our forefathers. i'm jon scott. >> i'm jenna lee, and thank you >> it's very critical that we believe in the virgin birth, because it is the virgin birth that preserved the sinlessness of christ. >> the message of the birth is a celebration of peace, of reconciliation in christ. >> jesus was born in a stable when caesar was in a palatine palace, running the world. the contrast, in other words, is set up immediately. >> "the birth of jesus" is next. ♪

♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah

>> for 2,000 years, christians all over the world have celebrated the birth of jesus christ with thankful prayer and joyful song. "peace on earth, good will to all" is a very simple christmas message, and it's at the heart of jesus' teachings. hello. i'm jon scott. welcome to this fox news channel special presentation. behind me is bethlehem, where jesus was born. coming up on this program, a very special guide will take us on a tour of the church of the nativity. we'll travel to nazareth village to see a re-creation of life at the time of jesus. then to jerusalem. archaeologists will show us how they tell a fake from a find. and we'll find out why many religious leaders are angry about a best-selling book. they're calling it an assault on christianity's basic beliefs. but first, faith and fact. what do we know about the birth of jesus, and how do we know it? ♪

the books of the old testament, or hebrew bible, had been in circulation as oral histories for 1,000 years before the birth of jesus. they were pulled together as a whole in the second century, before the christian era. in the same way, the sayings and stories of jesus were first passed down and preserved by word of mouth. >> and it's one of the great mysteries of church history that we don't always know exactly how they spread. >> archaeologist jonathan reed and biblical scholar john dominic crossan are co-authors of "excavating jesus" and "in search of paul." >> we do not know who actually wrote matthew, mark, luke, and john. those are names attributed to those writings in the second century. but very, very early, they were written down, and the sources for the gospels can be dated around the '50s, so that's within 20 years. >> there are no first editions of the gospel. the originals were lost, worn out, or destroyed. what does survive are just scraps of papyrus written in greek, in coptic.

>> i was surprised when i went to study the beginning of the christian movement in graduate school, and my professors had file cabinets full of gospels of which i'd never heard. >> elaine pagels, professor of religion at princeton university, author of a book on the gnostic gospels. >> these texts belonged in a monastery library. they were copied and loved and read by the monks. but in the year 367, the archbishop of the great city of alexandria sent a letter out to the monks, and he said, "you can keep 27 of them." the other books that he told them to destroy were hidden. >> the gnostic gospels and their stories about jesus remained hidden for nearly 1,600 years. they were accidentally discovered by an egyptian farmer digging for fertilizer. over the centuries, other stories were written about jesus. they were known as the apocryphal gospels. and surprising to many, there is another book that tells about jesus. >> the story of jesus and his virgin birth is there in the qur'an. >> amir hussain, professor of

religious studies, california state university. >> and muslims believe, just like christians do, that jesus was born to mary, who was a virgin, and mary, interesting enough, is the only woman who's mentioned by name in the qur'an -- in fact, she is mentioned more by name in the qur'an than in the new testament. [ men singing ] >> of the four new testament gospels, only two feature the nativity story. the gospel according to luke tells of the roman emperor augustus caesar's census and the journey from nazareth to bethlehem and jesus' birth, where he is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn. but in the gospel according to matthew, there is no mention of a census, a journey, an inn, or a manger. joseph and mary are already living in bethlehem. and some details in matthew -- the star, the magi, herod's massacre of the innocents -- are not mentioned in luke. for many, the details and the differences in the gospels just

don't matter. the questions are resolved by faith. >> we are evangelical protestants, and here we really. i believe that the angel came to mary and that angels celebrated christ's birth outside of bethlehem. >> dr. erwin lutzer is the senior pastor of the moody church in chicago. a newsweek magazine poll of american christian adults finds 75% agree with pastor lutzer and believe the christmas story is historically accurate. >> the point is if jesus is who he claimed to be, namely the son of god, and if he came to prove that he was the son of god and to die for us, then these miracles become very believable. >> the nativity stories are pure parable, and the function of a nativity story is to give you, in sort of a summary form, the destiny of this child. >> john dominic crossan believes

the gospel writers' motives were not to document jesus' life and works as history but to make them meaningful in a world of competing theologies. >> when matthew is going to have jesus give a sermon on the mount, he's going to model him on moses, even as he is being born. so as moses was almost killed by the evil pharaoh, jesus is going to be almost killed by the evil herod. >> the number-one message from roman imperial theology was that the emperor was divine and that the emperor had a divine right to rule. >> and reed takes note of the symbols caesar used throughout his empire and how they were seized by the new christian religion. >> after julius caesar died, halley's comet flew over the sky in rome, and his adopted son, augustus, proclaimed, "that is, in fact, my father. julius caesar -- it's his soul ascending into heaven." and caesar augustus used that

star on all of his coins. and so when you say in a nativity story that the real star is, in fact, over a manger in bethlehem and a little peasant jewish boy is the savior and lord of the universe, that is a dramatic counterclaim to the message of roman imperial theology. >> i think these details become food for thought. i also agree with the expression "the devil is in the details." >> reverend a.r. bernard is the pastor and founder of the christian cultural center in new york city. >> to me, the birth of jesus is the miracle and mystery of the incarnation of god. we're taught to question. we're taught to think things through. but we're taught to never allow these discussions to take away from the basic faith, 'cause that's what it is. it's a matter of faith. [ men singing ]

>> next we travel to what was once a humble peasant village -- jesus' hometown of nazareth. we'll visit an authentic re-creation of a first-century village to see how the carpenter's family lived day to day. but first, after this break, stories that were banned from the bible -- fascinating and even shocking tales about jesus, mary, and joseph. >> ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah >> ♪ hallelujah

>> the church of the annunciation here in nazareth is the traditional site of the virgin mary's home and the virgin's cave. the gospel according to luke tells us it was here that the miracle of jesus' birth began.

luke writes that the archangel gabriel appeared to mary and told her that she had been chosen to be the virgin mother of the son of god. but there is nothing else written in the gospels about the lives jesus and his family led here in nazareth. with so little information about jesus' boyhood, early christians were curious, and, in response, ancient authors invented stories to fill the gaps. together, these became known as the apocryphal gospels, discounted long ago but still read today. >> the apocrypha have that wonderful story of how the suitors for mary were asked to come to the temple with their staffs, and then they left them there overnight, and the staff or the rod that would flower -- then that man would be the husband of mary. and, of course, the only staff that flowered was joseph. >> father joseph chorpenning of the st. joseph university in philadelphia is a leading historian in the catholic

church. >> one of the purposes of the apocryphal gospels was to provide the details that christians wondered about the lives of jesus, mary, and joseph. >> the stories in the apocrypha, particularly about a young jesus, proved to be very popular and were treated like dime-store novels. >> one very, very interesting book, actually, is the infancy story of thomas, and it's a marvelous story because it starts to imagine what must it be like for god to be a child, as it were? and in the one sense, it starts off like dennis the menace -- sort of a divine brat. so, you can see he starts off really awful. if anyone annoys him, he just knocks them dead. >> other stories depicted joseph as a 90-year-old widower with several children or an incompetent carpenter whose mistakes in woodworking were miraculously repaired by the power of jesus. >> it's like the education of god as a child growing up. by the end of the story, in the infancy gospel of thomas, he has

got his power and his wisdom under control, and he's ready to use it only for good. >> so why are the everyday lives of mary and joseph shrouded in mystery? joseph virtually disappears after the christmas story, leaving early christians free to depict him as they pleased. >> if you look at christian art, joseph is invariably portrayed as an elderly gentleman. >> frank peters, a former jesuit priest, teaches religion at new york university to christians, muslims, and jews. >> joseph is written out of the story to preserve this virginity thing. not only is there a virgin conception of jesus, but that mary continued to be a virgin after the birth of jesus, which means you can't have brothers and sisters, right? >> yet the gospels according to matthew and mark clearly mention jesus as having brothers and sisters. to some church bodies, it's not an issue. after the virgin birth, mary and joseph had a conventional family. professor peters, a former priest, says roman catholics have wrestled with the question.

>> that word "brothers" is sort of problematic in the light -- this is this question of dogma driving -- driving interpretation again. so, what we have is the greek word "adelphos," which the primary meaning is "brothers." anybody looking at that text and seeing, "are these not the adelphoi of jesus?" would say, "are these not the brothers of jesus?" >> the apocryphal gospels tried to clear up the mystery by presenting the brothers and sisters of jesus as simply the children of joseph from a first marriage, but the apocrypha and the catholic church don't always agree. >> it is the belief of the church that mary remained a virgin after the birth of jesus -- the doctrine of mary's perpetual virginity. the brothers and sisters of jesus referred to in the gospel were his cousins. >> but that's piety driving the interpretation of the thing so that "adelphoi" is translated, for example, in traditional catholic circles, it's understood as "cousins" rather than "brothers."

>> questions about joseph's age and the brothers-versus-cousins debate have created a dilemma for some believers over the virgin birth. >> i think it's very critical that we believe in the virgin birth because it is the virgin birth that preserved the sinlessness of christ. >> in the early church, the primary concern was really on jesus' divine origins and on the virginal conception and birth. >> when you look at the gospel stories, especially the christmas stories, you can see that there's a concerted effort to make jesus competitive with the other deities. >> jonathan reed sees parallels in the stories of jesus' virgin birth and that of caesar augustus. >> you have a whole set of stories about caesar augustus, who was proclaimed divine because his mother, atia, slept with apollo. and so in the gospel stories, you have the virgin birth that competes with that. there are some scholars who want to deny the virgin birth, and

they say that we can go into paganism and find accounts of miraculous births. for example, you often have the gods having sex with a woman. that's reprehensible. >> jesus was born in a stable when caesar was in a palatine palace, running the world. the contrast, in other words, was set up immediately. >> when you read the gospels, it's very clear that the gospels are not written to record history. they're trying to tell a story in such a way that's believable, that's acceptable, that's enticing. >> when we come to the new testament, we have a decision to make. are we going to accept it as it is written, or are we going to look for some clues to disbelieve the miracles that are on its pages? >> stay with us for more on "the birth of jesus."

>> when jesus began his ministry and first met those who would become his disciples, one of them asked, "can anything good come out of nazareth?" the bad reputation was attached to jesus' hometown because it was a backward peasant village at the time known for its lack of culture. turns out this little town would have much more importance in world history than anyone might

have thought. here now, a look at a day in the life of nazareth at the time of jesus. modern-day nazareth is predominately an arab city. today you'd hardly know this as the place jesus grew up. but right in the center of town stands a small village built to show what life was like at the time of christ. >> this is how, really, the majority of the people lived in palestine in the first century. there was no middle class. you either lived very, very well, like the people in sepphoris or in caesarea or in jerusalem, or else you lived like most of the people here -- simple peasant existence. >> anthropologist joe zias is a former senior curator for the israel antiquities authority. he spent the last 40 years investigating ancient life in the holy land. >> the peasants, which most of the people were, made their living off the things like we see before us -- the sheep, the goats, the olive trees, the vineyards. >> growing up nazareth, jesus probably had daily chores to help his parents. >> kids didn't go to school then.

i mean, for a young boy, first of all, you got up at the crack of dawn. you probably were out there with the sheep and goats. if you weren't out there with the sheep and goats, you were working in the harvest. people worked from sunup to sundown. >> in the first century, the closest thing to a modern convenience was this. >> here we see an olive press. olives in antiquity, even today, are a very important part of the economy here... >> wow. >> ...of the peasants. >> so, in its day, this had to be pretty high-tech. >> this was probably about as high-tech as you could find in these peasant villages. >> as high-tech as the olive press was in the first century, "low-tech" easily describes another important enterprise. so, this was the wine press? >> yes. up above us is where the vineyards were. once the grapes were picked, they were brought down here to this treading vat. they were simply tread upon. >> as we know from reading the new testament, wine was a popular beverage. you got the whole family out here, the extended family.

people took turns, and what happened was that then the juice, just simply by gravity, flowed down into this pit and then was put into storage jars, and then it was stored and made into wine. >> these towns were very self-sufficient. >> yeah. that's pretty much the state of affairs for peasants. they make their own pottery. they make their own carpentry. >> as a carpenter by trade, joseph and his apprentice, jesus, would have worked with tools like these. >> these are some of the items which are being manufactured, and here -- this is something which is used... for... >> to crush. >> exactly. exactly. and a lot of things -- for example, the olives, the chickpeas -- have to be crushed. another thing which we find here -- this is the sandpaper of antiquity. this is just simply basalt. and what they will do is they'll go and take something like this here, and when you want to give this a nice, smooth edge to it... >> hmm. >> ...this is the process which was used. these are the drills of antiquity. >> the cordless drill. >> exactly. >> well, it does have a cord, i guess. >> [ chuckles ]

and that was how holes were made for the carpenter back in antiquity. here we see some of the implements which were probably manufactured in the carpenter's shop. we see a ladle here. we see a nice heavy wooden bowl, and these things here... probably would last forever. i'm certain they'd last a family for a generation. >> for mary, housekeeping and cooking must have been a real challenge back then. >> this place had to be swept all the time, because you don't want vermin running around here, and, just simply, this is a palm frond. >> and what do we have here? >> this is how cheese, butter was made. this is simply an animal skin, and what happens is the milk is placed in here, and what it is -- it's a butter churn. >> mm-hmm. >> very, very effective. and you have a kid here, and his job is just simply swing this thing back and forth, and in time, in an hour or so, you'll have butter. >> inside this dwelling, it's a first-century version of "this old house." so, this was sort of a living room/dining room? >> yes. this was the room where,

first of all, you know, the food was prepared outside there, in the kitchen, and the floors here are just simply beaten earth, maybe a little bit of plaster, small wooden tables, something to sit on. you know, it doesn't rain here for nine months, and during those three months when it rains -- december, january, february -- you have to collect as much water as you possibly can. so what this is -- these are simply collecting the runoff. the water is coming down on the hillside here. this is a catchment system. all the water now filters down to the bottom here, and now the clean water simply overflows and goes into the house. the water then is taken from this well here, and then it's placed in these receptacles throughout here, and these are the areas which are used for cleaning the fruits and vegetables prior to food preparation. these are the type of lamps which jesus would have used. this is what these houses were lit by. these things are made out of ceramics. >> and for basic refrigeration, they went underground. >> what they've done here is that they've taken the soft

limestone, they've carved it out, made it into a subterranean storage facility. it's very soft, very easy to work, and it's very, very practical, particularly during the summer months here, when it's so hot. these places are very, very cool. >> so, in jesus' day, this would have been a typical road? >> these were the typical paths which connected village to village and house to house -- muddy during the winter, very difficult, stony. on the other hand, you know, the romans had over 80,000 miles of paved roads in the roman empire. >> but nazareth didn't get one of those. >> nazareth never had one, probably until centuries and centuries later. >> life in the first century obviously wasn't easy. today the trip from nazareth to bethlehem takes just a few hours by car. mary and joseph would have needed a week or more on the road. coming up, a very special tour of bethlehem, plus you'll be amazed at some of the archaeological finds and fakes

we dig up. and you'll find out why a best-selling book has religious leaders worried. but first, the latest headlines from the fox news desk. >> ♪ hallelujah

>> ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ hallelujah >> welcome back to our special presentation. i'm jon scott. archaeologists dig and sift the earth, looking for artifacts that will teach them about life in the past. here in the holy land, they have yet to find something inscribed "this was jesus' cup" or "jesus slept here." now, there have been significant finds. the problem is there have also been incredible fakes. a cave belonging to john the baptist, an ossuary, or burial box, that once held the bones of jesus' brother -- the recent news of these discoveries startled archaeological and religious communities. but are they real? today the cave and the ossuary are viewed with more skepticism than confidence, in part because there's a long history of

forging artifacts in the holy land. deep in the basement of the israeli antiquities authority, a storeroom right out of "raiders of the lost ark." joe zias took me to see priceless archaeological treasures and bogus archaeological trash. >> here we see this decanter with inscriptions going all the way around it. but what it is -- it's just simply a jumble of letters. it means nothing -- nothing whatsoever. >> these fakes were made to be sold to unsuspecting tourists. other more elaborate techniques are used to fool professionals. >> go and take, for example, this decanter here, okay? this decanter here, which is from what's called the iron age -- it goes back approximately 3,000 years. this is authentic, okay? now, what will a forger do? a forger then will go and put an inscription on this, and that's where you get fooled. >> inscriptions add great value to an artifact, especially when the name can be tied to a biblical character. >> they'll take an object which maybe costs $200 and add a name or two to it, and the value now

will increase to $2 million. >> zias then took me to the israel museum to see inscriptions on some of their most prized finds. >> this is one of the remarkable finds from caesarea. what we see here is the actual inscription mentioning not only pontius pilatus but mentioning the emperor tiberius. >> this inscription was found purely by chance. archaeologists turned over a large slab that was being reused as a seat in this grand outdoor theater, and there it was. and the irony here is that the guy who presided over the trial of jesus -- the only inscription bearing his name winds up as a theater seat. i mean, people were sitting on it for hundreds of years. >> it's one of the ironies of history. what do they say? "vanity of vanities." >> so, what's this? >> this is the ossuary of the high priest whose name was joseph caiaphas. he was the one that said, "it's better that one man should die than a whole nation should suffer." >> so, his bones ended up in

this box? >> correct. >> the pontius pilate and caiaphas inscriptions are authentic, but names alone don't prove a thing. and what do we have here? >> well, we have two ossuaries. the first one here says, "judah, son of jesus." the one there in back says, "jesus, son of joseph." >> nothing relating, though, to the jesus of nazareth in the new testament? >> no. in no way whatsoever. these are just simply very common names which you find recurring again and again on ossuaries. >> not long ago, an ossuary was found inscribed, "james, son of joseph, the brother of jesus." with those three new testament names on it, some experts first thought it had to be authentic. >> i think that there was no doubt that the ossuary by itself is authentic. the inscription is the main question. >> yuval goran was part of the forensic team called in to authenticate the ossuary. close examination showed the inscription was forged. so, you think the inscription is

a fake? >> we found out that the inscription was freshly cut through, though, a general patina. there is, of course, a police investigation. >> other inscriptions were found in a cave outside jerusalem. the archaeologist who excavated the site claims it was used by john the baptist. >> i don't believe that there's any connection between this cave, which is a water system from the iron age, with john the baptist. >> uzi dahari is deputy director of the israeli antiquities authority. there's a face on the wall. there are crosses on the wall. does that -- does that suggest... >> no. it's one bedouin or another went there to make this kind of drawing, which can be found everywhere in israel and everywhere in the world. ♪ >> joe zias also took me to a well-known site in jerusalem -- absalom's tomb. absalom was a son of king david and is infamous for, among other

sins, trying to overthrow his father. this is amazing. so, how'd they build this? >> well, as you can see, this was built out of solid bedrock about 2,000 years ago. >> so, jesus would have seen this? >> yeah, jesus would have seen this prior to his crucifixion. for hundreds of years now, people believed this was absalom's tomb, and what do they do? they stone it. muslims, christians, and jews, pilgrims as they come by here -- for hundreds of years, this has been a jerusalem tradition. >> but zias is sure the stone-throwers had it wrong. his proof? inscriptions that suggest it's not absalom but people close to jesus' life who were buried here. so, what does the inscription say? >> above the door, where it should have been, we found an inscription that says, "this is the tomb of zechariah, the pious martyr, the father of john." now, who's the john? it's obviously, in this context, john the baptist. the inscription is in greek, and it's dated probably no later than 350 a.d. >> next to that is the oldest

new testament inscription ever found -- part of a verse from the nativity story of luke about simeon, the old man who held the baby jesus. you've seen the inscriptions. in fact, you discovered them. how do you know they're authentic? >> well, that's a good question, because, unfortunately, we're living in an age of forgeries. there's so much of it on the market. but here's our inscriptions, which were there almost 30 feet in the air. it's impossible to go and forge something like that today. >> a forger would want to forge something that he could sell, and you cannot sell something this big. >> that's a good point. yeah. there's no way -- again, this is up there -- it's been up there for the last almost 1,700 years, and it'll always be there. >> like absalom's tomb, christianity has survived a variety of assaults over the centuries. these days it's a best-selling book that has many christian leaders angry and upset. that story next. >> ♪ hallelujah, hallelujah

>> ♪ hallelujah

♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah >> under those golden domes, a russian orthodox church dedicated to a woman whose name has been venerated and vilified for centuries -- mary magdalene. today her role in the life of jesus is at the center of debate more than ever. ♪ >> the heart of the book "the da vinci code" is the idea that leonardo da vinci was a member of the priory of sion, this group that new that jesus was actually married to mary magdalene. but because of the pressure of the church, they have to communicate it in codes because no one could come out and actually say that this was the case. >> pastor erwin lutzer is author of the book "the da vinci deception." >> i believe that dan brown's book is a very direct assault against the christian faith, and the reason is because it attacks

the two doctrines that are most important to christianity -- first of all, the reliability of the new testament and the deity of jesus christ. and as a result of what he has done, people are reading it and believing it. >> one way dan brown hooks his readers is by weaving in historical facts. he points out how the catholic church -- more accurately, pope gregory -- in 591 a.d. smeared mary magdalene by labeling her a prostitute. >> and they said she was a prostitute. all of these were putdowns. the modern, contemporary putdown is "she's mrs. jesus," or his mistress. >> again, brown, in his novel, comes and says, "no, she wasn't a prostitute. she was jesus' lover and wife." in each case, they're sexual roles. i'm not a theologian, so i don't get upset in the way that a theologian might. i mean, it's a fiction thriller. what is the problem with that? >> dan brown says that everything within it is accurate. and so this has caused a tremendous amount of confusion. the book says that when leonardo

painted his last supper, sitting to the right of jesus is not john the apostle, as art historians have believed for centuries, but rather sitting to the right of jesus is actually mary magdalene. and then there is no cup on the table. there's no chalice. >> according to the novel, these are major clues in da vinci's painting that mary magdalene was not only an apostle but the head of the church. elaine pagels disagrees. >> i happen to see john through leonardo's eyes an that painting. for example, look at his painting of john the baptist. you'll see that the painting of john the baptist has a face that you would think is a woman's face. the body, which is partly naked, is clearly a man's body. it seems to me that's the kind of men that leonardo liked. >> dan brown also bases his carnal theory about jesus and mary magdalene on what was written in the ancient texts

known as the gnostic gospels. >> i was told, as we all were, that these were heresy. they couldn't be the real gospels. they had to be bad gospels, heretical gospels, fake gospels. >> it's one of those books, the gospel of philip, which is at the heart of the controversy. >> the gospel of philip has the following words. and then the text breaks, and you never know. and the text goes on to say that the other disciples were somewhat jealous, and they said, "why do you love her more than all of us?" >> is this account reliable? the gnostic gospel of philip was actually written in syria in 250 a.d. -- that is, 200 years after the time of jesus. dan brown fills it in and says he kissed her often on the face. >> the gospel of philip does not

suggest an actual sexual relationship. it suggests a symbolic relationship between jesus and his church or jesus and the holy spirit. >> i don't have a conspiracy-theory view of why the text is broken. it's just that this papyrus is very old, and when you touch it, it just fragments. so, there are many breaks in the text. this is only one. it's one of the most provocative. >> the important thing for me is that mary magdalene was a major apostle in the first century. she was on the level with peter and thomas. >> the idea that jesus christ had children with mary and they became part of the french royal line -- that is based on legends that go back to france, back to the ninth century. so, it's not a new idea, but it has virtually no historical basis whatever. >> there's good food, and there's junk food, and there's good fiction and there's junk fiction. "the da vinci" is junk fiction.

>> now let's join correspondent greg palkot in paris for a look at how "the da vinci code's" popularity has created an industry. >> thanks to "the da vinci code," tourist capital paris just got more visited. much of the book is set here. the action begins in the louvre museum with the murder of its curator and a painting said to hint at, among other things, mary magdalene's more prominent role. >> well, what's more interesting about mary magdalene is her role as sort of an early leader. >> one of several "da vinci code" tours conducted here is led by art expert ellen mcbreen. >> history is something that's based on original documentation, something that dan brown plays a little fast and loose with in the book. >> in fact, tour guide mcbreen does find a lot of inconsistencies in the "da vinci code" novel, as do others. it's claimed in the book the pyramid behind me contains a satanically sinister 666 plates of glass. according to the louvre museum, that should read "673."

but that's nothing like the unholy uproar at paris' saint-sulpice church. the site features religious artifacts plus an astronomical meridian line, backdrops for more of author dan brown's tale. michel rougé spends much of his day correcting what he calls the book's falsehoods, including a less-than-divine image of jesus christ. >> if you believe what is in the book, then you are quite surprised to discover that at least what it says about this church is not true. >> up next, bethlehem. we'll take you on a very special tour of the town and the church of the nativity. >> ♪ hallelujah ♪ hallelujah

when i went on to ancestry, i just put in the name of my parents and my grandparents. and as soon as i did that, literally it was like you're getting 7, 9, 10, 15 leaves that are just popping up all over the place. yeah, it was amazing. just with a little bit of information, you can take leaps and bounds. it's an awesome experience.

tand that's what we're doings to chat xfinity.rself,

we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. ♪ hallelujah >> we're on a hillside overlooking what was just a little town when jesus was born there. today bethlehem is under palestinian control, and because of the violence of the last few years, visitors are staying away, even at christmas. ♪ in all of the holy land, bethlehem is considered one of the holiest places by christians, jews, and muslims. jews come here to pray at rachel's tomb, judaism's third

holiest site. rachel was the beloved wife of jacob, the third patriarch. she died in childbirth. muslims also revere bethlehem. the believe the prophet muhammad stopped here, escorted by the angel gabriel, on his midnight ride to jerusalem to visit the birthplace of jesus. ♪ and, of course, for christians, bethlehem, the city of king david, is the birthplace of jesus christ. >> you can see how it attracts people from all over the world, 'cause this is the birth of the savior, not just of an important historical figure. >> father jerome murphy-o'connor has served in israel for 40 years. armed with great knowledge of this place, he took us on a tour of the church of the nativity alongside manger square. he has seen many changes in this town. where have all the christians gone?

>> they're afraid to come. [ gunfire ] >> they're afraid of all the turmoil and fighting that has plagued this area. >> this bethlehem used to be 100% christian. now it's only about 35%. >> i've talked to people who used to wait for hours to get into the church of the nativity, and now it looks like you can walk right in. >> absolutely, 'cause you can see, the tiny little door that we'll be going through. [ men singing ] >> so, this is, uh -- this is the traditional birthplace of jesus. >> this is the traditional birthplace, and i think there's very, very little doubt about the city, and perhaps a probability, about 85%, that the church is actually built over the right place. you see, we have two very different versions -- one in luke, where mary and joseph start from nazareth, and matthew, where mary and joseph are natives of bethlehem. that's why jesus was born here. and i think, with most scholars, that matthew's account is

preferable. >> but doesn't luke give the more detailed account? >> more detailed, more vivid, more dramatic, but the linchpin of his account is the census, which forces the man and his very pregnant wife to move the length of the country. see, and i don't accept that census, because this was not part of the roman empire, and the census was for the empire. >> well, the new testament talks about a stable. that's not to say that it couldn't have been a cave, right? >> many stables are, in fact, caves, and i think the representation of the cave is much more accurate. >> now, jesus was born here because, the bible says, there was no room for them in the inn. >> what you should imagine is a small, humble house, a one-room house. >> the question of where the birth occurs centers around the greek word "kataluma," originally translated as "inn." some scholars also translate it as "family home," holding a large extended family where space was tight. either way, mary would have gone out to the cave or stable.

local tradition held this as jesus' birthplace, and so in 326 a.d., helena, the mother of the emperor constantine, built the first church of the nativity here. it was restored by the emperor justinian in 529 a.d. and enhanced later on by the crusaders. well, i've also heard that the idea behind the door was to make people bow down. >> to be humble, yeah. it's not entirely -- it's not impossible, by any means. >> once inside this ancient building, visitors see a sight drastically different from the humble stable of the bible -- the greek orthodox main altar. very ornate. >> it's extremely ornate. you have the iconostasis. behind it is the altar, and then you see the choir stalls for the monks on either side. and this is where the liturgy is sung every sunday -- every day, in fact. >> the original church was an octagon, built over the venerated cave. it's now below the altar, in the grotto of the nativity.

father murphy-o'connor took us there. >> now we're in the grotto. see? there are two altars. this is the grotto of the nativity, and if you put your hand through that hole, you can touch the bedrock. [ men singing ] then on this side, this is the altar of the manger. >> even in this peaceful place, there are long-running disputes. the altar of the manger belongs to the franciscan monks. the altar of the nativity, or birth, belongs to the greek orthodox. their rights are defined in a treaty. the other christian group with rights over this site is the armenian orthodox. there's a split everywhere, it seems. >> exactly. and that is the tragedy of pilgrims to the holy land. >> so, the belief is that this is where jesus was born... >> yes. >> ...and then he was carried over here to the manger. >> exactly. and then you see this is the

cave, which, of course, has been shaped, but this wall is artificial. >> next door is called the cave of st. jerome, the cave of the holy innocents. >> father murphy-o'connor took us there for a look. so, there's very little evidence of the original cave left here. >> what evidence there is of the original cave is found below us here. >> so, tradition has it that christ would have been born over there, on the other side of this cave, but this is part of the same cave system. >> it's all part of the cave system. you can see that that's an entirely artificial wall. it goes up to the roof of the cave. you can see the bedrock all above us. and this is the area that has been excavated. >> the excavation in the early 1960s turned up evidence that this cave was occupied during the time of king david right up through the time of jesus. >> there were traces of dung and broken pottery and coins, so it was used for stabling and for storage. ♪

so, this would be a wonderful place, say, to shelter a flock a night or to store grain after the summer -- perfectly -- no risk of damp. and for a young woman giving birth, no drafts. ♪ >> a trip to the holy land is as much a journey of emotion as it is distance. 2,000 years after the birth of christ, there is so much sadness here. the little town where the baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes is now itself wrapped in barbed wire. where the shepherds stood guard over their sheep, there are guard towers now and gun-toting soldiers. yet it is possible to look past today's troubles. just seeing the historic sites of the bible inspires awe. to walk the streets where jesus walked, to gaze on the landscapes he saw, to touch the stones that were standing when he passed by brings on a

profound sense of wonder and, yes, even peace. from the holy land and all of us at fox news, i'm jon scott. have a blessed christmas.

>> welcome to west point holiday. i am on the majestic route of the united states military academy at west point new york. tonight we will explore the riches of west point in a rare glimpse of the traditions of the united states military. enjoy the music. it is one of the finest military musical organizations. through out the next hour we will see them on the field, in the halls and on stage as they perform for the