The Star

by Lucinda Walter

Title

The Star

Artist

Lucinda Walter

Medium

Photograph - Photography, Digital Art, Fine Art

Description

Photograph was taken at the Church of the Nativity in Bethehem, Palestine. A star marks the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ranks among the most important Christian Holy Places throughout the Christian World. Millions of Christians around the globe relate to this place through the One, Jesus Christ, who was born here. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. According to Luke 2:7 (in the traditional translation), Mary ￿laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.￿ But the Greek can also be rendered, ￿she laid him in a manger because they had no space in the room.￿
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Church of the Nativity
The Grotto of the Nativity, an underground cave located beneath the basilica, enshrines the site where Jesus is said to have been born. The exact spot is marked beneath an altar by a 14-pointed silver star set into the marble floor and surrounded by silver lamps. This altar is denominationally neutral, although it features primarily Armenian Apostolic influences. Another altar in the Grotto, which is maintained by the Roman Catholics, marks the site where traditionally Mary laid the newborn Baby in the manger.
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The Church of the Nativity is a basilica located in Bethlehem, Palestinian territories. The church was originally commissioned in 327 AD by Constantine and his mother Helena over the site that is still traditionally considered to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. The Church of the Nativity site's original basilica was completed in 339 AD and destroyed by fire during the Samaritan Revolts in the sixth century AD. A new basilica was built 565 AD by the Byzantine Empire, restoring the architectural tone of the original.[2] The site of the Church of the Nativity has had numerous additions since this second construction, including its prominent bell towers. Due to its cultural and geographical history, the site holds a prominent religious significance to those of both the Christian and Muslim faiths.
The site of the Church of the Nativity is a World Heritage Site, and was the first to be listed under Palestine by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[3] The site is also on UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.[4]
First century holy site (circa 4-6 AD - 327 AD)[edit]
The holy site, known as the Grotto, that the Church of the Nativity sits atop, is today associated with the cave in which the birth of Jesus of Nazareth occurred. In 135 AD, Hadrian is said to have had the Christian site above the Grotto converted into a worship place for Adonis, the Greek god of beauty and desire.[5][6] A father with the Church of the Nativity, Jerome, noted before his death in 420 AD that the holy cave was at one point consecrated by the heathen to the worship of Adonis, and that a pleasant sacred grove was planted there in order to wipe out the memory of Jesus.[5] Although some modern scholars dispute this argument and insist that the cult of Adonis-Tammuz originated the shrine and that it was the Christians who took it over, substituting the worship of God,[7] the antiquity of the association of the site with the birth of Jesus is attested by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr (c. 100 ￿ 165 AD), who noted in his Dialogue with Trypho that the Holy Family had taken refuge in a cave outside of town:
Joseph took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed Him in a manger, and here the Magi who came from Arabia found Him.(chapter LXXVIII).
Additionally, Origen of Alexandria (185 AD - circa. 254 AD) wrote:
In Bethlehem the cave is pointed out where He was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And the rumor is in those places, and among foreigners of the Faith, that indeed Jesus was born in this cave who is worshipped and reverenced by the Christians. (Contra Celsum, book I, chapter LI).
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Nativity

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November 19th, 2013

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