"The Long Road to Bethlehem"
by Dan Betzer
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Hello again, this is Dan Betzer.   

It's Christmas week on BYLINE.   

>From Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 75 miles.  
That's as the crow flies. 

Today, on relatively good Israeli roads, the trip
is easy.  But for the couple who left Nazareth
2,000 years ago--she, pregnant and probably
riding a burrow and he, no doubt walking--the trip
was far, far longer.   

There was no straight line route, for to even
contemplate doing so would necessitate their
going through Samaria, through the canyon
between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.  
No self-respecting Jew would go that way.   

So, Joseph and Mary made their way east from
Nazareth, across that vast lowland that 1800
years later Napoleon would dub "the greatest
natural battlefield on earth."  The Valley of
Esdraelon--Armageddon.  

Their journey took them to the Jordan Valley
just south of the Sea of Galilee, then the river
road that led ever southward.  Five miles north
of the Dead Sea, Joseph led his precious Mary
west for six miles to the city of Jericho, where
they encountered the steep back slopes of the
Mount of Olives.   

Their upward trek started at over a thousand
feet below sea level.  When they came over the
top of the Mount, they could look down on the
majesty of holy Jerusalem.  The magnificence
of the Great Temple greeted their weary eyes. 
Still the journey was not done.    

Around the south end of the city, through the
Kidron Valley, past the Valley of Hinnom to the
road that led to Bethlehem, south another six miles.   

And, in Bethlehem, they came to the inn, where,
alas, there was no room.  Caesar Augustus' imposed
census had filled the town of David beyond capacity.  

There, beneath the inn, sequestered in the stable
with the animals, Mary gave birth to the Christ child.   

He Who was the Prince of Glory entered the world
of humanity as an infant, born not in a palace, but in
pauperage.  He became like us that we might become
like Him.   

It is without question the greatest story ever told. 

Dan Betzer here, and that's BYLINE.