Volume 1, Issue 1

AD, more then 300 years after Jesus’ birth. The two towns are Bethlehem south of Jerusalem and the nativity Bethlehem of the house of Judah located in Galilee a region of Judea under King Herod. Archeological investigations at both Bethlehems reveal that Bethlehem-Galilee was a thriving community from years before the birth of Yeshua until the Persian invasion of the Promised Land in the 7th century. Likewise investigations at Bethlehem south of Jerusalem indicate that it had last been a settlement of any significance around 1000BC and was not repopulated until hundreds of years after the death of Jesus. Another words around the time of Jesus’ birth there was no inn or town to place the inn at. So why does the bible seem to indicate that Jesus was born in Bethlehem south of Jerusalem not the real Bethlehem in Galilee? To answer that we need to look to the Hebrew and Greek texts that are the source. In Micah 5:2 the prophet prophesies about the birth of the Messiah. Most contemporary English translations read something like this “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah”. These English translations are based on the Messianic Version of the Jewish Scriptures., which was written around the year 1500 AD, a full millennia and a half after the birth of Jesus. This text was written by the descendents of the same people who successfully plotted to have Yeshua nailed to the stake the Pharisees. Is it accurate? Can we trust the authors?

Excavation of the Inn found at Bethlehem in Galilee.

Used with permission of Oshri Aviram.

The messianic texts were a redaction by the Pharisees of the most ancient and most accurate text of the Old Testament that we currently possess the LXX or Septuagint. The remnants of the Pharisees basically translated this ancient Greek version of the actual ancient Hebrew Scriptures into their dialect of Hebrew and customized it to fit their opposition to Yeshua being the promised Messiah.

Thus the important test of Micah was altered from its original wording as we can read it in the LXX, “And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, art few in number to be reckoned among the thousands of Juda”. The town of Bethlehem Micah was speaking of was not in the country of Judah it was a Town in which the house or clan or family of Ephratha settled in. Now who or what is Ephratha? Genesis tells us that Ephratha was a place that Jacob was headed for when his wife Rachael died. Genesis 35:19 “And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephratah, which is Bethlehem.” Now where is Rachael buried? The bible tells us that also in 1 Samuel 10:2 “When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah;”. So Ephratah is not located in the land of Judah but to the north of Jerusalem in the land of Ephraim on the border of Benjamin. The Bethlehem of the house of Ephratah is Bethlehem Galilee.

How do we explain that the books of Matthew and Luke clearly state that he was born in Bethlehem of Judea? Are the Gospels wrong? Over the years (cont.)