Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank south of Jerusalem; since the Oslo Accords it has been administered by the Palestinian Authority. In the Hebrew Bible it is where the matriarch Rachel died and was buried, the setting of the Book of Ruth and the home town of King David; Rachel's Tomb at its entrance has long drawn Jewish pilgrims. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke place the birth of Jesus there, though historians are divided on whether he was born in Bethlehem or Nazareth. Constantine commissioned the Church of the Nativity over the traditional site in the fourth century. John Cassian lived as a monk nearby, and Jerome spent over three decades there, completing his Latin Bible translation.

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