Part 41 (1/2)

”Take me down from the a.s.s, for that which is in me presses to come forth.”

Joseph, replying, said:

”Whither shall I take thee, _for the place is desert_?”

Then said Mary again to Joseph:

”Take me down, for that which is within me mightily presses me.”

Joseph then took her down from off the a.s.s, and he found there a _cave_ and put her into it.

Joseph then left Mary in the cave, and started toward Bethlehem for a midwife, whom he found and brought back with him. When they neared the spot a bright cloud overshadowed the cave.

”But on a sudden the cloud became _a great light in the cave_, so their eyes could not bear it. But the light gradually decreased, until the infant appeared and sucked the breast of his mother.”[155:1]

Tertullian (A. D. 200), Jerome (A. D. 375) and other Fathers of the Church, also state that Jesus was born in a _cave_, and that the _heathen_ celebrated, in their day, the birth and _Mysteries_ of their Lord and Saviour Adonis in this very cave near Bethlehem.[155:2]

Canon Farrar says:

”That the actual place of Christ's birth was a _cave_, is a very ancient tradition, and this cave used to be shown as the scene of the event even so early as the time of Justin Martyr (A. D. 150).”[155:3]

Mr. King says:

”The place _yet_ shown as the scene of their (the Magi's) adoration at Bethlehem is a _cave_.”[155:4]

The Christian ceremonies in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem are celebrated to this day in a _cave_,[155:5] and are undoubtedly nearly the same as were celebrated, _in the same place_, in honor of _Adonis_, in the time of Tertullian and Jerome; and as are yet celebrated in Rome every Christmas-day, _very early in the morning_.

We see, then, that there are _three_ different accounts concerning the _place_ in which Jesus was born. The first, and evidently true one, was that which is recorded by the _Matthew_ narrator, namely, that he was born in a _house_. The stories about his being born in a _stable_ or in a _cave_[155:6] were later inventions, caused from the desire to place him in as _humble_ a position as possible in his infancy, and from the fact that the virgin-born Saviours who had _preceded_ him had almost all been born in a position the most humiliating--such as a cave, a cow-shed, a sheep-fold, &c.--or had been placed there after birth. This was a part of the _universal mythos_. As ill.u.s.trations we may mention the following:

_Crishna_, the Hindoo virgin-born Saviour, was born in a _cave_,[156:1]

fostered by an honest _herdsman_,[156:2] and, it is said, placed in a _sheep-fold_ shortly after his birth.

_How-Tseih_, the Chinese ”Son of Heaven,” when an infant, was left unprotected by his mother, but the _sheep_ and _oxen_ protected him with loving care.[156:3]

_Abraham_, the Father of Patriarchs, is said to have been _born in a cave_.[156:4]

_Bacchus_, who was the son of G.o.d by the virgin Semele, is said to have been _born in a cave_, or placed in one shortly after his birth.[156:5]

Philostratus, the Greek sophist and rhetorician, says, ”the inhabitants of India had a tradition that Bacchus was born at _Nisa_, and was brought up in a _cave_ on Mount Meros.”

_aesculapius_, who was the son of G.o.d by the virgin Coronis, was left exposed, when an infant, on a mountain, where he was found and cared for by a _goatherd_.[156:6]

_Romulus_, who was the son of G.o.d by the virgin Rhea-Sylvia, was left exposed, when an infant, on the banks of the river Tiber, where he was found and cared for by a _shepherd_.[156:7]

_Adonis_, the ”Lord” and ”Saviour,” was placed in a _cave_ shortly after his birth.[156:8]

_Apollo_ (Phoibos), son of the Almighty Zeus, was born in a cave at early dawn.[156:9]

_Mithras_, the Persian Saviour, was born in a _cave or grotto_,[156:10]

at early dawn.