Bethlehem

According to Jerom , the Cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem, 1 believed by Christians to be the place where Christ was born, had been a pagan cult site. ‘Bethlehem ... belonging now to us ... was overshadowed by a grove of Tammuz, that is to say, Adonis, and in the cave where once the infant Christ cried, the lover of Venus was lamented’ (Ep.Iviii. 3). This attestation is fairly late, since the letter from which this comes is to be dated to 395. Eusebius does not mention any pagan veneration of the cave,3 and the absence of other specific patristic references to the fact has prompted some scholars to doubt whether it is true. In a recent study, Peter Welten has attempted to challenge the assumption that Tammuz-Adonis was worshipped here, arguing that there is no independent literary, numismatic, or archaeological evidence for any pagan cult in Bethlehem. Welten himself believes that Jerome was predisposed to thinking of the cave as being connected with Adonis because he knew of the Venus temple in Jerusalem.

Adonis · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Cave · Cult · Literature · Poetry · Veneration · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History