Bethlehem
a borough in Northampton co., Pa.; on the Lehigh river and canal, and the Lehigh Valley, the Central of New Jersey, and other railroads; 57 miles N. of Philadelphia. It was founded in 1741 by Moravians, under Count Zinzendorf, and is the chief center of that sect in the United States. It BETHLEHEMITES contains a Moravian Theological Seminary, a Moravian Seminary for young ladies, more than a dozen churches, and two National banks. On the opposite side of the river, here spanned by two bridges, is SOUTH BETHLEHEM, the seat of LEHIGH UNIVERSITY (q. v.), the main offices of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and a number of important manufacturing establishments, including silk mills, rolling mills, foundries and machine shops, brass works, zinc oxide and spelter works, etc. Monocacy creek separates Bethlehem from West Bethlehem, which is also an industrial borough borough . South Bethlehem, West Bethlehem and Northampton Heights now form a part of Bethlehem. Pop. (1910) 12,837; (1920) 50,358.
BETHLEHEM ("house of bread"; modern Beitlahm), the birthplace of Jesus Christ and of King David, and the Ephratah of the history of Jacob, is now a a small, sm unwalled village of white stone houses. The population, about 8,000, is wholly Christian-Latin, Greek, and Armenian. The Convent of the Nativity, a large, square building, was built by the Empress Helena, in 327 A. D., but destroyed by the Moslems in 1236, and, it is supposed, restored by the crusaders.
Within it is the Church of the Nativity, which is subdivided among the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, for devotional purposes. The church is built in the form of a cross; the nave, belongs to the Armenians, and is supported by 48 beautiful Corinthian columns of solid granite. The other portions of the church, forming the arms of the cross, are walled up. At the farther end of that section, which forms the head of the cross, and on the threshold, is a sculptured marble star, which the Bethlehemites say covers the central point of the earth. Here a long intricate passage descends to the crypt below, where the Blessed Virgin is said to have been delivered. The walls of the chamber are hung with draperies of the gayest colors colors; and a silver star, with the words, "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est" (here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary), marks the spot of the Nativity. The manger stands in a low recess cut in the rock. The site appears to have been venerated since the 2d century, A. D. To the N. W. stands a square domed building, marking the reputed site of Rachel's tomb. The Bethlehemites chiefly gain their subsistence by the manufacture and sale of crucifixes, beads, boxes, shells, etc.