February 13, Site #2

ST. JEROME’S GROTTO
The cave where Jerome translated the New Testament from Greek to Latin, around 400, is within the walls of the Church of St. Catherine. So also is his first tomb. His bones were later moved to the Church of St. Mary Major in Rome.

RACHEL’S TOMB / RAMAL RAHEL
Rachel was the second wife of Jacob; Jacob’s first wife was Leah, Rachel’s sister (Genesis 29:1-30). Rachel and Leah were actually Jacob’s first cousins, the daughters of his mother’s brother, Laban. Rachel bore two of Jacob’s male children, Joseph and Benjamin. Because Rachel was Jacob’s favorite wife, her sons were his favored children. When Rachel died Jacob buried Rachel here (Genesis 35:16-20) rather than in Hebron, the traditional burial place for his family (Genesis 23:17-20; 25:9; etc.) because Jacob’s first wife, Leah, was to be buried in Hebron. Jeremiah pictures Rachel as rising from the grave to weep over her children being carried to Babylonian captivity, never to return (Jeremiah 31:15). Matthew takes it instead as a prophesy of the “slaughter of the innocents” by Herod the Great (Matthew 2:18).

Matthew 2:13-23 (the slaughter of the innocents)
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”