While the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem across the desert is only about 70 mile, scholars suspect that the route Mary and Joseph took was closer to ninety miles. Part of that route went through the Judean Desert. We headed to the desert before sunrise. As I looked at the desert hills today, I tried to imaging a very pregnant Mary walking through the sand and up and down the dunes to get to their destination.
In the morning, at sunrise, the desert was lovely.
The sand, the sunrise, the morning wind, the Bedouins and the Eucharist made this a highlight of the trip.
Beit Suhar
From here we traveled to Beit Suhar a village outside of Nazareth. We went to a local restaurant for a typical Palestinian meal. We watched our host place the vegetables and meat in an outside oven to roast while we enjoyed the town.
Beit Suhar has two important sites: the Field of Boaz where Boaz met Ruth; and the Shepherd’s Field where the Shepherds received the news of Jesus’ birth. Beit Suhar has two important sites: the Field of Boaz where Boaz met Ruth; and the Shepherd’s Field where the Shepherds received the news of Jesus’ birth.
Typical of our experience, there are two sites attributed to the Shepherds Field: one, Greek Orthodox and the other, Franciscan Catholic, 500 meters apart. We began with the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, and then we followed the foot path to the Latin Church of the Annunciation, the traditional site of the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary.
The red-domed Greek Orthodox church at the site known as Kaniset el-Ruat (Church of the Shepherds) is located at the site Eusebius marked as the place where the shepherds received the angel’s message in the third century CE..
The Latin Shepherd’s Field Chapel or The Sanctuary of Gloria in Excelsis Deo has a cave with a partly-enclosed roof to make a chapel. There are ruins of a 4th century church and 7th century monestary. Today there is a 10th century Chapel of the Angels beside the ruins. Paintings in the chapel show the angel’s announcement to the shepherds, the shepherds paying homage to Jesus, and the shepherds celebrating the birth of the Messiah. Adjacent to the 10th century chapel is a modern one built by the Franciscans in 1953.
The history or the area goes back to the Bronze Age when the Canaanites lived in caves in the area. Biet means place and Sahur means night watch, which was crucial for the shepherds. They were night watchmen.
The story of Ruth is told in the Old Testament book of the same name. It took place about 1,300 BCE, so this has been a special place since before then.
Beit Sahur was originally known as the “Village of the Shepherds.” This was a very special place as I imagined the shepherds, nomadic solitary people receiving this other-worldly message, and choosing to follow it.