Shelley Wood Gauld

Yeshua's birthplace is normally perceived to be Bethlehem; in Hebrew, ‘ Bet-Lechem’ , meaning ‘House of Bread’. When the priests were later asked by Herod where the Messiah would be born, however, they did not simply say ‘ Bet-Lechem’ , but  ‘Bet-Lechem Efratah’.   The most elemental meaning of the word Efratah , as used to this day in Hebrew, is ‘on the way to…’ Hence ‘Bet-Lechem Efratah’ could be translated as ‘on the way to Bethlehem’; that is, Messiah would be born on the way to Bethlehem, as was Benjamin. This meaning of the term ' Bet-Lechem Efratah'  links Miryam to Rachel, as the second  matriarch to give birth to her son ‘on the way to Bethlehem’. Rachel died ‘on the road to’ Bethlehem, after giving birth to Benjamin, her second son, and was buried in a lowly lonely roadside grave. In 1 Samuel 10:2 a clear reference is made to Rachel’s tomb and the Hebrew indicates that her sepulchre was located not  in  the border (as often translat...

My usual intention in my blog posts is not to present readers with ‘answers’, that would be presumptuous, but to highlight what I consider to be pivotal matters ~ and possible ways of viewing them. Today I will focus first on the two genealogies of Joseph, found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and then on a subtle reference to Miryam’s lineage. The importance of the territory of Benjamin will then be assessed, before turning to Rachel, Benjamin, Miryam and Yeshua, and the term ‘Bet-Lechem Efratah’. The names listed in the genealogy of Joseph (Miryam’s husband) in the Gospel of Matthew are Judean and, according to tradition, Davidic. For this reason Yeshua, who appeared to be Joseph’s son, was considered to be a royal ‘Son of David’. Why is it then that a northern name, ‘Joseph’, closes Matthew’s Judean genealogy? I am aware of two possible reasons: The name ‘Joseph’ appears frequently in the Aaronic priesthood. Many ‘sons of Aaron’ were named Joseph, probably becaus...