BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

O Little Town of Bethlehem?

Reassessing the Size of Jesus’s Birthplace

In December of every year, carolers around the world gather and sing Phillips Brooks’s treasured lyrics to “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” In the popular imagination, the birthplace of Jesus in antiquity is just that: a small country village nestled in the Judean hill country south of Jerusalem. But is this romantic view historically accurate?

In her article “Not So Little Town of Bethlehem,” published in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Joan E. Taylor traces the town’s history from the Iron Age through the time of Jesus. Identifying Bethlehem as “an important strategic location that commanded impressive views of the surrounding countryside and roadways,” she highlights a number of biblical passages that portray it as a crucial stronghold during the reign of David in the tenth century BCE and beyond.

She is careful to note, of course, that this does not mean it was still an urban center a millennium later, during the late Second Temple period; and yet there likewise is no evidence that it had shrunk to a mere village by this time. Taylor highlights the contemporary language used to describe Bethlehem—the first-century CE historian Josephus, for instance, calls it a “city” (Greek polis) rather than a “village” (kome)—and asserts that it was only in conjunction with the Roman devastation of Judea after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE) that it was reduced to a simple village.

How can we verify this perspective? Bethlehem’s archaeology poses a major challenge, as most of the site’s ancient remains are now covered by the modern city. Outside of a handful of salvage excavations over the past century and some limited archaeological work in conjunction with repairs being made to the Church of the Nativity, in general the area is largely inaccessible to archaeological work. Nevertheless, Taylor points out one key piece of evidence that may serve as a clue to Bethlehem’s size at the time of Jesus: its extensive water system.

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Such a system was essential for an urban center to flourish. It could “support military garrisons, provide fresh drinking water, facilitate irrigation, and supply local industries.” Thus, two major aqueducts—the so-called Upper and Lower Aqueducts—were built to conduct water from Solomon’s Pools, a series of reservoirs just southwest of Bethlehem, to Jerusalem several miles to the north. The Upper Aqueduct, probably built during the reign of Herod the Great (37 BCE–4 BCE), takes a nearly direct route to Jerusalem, skirting Bethlehem along its western edge. By contrast, however, the Lower Aqueduct, which was built earlier, takes a more circuitous route and passes directly through the heart of Bethlehem on its way northward.

The Lower Aqueduct is mostly cut or tunneled into the local bedrock, with additional sections built out of limestone. It likely was built during the Hasmonean period (164–63 BCE), with frequent upkeep over the course of many centuries—indeed, in the 16th century ceramic pipes were added, and the aqueduct was in use well into the 1940s. In Bethlehem itself, a low rock-cut tunnel conducted water nearly 700 feet through the eastern part of the ridge upon which the city was built. Its southern entrance is now covered over within the “Spring House,” a Mamluk-era structure known in Arabic as Al-Ain. On the northern side of town, the specific exit point is unknown, but it likely was just beside modern-day Manger Street. Pools at either end of the tunnel would have provided Bethlehem’s residents with fresh water. The southern pool, known locally as Bir al-Qana (“the waterway pool”), was located near the Al-Ain building, and served the community well into the 20th century.

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“The Lower Aqueduct,” Taylor observes, “was an incredible feat of engineering. Its construction was overseen by engineers and administrators who functioned under the direct authority of Judean rulers and local officials. It no doubt took considerable time and resources to build, but also created jobs for Bethlehem’s stonemasons, carpenters, and laborers.” She notes that direct access to flowing water was “an incredible luxury usually reserved for great palaces and cities”; and yet here we find just such access in the heart of the city. Consequently, we may need to reimagine the birthplace of Jesus not as a village, but as a flourishing Judean town with the infrastructure to support a large population.

For more on Bethlehem and the Lower Aqueduct, read Joan E. Taylor’s article “Not So Little Town of Bethlehem,” published in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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Subscribers: Read the full article, “Not So Little Town of Bethlehem,” by Joan E. Taylor, in the Winter 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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