Not So Little Town of Bethlehem

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The traditional view of Bethlehem is that it was a quiet pastoral hamlet at the time of Jesus’s birth. Although much of its archaeology is hidden under the modern city, there may be reason to believe that it was actually a vibrant urban center during the Second Temple period. One such clue is the Lower Aqueduct, part of a major building project that conducted water directly through the heart of Bethlehem.

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Footnotes

1. See Jordan J. Ryan, “The Life of Jesus Written in Stone,” BAR, Winter 2024.

Endnotes

1. For more on Bethlehem during the time of Jesus, see my book Boy Jesus: Growing Up Judean in Turbulent Times (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2025), pp. 49–70.

2. Josephus likely equated polis with the Hebrew word ‘ir, which he understood as “fortified town” or “city.”

3. See David Amit and Shimon Gibson, “Water to Jerusalem: The Route and Date of the Upper and Lower Level Aqueducts,” in Christoph Ohlig and Tsvika Tsuk, eds., Cura Aquarum in Israel II: Water in Antiquity (Siegburg: DWhG, 2014), pp. 9–41, esp. 33–37.

4. For a detailed review of the Lower Aqueduct, including its course through Bethlehem, see Amihai Mazar, “A Survey of the Aqueducts to Jerusalem,” in David Amit, Joseph Patrich, and Yizhar Hirschfeld, eds., The Aqueducts of Israel (Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2002), pp. 210–244.

5. See Kay Prag, “R.W. Hamilton, D.C. Baramki and the Lower Aqueduct at Bethlehem,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 140 (2008), pp. 27–38.