different kinds of baskets. One was a common household utensil most often used to carry and store food. Another was used in harvesting grain, and a third to trap birds. A fourth one was sturdy enough to haul clay for the bricks. It was in this kind of basket that the severed heads of Ahab’s sons were carried (2 Kings 10:7) another term is used in Greek for the 12 baskets in which leftover bread was gathered after Jesus fed a multitude of people (Matthew 14:20). Still another Greek term refers to the large hamper in which the apostle Paul was lowered through an opening in the Damascus wall (Acts 9:25).
The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. — Jeremiah 24:1
In Biblical times, around the area of the Sea of Galilee (a large lake fed by the Jordan river) and the Mediterranean sea, fishing was a huge business and a way of feeding the people of the surrounding area.
Scribes in ancient Israel were learned men whose business was to study the Law, transcribe it, and write commentaries on it. The scribes took their job of preserving Scripture very seriously; they would copy and recopy the Bible meticulously, even counting letters and spaces to ensure each copy was correct. We can thank the Jewish scribes for preserving the Old Testament portion of our Bibles.
In Biblical times, spinners and weavers typically worked with wool taken from the family’s flocks. Many homes had a place set aside indoors for a loom. Besides producing yarn, spinners also combined strands of yarn to create strong, multi-ply cords.
Clay was so important to the Israelites that they used five words to distinguish the varieties. Artisans collected the finest clay from natural sources, such as river banks, and used it to make pottery, figurines, toys and molds for bronze objects in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 7:46).
A lesser grade of clay was manufactured by mixing soil and water with bits of vegetation as a binding agent. Builders used this material to make brick for houses, to plaster walls and ceilings, and to provide flooring. Firing clay in a kiln made the object durable and waterproof. In the Bible, the word clay is also used to illustrate man’s pliability in God’s hands (Isaiah 64:8).
The Dreidel Game is played at Hanukkah. The story of the dreidel begins when Jews were forbidden to study the Torah because of Emperor Antiochus’s rule, Jews used the dreidel as a way of studying. They pretended to be playing, but were actually praying and learning. The symbols of the dreidel mean “a great miracle happened there,” unless you are in Israel… then it means “a great miracle happened here!”
Seven metals are mentioned by name in the Bible: gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, bronze, and tin. By a process known as refining, or smelting, these metals were prepared and then formed into various objects. Prized for their beauty and rarity, gold and silver were used for decoration, jewelry, and money. The Bible often refers to cast metal images and idols, as in Judges 17:3–4.
Copper was mined and smelted in several areas in the Near East. When mixed with tin — which was imported from as far away as Spain — it became bronze, an alloy that is much stronger and more durable than pure copper. Copper and bronze were the chief metals from which the Israelites’ tools, weapons, and utensils were produced until iron was introduced about 1200 BC.
Known today as a copper and zinc alloy, the word brass may refer to any copper alloy when used in the Old Testament (Isaiah 48:4). Lead was often fashioned into weights and used for plumb lines and sinkers for fishing nets.
In biblical times man and woman of all classes wore jewelry. Archaeologists’ finds have included necklaces made of various metals or drilled beads, bracelets of gold and silver, earrings carved brooches, and ivory and bone pins. Both sexes wore earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Israelite women wore nose rings and sometimes ankle bracelets. Signet rings were used to seal documents and as a sign of authority.
For most people, jewelry would likely have been made of bronze or iron, but the rich could afford gold or silver. High priests and royalty adorned their garments with semiprecious and precious stones, sometimes set in gold filigree. In the Bible, Ezekiel describes the garment of the king of Tyre as ornamented with “carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald” (Ezekiel 28:13)
The grape harvest was a time of joyful celebration in the Holy Land. Men, women and children took to the vineyard, often accompanied by the sound of music and song, from late August to September to bring in the grapes. Vineyards usually were situated on hillsides, which were terraced, because the flatland were reserved from growing grains and legumes. Stones removed from the rocky soil were used to build up the terraces. The vines were staked above the ground on forked sticks in rows about four to six feet apart. At harvest time, some of the ripe grapes were eaten fresh from the vine, and some were sprinkled with olive oil and dried in the sun on rooftops to make raisins. Most of the gathered grapes, however, were taken to the winery and mad into wine.
Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. — Ecclesiastes 9:7
The identification of Jesus in the Gospels as a carpenter (Mark 6:3) or a carpenter’s son (Matthew 13:55) established the modest status of his family; men of rank did not practice such a trade. Nevertheless, the skills possessed by a good carpenter clearly were in high demand among the people of ancient Israel. Trees were scarce in the Holy Land, and wood was expensive. Apart from farm tools and furniture, the use of wood was restricted largely to windows, doors, and decorative trim in public buildings and large houses. Much of a carpenter’s work on public buildings involves intricate carving, a craft the early Israelites had little opportunity to master. For that reason it was necessary to import carpenters — as well lumber — from Tyre when David built his palace and Soloman his temple in Jerusalem. The lack of expertise had evidently been corrected by the ninth century BC, when carpenters repaired the temple during the reign of Joash, King of Judah (2 Kings 12:11). Carpenters were likely to have been among the artisans whose skills helped to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple when they returned from Babylon (Jeremiah 24: 1; 29:2).
The tools and techniques of a master carpenter were detailed in Isaiah 44:13–17. A passage in Proverbs relates that during the creation of the world, “when he drew a circle on the face of the deep…when he marked out the foundation of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker.” (Prov 8:27–30)
The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass. — Isaiah 44:13
Royal purple dye was the most expensive and most coveted dye in the ancient world. Perhaps because the Phoenicians guarded the recipe and the dye-making process so fiercely, myths surrounding the discovery of purple dye have proliferated for centuries. In one tale, Hercules discovered the source of the color purple during a shoreside walk, when his dog crushed a snail in his jaws, staining his muzzle a brilliant purple. Cloth dyed purple from the glands of the murex snail was worth its weight in gold and was usually worn only by royalty. Each spring and fall, when the seas were calmest, men scoured the seafloor along the Eastern Shore of the Mediterranean for the snail. Writing in the first century BC, Pliny recorded a recipe for making dye from the murex snail, which offers insight into ancient dyeing techniques.
Frankinsense, Myrrh, and Spikenard are all produced from plants. All are used for perfumes, incense, are ground, and used as oils. Traditionally, they are burned as powdered incense with charcoal in a small metal stand. They can be mixed with other spices, seeds and roots to create different aromas. Merchants bring them from the northeast as far as China and India and from the south as far as Africa. They are all very expensive. They are worth many shekels!
From Egypt to Mesopotamia, bricks were literally the building blocks with which early societies created the towns and cities that marked the rise of civilization. As opposed to wood or stone, which might not be readily available as building material, the mud and straw needed to make bricks were always in abundant supply. The process of brick making was relatively simple, if labor-intensive, and a good brick building would last for years in the arid climate of the ancient Near East.