Nazareth to Bethlehem
Luke 2:4 indicates that Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to participate in a census. What kind of trip would that have entailed?
Nazareth is located in the hills along the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley. In the days of Jesus it was a small, back-water village. Archaeologists estimate it had a population of not more than 200 people, meaning Mary would have known everyone in town. It was located near a fresh-water spring that in later days became known as the place where the annunciation was made to Mary.
Mary’s well as it may have looked in the 1st century AD, by Vasily Polenov.
Bethlehem was located far to the south, in the region of Judah. It was also a small town, located on a hill about 5 miles south of Jerusalem. It was likely about the same size and population as Nazareth.
Aerial photo of Bethlehem, 1931.
There are two reasonable routes that Mary and Joseph could have taken to get from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The shortest route would have been to go directly south. This route would have crossed the Jezreel valley and then followed the ridge southward toward Jerusalem. This route would have covered about 70 miles. The drawback of this route was that it took travelers through the heart of Samaria, a region that was home to the half-Jewish Samaritans. In fact, this road passed between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim near Shechem; the Samaritans had built a temple atop Mount Gerizim that was a copy of the temple in Jerusalem. The Samaritan woman at the well that talked to Jesus even pointed to that temple, asking Jesus whether God should be worshiped there or in Jerusalem (John 4).
The alternative was to bypass Samaria on the east. This required traveling along a road that moved down the Harod valley to the Jordan valley on the east, moving south to Jericho, and then climbing up the road to Jerusalem. The drawback of this route is that it was closer to 90 miles in length. Also, the ascent from Jericho to Jerusalem was steep and passed through some rather rough country (this is where the Jewish man fell among thieves, to be rescued by the Good Samaritan, Luke 10). These two routes are plotted on the map below, which is adapted from the ESV Bible Atlas, map 101.
Possible routes taken by Mary and Joseph as they traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem; adapted from the ESV Bible Atlas, map 101.
The text does not state which route Joseph and Mary took. Either would likely have taken about a week. Incidentally, although it is common for artists to depict Mary and Joseph making this journey alone (see below), this seems highly unlikely. A woman as far along in pregnancy as Mary would surely have been accompanied by several female relatives to help her and assist in the birth, should that be necessary. Although these companions are not specifically mentioned in the text, it is nearly inconceivable that they were not there.
The Road to Bethlehem, by Joseph Brickey.
Awesome information. I am using it for a Christmas service on Sunday, December 26, at homes for the elderly site. The text is based upon Luke 2:1-20–the traditional Christmas account. Thanks for sharing.
Nice information on the distance of Nazareth to Bethlehem-thank you.
Thanks for the info. Great.
Feel happy to know more about the situation of Joseph and Mary might have faced to reach Bethlehem.
A woman as far along in pregnancy as Mary would surely have been accompanied by several female relatives to help her,it is nearly inconceivable that they were not there.
No,is is completely inconceivable that this journey took place in the first place.
The Monks who wrote all these impossible stories in the dark ages had no concept of just what it would really be like for a young girl ready to deliver a baby any day walking and maybe riding on a Donkey for a few miles everyday for over one hundred miles for ten to twelve days, maybe a little food and very little water, no sanitation means,no bedding to sleep on by the side of the trail.
No, these Monks who were directed to make up all these fictitious impossible stories spent too much time in the King’s wine cellars.
The journey described by Luke may not be so inconceivable as you think. We don’t know how far along Mary was in her pregnancy when she undertook the trip, nor do we know how long they were in Bethlehem before she delivered. They may have been in Bethlehem several days, or even weeks, before she went into labor. It is also a mistake to think that travel through that region was so difficult as you imagine (little food, very little water, no sanitation). People of that day traveled those roads regularly. Things like the distances involved, what was necessary to take along, and the places to stop were common knowledge. They weren’t exploring unknown regions, they were traveling well-established routes that had been in use for thousands of years. Finally, the Gospel accounts were not written by monks in the Dark Ages. There are numerous manuscripts of the Gospels that date to the 3rd century AD, and some as early as the 2nd century. This is centuries before the Dark Ages. If you are curious enough to learn more, I would recommend Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration, Oxford, 2005, or Kurt and Barbara Aland’s The Text of the New Testament, Eerdmans, 1989, or Philip Comfort and David Barrett’s The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts, Baker, 1999. Ignorance of these facts can be embarrassing in a discussion like ours.