"But on a sudden the cloud became _a great light in the cave_, so their eyes could not bear it. But the light gradually decreased, until the infant appeared and sucked the breast of his mother."[155:1]
Tertullian (A. D. 200), Jerome (A. D. 375) and other Fathers of the Church, also state that Jesus was born in a _cave_, and that the _heathen_ celebrated, in their day, the birth and _Mysteries_ of their Lord and Saviour Adonis in this very cave near Bethlehem.[155:2]
"That the actual place of Christ's birth was a _cave_, is a very ancient tradition, and this cave used to be shown as the scene of the event even so early as the time of Justin Martyr (A. D. 150)."[155:3]
"The place _yet_ shown as the scene of their (the Magi's) adoration at Bethlehem is a _cave_."[155:4]
The Christian ceremonies in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem are celebrated to this day in a _cave_,[155:5] and are undoubtedly nearly the same as were celebrated, _in the same place_, in honor of _Adonis_, in the time of Tertullian and Jerome; and as are yet celebrated in Rome every Christmas-day, _very early in the morning_.
We see, then, that there are _three_ different accounts concerning the _place_ in which Jesus was born. The first, and evidently true one, was that which is recorded by the _Matthew_ narrator, namely, that he was born in a _house_. The stories about his being born in a _stable_ or in a _cave_[155:6] were later inventions, caused from the desire to place him in as _humble_ a position as possible in his infancy, and from the fact that the virgin-born Saviours who had _preceded_ him had almost all been born in a position the most humiliating--such as a cave, a cow-shed, a sheep-fold, &c.--or had been placed there after birth. This was a part of the _universal mythos_. As illustrations we may mention the following:
_Crishna_, the Hindoo virgin-born Saviour, was born in a _cave_,[156:1] fostered by an honest _herdsman_,[156:2] and, it is said, placed in a _sheep-fold_ shortly after his birth.
_How-Tseih_, the Chinese "Son of Heaven," when an infant, was left unprotected by his mother, but the _sheep_ and _oxen_ protected him with loving care.[156:3]
_Abraham_, the Father of Patriarchs, is said to have been _born in a cave_.[156:4]