DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0150
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
three convents —Latin, Greek, and Armenian—which surround it. The view is eirt with
Bible scenes. We see beyond the convents the bare wilderness of Judah creeping up almost
to the very foot of the ridge. But a belt of rich green intervenes, the cornfields of Bethlehem.
Here, probably, Ruth gleaned in the fields of her husband's kinsman. A little knoll of olive-
trees surrounding a group of ruins marks the traditional site of the angels' appearance to the
shepherds, Migdol Eder, "the tower of the flock." But the place where the first "Gloria in
excelsis " was sung is probably farther east, where the bare hills of the wilderness begin, and
a large tract is claimed by the Bethlehemites as a common pasturage. Here the sheep would
be too far off to be led into the town at night; and exposed to the attacks of the wild beasts
from the eastern ravines, where the wolf and the jackal still prowl, and where of old the yet
more formidable lion and bear had their covert, they needed the shepherds' watchful care
VIEW OF THE SHEPHERDS' FIELD, FROM BETHLEHEM.
Looking towards the east, the mountains of Moab in the distance.
during the winter and spring months, when alone pasturage is to be found on these bleak
uplands.
Looking a little to the north of the Shepherds' Tower we see the Well of David, a few
minutes' walk from the town—not a spring, but a large, deep, rock-hewn cistern into which the
water percolates (see page 134). There are narrow openings through which the supply can be
reached. When David exclaimed, " O that one would eive me to drink of the water of
the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate," he was hiding in the Cave of Adullam. We can
picture how, while the Philistines had but a small garrison in the town itself, and their main
camp outside to the north, David's men broke through the garrison and drew water from the
well without entering the Philistines' camp. All these and many another event in the story of
the shepherd-king pale before the event which the pile of masonry in front of us records—the
Saviour's birth. If it be not the exact spot, the error cannot be one of many hundred yards.
The Church of the Nativity is supposed to cover the site of the inn or caravanserai in which
our Lord was born. The Chapel of the Manger appears to have been a rude grotto hewn out
three convents —Latin, Greek, and Armenian—which surround it. The view is eirt with
Bible scenes. We see beyond the convents the bare wilderness of Judah creeping up almost
to the very foot of the ridge. But a belt of rich green intervenes, the cornfields of Bethlehem.
Here, probably, Ruth gleaned in the fields of her husband's kinsman. A little knoll of olive-
trees surrounding a group of ruins marks the traditional site of the angels' appearance to the
shepherds, Migdol Eder, "the tower of the flock." But the place where the first "Gloria in
excelsis " was sung is probably farther east, where the bare hills of the wilderness begin, and
a large tract is claimed by the Bethlehemites as a common pasturage. Here the sheep would
be too far off to be led into the town at night; and exposed to the attacks of the wild beasts
from the eastern ravines, where the wolf and the jackal still prowl, and where of old the yet
more formidable lion and bear had their covert, they needed the shepherds' watchful care
VIEW OF THE SHEPHERDS' FIELD, FROM BETHLEHEM.
Looking towards the east, the mountains of Moab in the distance.
during the winter and spring months, when alone pasturage is to be found on these bleak
uplands.
Looking a little to the north of the Shepherds' Tower we see the Well of David, a few
minutes' walk from the town—not a spring, but a large, deep, rock-hewn cistern into which the
water percolates (see page 134). There are narrow openings through which the supply can be
reached. When David exclaimed, " O that one would eive me to drink of the water of
the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate," he was hiding in the Cave of Adullam. We can
picture how, while the Philistines had but a small garrison in the town itself, and their main
camp outside to the north, David's men broke through the garrison and drew water from the
well without entering the Philistines' camp. All these and many another event in the story of
the shepherd-king pale before the event which the pile of masonry in front of us records—the
Saviour's birth. If it be not the exact spot, the error cannot be one of many hundred yards.
The Church of the Nativity is supposed to cover the site of the inn or caravanserai in which
our Lord was born. The Chapel of the Manger appears to have been a rude grotto hewn out