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​Should Rachel’s Tomb be Important to Christians?

I seriously question the accuracy of the Church of the Holy Nativity.  The site does not provide the necessary evidence and tangent sites the real birthplace of Christ would provide.  It should be very important to Christians to find the actual site of Christ’s birth because the real site would not only verify the Bible accounts, it would also help us understand the significances of the details of His birth.
 
If we question the accuracy of the birthplace of Christ, then we should also question the accuracy of one of the holiest sites in the Bible which is connected the birth site.  Bethlehem Ephrata became a special place for God’s people about 1,900 years before Christ’s birth.  The Matriarch of  Israel is buried in Bethlehem Ephrata.  In order to locate the actual birthplace of Jesus we must also find the actual burial place of Rachel. 
 
The account of Rachel’s death and burial are found in Genesis 35:16-21.  As Jacob was moving his family back to the land God had given His father, Rachel went into labor with her second son.  She gave birth to Benjamin a short distance from Bethlehem Ephrata.  She died giving birth.  For various reasons, Jacob chose to carry her body to Bethlehem Ephrata and bury her there by the road.  The English text says, “And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.”  The phrase translated “in the way” in the original Hebrew literally means “by the road.”  Rachel was buried by the road as it entered the village of Bethlehem Ephrata. 
 
After Jacob buried his wife and made a pillar to mark her gave, he moved his camp just beyond the Tower of Edar (the Tower of the Flock).  Again, the English text can be misleading.  It says, “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.”  The English version implies that Jacob moved a long way.  The word translated “journeyed” in the original Hebrew literally means he pulled up his tent pegs.  Before he moved, his camp was not necessarily where Rachel was buried.  More likely it was where she died.  Jacob went back to where Rachel died and moved his tents by the Tower of Edar.  The preposition translated “beyond” literally indicates a close proximity to the Tower of Edar.  If you have any questions about the Tower of the Flock (Tower of Edar) being in Bethlehem Ephrata, read Micah 4:8-5:2. 
 
Micah 4:8- 5:2 is a prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah.  The text indicates that the Messiah would be born at the Tower of the Flock.  The Mishnah indicates that this is where David was born and raised.  It also indicates that this is the place where the sacred Passover sacrifices were raised.  Is it a coincidence that the Messiah was born where the sacrificial lambs were kept?  Does not His birth at the Tower of the Flock foreshadow his death as the sacrificial Lamb of God?  
Not only would Rachel’s tomb have to be close to the Tower of the Flock, it would have to be close to place where Jesus was born.  The traditional Rachel’s Tomb in modern Bethlehem is almost 2 miles from the Church of the Holy Nativity.  This was a significant distance in ancient times. 
 
Please do not misunderstand my intentions in questioning the accuracy of the location of Rachel’s Tomb.  I realize that Israel has sacrificed lives, worked very hard, and spent much money to secure the traditional site of Rachel’s Tomb.  It is considered the second or third holiest site in Judaism.  Millions of pilgrims have journeyed to worship at Rachel’s Tomb in modern Bethlehem for almost two thousand years.  I realize that worship to God can occur anywhere and that having the correct archaeological site is not necessary for worship.  One of the dangers in archaeology is people tend to worship the artifacts that are found and forget the God of those artifacts.  Archaeology is not about the rocks or relics. It is about God.  If we ever loose site of worshipping the God of the “rocks” then Biblical archaeology has lost its purpose. 
 
With all respect to the traditional Rachel’s Tomb and the countless sacrifices that have been made for it, I feel it is vital that we scrutinize the accuracy of the site.  This site has significant ramifications in prophecy for Christians and Jews.

Rachel’s tomb is rarely even considered among Christians, yet it is one of the holiest sites to the Jews.  It is the tomb of their mother.  Romans 11 says that Christians are grafted into Israel.  We are Jews!  Rachel should be very important to us as well.  I will write more next week about Rachel’s tomb.  I believe we have under estimated the significance of it.  If we want to return to the practices and beliefs of the Early Church then we need to understand the significance of Rachel.
 
©  Dr. Steven L Smith 2016

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