“Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” illustrated with notes, by James Tissot

The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ (La nativité de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ). By James Tissot. In the collection of the Brooklyn Museum (reproduction freely allowed).

Brooklyn Museum Commentary

Paying his usual rigorous attention to researching the settings for his interpretation of the narrative, Tissot places the episode of Jesus’ birth in one of the caves in the mountains in and around Bethlehem, a departure from visual tradition, which often locates the Nativity in a stable. Unable to find rooms in the town, Mary and Joseph take shelter here. In his commentary, Tissot explains the presence of animals who gaze upon the newborn Jesus by noting that shepherds often used these caves on cold evenings.

Although Tissot spurned the art-historical convention of the halo in his depictions of the Holy Family and the apostles, he endows the infant Christ with a glow that illuminates the face of his adoring mother, who clasps her hands in prayerful reverence.

Saint Luke 2: 6-7

FACTUM est autem, quum es-sent ibi, impleti sunt dies ut pareret, Et peperit filium suum primogenitum.

AND so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, And she brought forth her firstborn son.

Tissot’s Commentary

It will be well to say a few words about this town of Bethlehem where the first years of Our Saviour's childhood were passed.

Bethléem or Bethlehem is also known by the Hebrew name of Ephrata. These words mean the “House of Bread” and “the land or country.”

The Arabs give it another name resembling the first: for they call it Baif-Lahem, or the”House of Meat.”

The origin of this town dates from the most remote antiquity. Moses speaks of it in the 35th chapter of Genesis in connection with the birth of Benjamin, which took place, he tells us, when his parents had but a little way to come to Ephrath (which is the same as Bethlehem), Rachel dying immediately afterwards.

At the time of the Conquest of Palestine by Joshua, Bethlehem was, like Jerusalem, inhabited by the idolatrous Canaanites, and in the division of the conquered districts, it fell to the lot of the tribe of Judah.

The situation of Bethlehem, moreover, is most beautiful. Built on the crest of the mountains of Judea, about two leagues to the south of Jerusalem, its form is that of a crescent, one end of which is marked by the Wells of David, the other by the Grottoes of the Nativity. Between the two horns of the crescent stretches a fertile valley, the Wady-el-Karoubeh. The descent of this valley is very steep, and resembles a circus, with low, parallel walls, which keep the earth from sliding down, representing the tiers of seats. This valley presents a most charming appearance, clothed, as it is, with an abundant vegetation, in which vines, fig, olive and almond trees abound.

The view from the top of the plateau is bounded on the north by the Hill of Mar-Elias, and on the west by the Mountains of the Desert where St. John dwelt. On the east, Beit-Saour rises from the little hill where Ruth gleaned the ears of corn in the field of Boa, whilst beyond can be seen the sterile stony hills, called the Wilderness. Yet further to the east the rocks of Mount Moab stretch along like a wall, the base of which is bathed by the waters of the Dead Sea. On the south. Mount Herodion forms a regular cone, on the summit of which a few ruins indicate the site of the castle of Herod. It was here that the tetrarch was interred, and later, the Crusaders raised defensive works, hence its more modern appellation of the Hill of the Franks.

The Grottoes of the Nativity are a series of natural caves, extending for a considerable distance in the mountains, forming chambers connected with each other. As a matter of fact, shepherds, watching their flocks on the hills, availed themselves of these shelters in cold or bad weather, and it was in them that Mary and Joseph, finding no place in the caravansary, decided to take refuge.

The particular spot indicated by tradition is situated in the lower part of one of these caves, reached by two slopes, now converted into flights of stone steps.

Between the two sets of steps is a slight depression which tradition indicates as the spot to which Mary retired for the actual birth of the divine Child.

It was only after the birth that she carried Him a few paces further to a more commodious place, more sheltered from the cold, where it was possible to give the cave something of the semblance of a room.

There, says the legend, were some animals: an ox and an ass, but, however that may be, Mary found something there to serve the purpose of a crib, in which to lay her new-born child; this crib, or manger as it is generally called, is now preserved in the Church of Santa-Maria Maggiore at Rome, where it is visited and venerated by numerous pilgrims.

The place rendered sacred hy the hirth of the Saviour naturally became a goal of pilgrimage. The early Christians flocked to it in crowds. After the revolt of the Jews, under Barcocheba, the Emperor Hadrian had a temple to Jupiter erected on the Mount of Olives, on the very scene of the Ascension; a temple to Venus, on Golgotha: and one to Adonis, above the Grottoes of Bethlehem. Tliese three temples remained standing for one hundred and eighty years, thus providentially attesting the sites of these venerated sanctuaries, until the time when Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, replaced them with basilicas, in honour of Jesus Christ.

The Basilica of Bethlehem is still standing, and with the exception of the facade, which is hidden by massive buildings, is almost intact.

The interior consists of five naves, divided bv rows of columns with Corintliian capitals, which were probably taken from the ruins of the Temple of Jerusalem, which was doubtless the source of much of the material used in the basilicas of St. Helena, erected in an extremely short space of time.