With thanks to Juris Lidaka and Julia Bolton Holloway, who made the
following materials available to various electronic discussions groups, 
I append a few comments of my own -- since questions will be inevitable!
(including some of my own).

RAK

Forwarded message:
> Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 20:24:00 +0100 (MET)
> To: [log in to unmask]
> From: Julia Bolton Holloway <[log in to unmask]>
> Sender: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Juris Lidaka of the Nota Bene List forwards this to us. It's long but it's
> about today's publicity on the site of a pilgrim church. The mosaics, which
> I've seen on television, are stunning. Another wonderful site is Tabgha, of
> the loaves and the fishes by Galilee, discussed by Egeria and others.
> 
> >[log in to unmask]
> >http://129.71.130.48/dept/english/lidaka/lidaka.html
> >West Virginia State College
> >----------
> >        Israel says it discovers
> >      rock where Mary rested
> >By Storer H. Rowley
> >CHICAGO TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
> >Web-posted: Monday, November 10, 1997
> >
> >JERUSALEM -- On a hillside near Bethlehem, Israeli archeologists
> >announced Sunday that they have uncovered the stone on which
> >Christians believe Mary rested on her way to give birth to Jesus.

My first reaction, when I heard a similar release on the radio and then
saw reports on TV, was "what tradition about Mary resting?!" See further
below.

> >With the approach of the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus' birth, the Israeli
> >Antiquities Authority hailed the authentication of the stone and a large
> >octagonal Byzantine church built around it as an important find--one
> >they hope will draw major interest and income from Christian pilgrims
> >coming to celebrate the millennium in the Holy Land.

Of course, from a scholar's point of view, since the Jesus of the
universal Christian tradition (including New Testament) would have been
born prior to the death of Herod the Great around 4 bce, the 2000th
anniversary has already passed, with little recognition. Ah well, I guess
it is much simpler to look to the year 2001 -- or will people opt for the
final year of the 2nd millennium, 2000?!

> >The stone's presence at the center of the church, the splendor of the
> >church and the stone's location as a convenient resting spot on the
> >five-mile trek between ancient Jerusalem and Bethlehem led scholars
> >to conclude that this is Mary's resting place as described in early
> >Christian writing.
> >
> >The excavation is not new, but work at the site was suspended a few
> >years ago over jurisdictional concerns. The site was reactivated last
> >month while contractors were laying a water pipe for construction
> >workers building Har Homa, the controversial Jewish settlement going
> >up in disputed East Jerusalem that has been a factor stalling the
> >Mideast peace process.
> >
> >The construction work damaged an edge of the Christian site,
> >prompting renewed digging along the road about halfway between
> >Jerusalem's Old City and the traditional site of the Nativity in
> >Bethlehem.
> >
> >What archeologists found was a 5th Century church built around a
> >sacred relic they presume to be the resting stone--what the ancient
> >Greeks called the kathisma, or seat.
> >
> >Though some scholars dispute the historical basis of the belief, early
> >Christian writingsays Mary rested three miles into her journey from the
> >Old City to Bethlehem. A 2nd Century text by James said she had a
> >vision there that prompted her to stop at the spot.

Well, sort of. The passage in the Protevangelium Jacobi (Book of James, or
ProtoGospel of James), chapter 17.2-3,  has:

<quote>And they drew near [to Bethlehem, presumably] at three miles
distance. And Joseph turned and saw her saddened and said to himself,
"Doubtless the child inside her pains her." And again Joseph turned and
saw her laughing, and said to her, "Mary, what's happening to you, since I
see your face now laughing and before sad?" And Mary said to Joseph, "It
is because I see two peoples with my eyes, the one weeping and lamenting
and the other rejoicing and exulting" [see Gen 25.23]. [3] And they came
into the midddle of the road, and Mary said to him, "Take me down from the
donkey, for the child inside me presses me to come forth." And he took her
down from the donkey and said to her, "Where shall I take you and hide
your shame? for the place is desert."</quote> Then they find the cave in
which Jesus is born/appears. 

The text mentions no rock, and does not even state that Mary dismounts 
at the three mile location. The tradition of her vision does get repeated
in various early sources, but I have no idea when a reference to a
specific place first becomes known.

> >"Nowhere in the country was such a huge church found (over the
> >years) in the location of such a sacred site," said Gideon Avni,
> >Jerusalem region archeologist for the antiquities authority. "It is
> >a fact that the whole church was built around the rock."
> >
> >Israeli archeologists discovered the site in 1992 when the
> >Jerusalem-Bethlehem road was widened and a corner of the church
> >site was unearthed. In 1993, the top of a stone was uncovered.
> >
> >Antiquities officials discontinued the dig because it was on land owned
> >by the Greek Orthodox Church, which was hesitant to give approval
> >for fear it might lose control of the land to Israel.
> >
> >"Five years ago, we presumed this was the church," Avni said. "We
> >didn't know about the mosaics. We didn't know that the rock was
> >exactly in the center of the church."
> >
> >Diodoros I, patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem,
> >was on hand Sunday to marvel at the dig and give his blessing to the
> >work. He sang a Christmas hymn at the site with church elders.
> >
> >"A Greek proverb says it is more difficult to preserve than to create,"
> >said Diodoros I, wearing a green-and-gold medallion showing the
> >Madonna and child. "We are determined to preserve this site for the
> >centuries to come for the glory of God."
> >
> >"We are proud to witness this great achievement that has been made in
> >our times," he added. "Now we can see this holy rock where the
> >Virgin Mary sat on her way to Bethlehem." He pledged to cooperate
> >fully with Israeli officials.
> >
> >"It is one of the earliest, largest and major churches dedicated to
> >Mary, mother of Jesus," said Israeli archeologist Rina Avener, who
> >along with archeologist Yuval Baruch, is directing the excavation.
> >
> >"The same octagonal plan served as the basis for a smaller, simpler
> >church on Mt. Gerizim (in Nazareth). Its influence can also be seen in
> >the octagonal Dome of the Rock Mosque," she said, referring to one
> >of Islam's holiest shrines in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Note that Gerizim is not "in Nazareth" -- not even close. There is some
confusion here.

> >"We really want to revive this place and not bury it again," she said
> >while showing off an ancient stone cistern where travelers on the old
> >road used to drink and water their animals. Even the Arabic name for
> >the spot, bir quadismu, preserves the sound of the Greek name
> >kathisma, she said.
> >
> >"The (Christian) legend is that a star led the Magi to Bethlehem, and
> >the Magi said it disappeared over Jerusalem, above Herod's palace,
> >and miraculously appeared over a site three miles from Jerusalem,"
> >Avener said.

I don't know the source(s) of this tradition, or its age.

> >The church rose on the site, disappeared from the record after the
> >Muslim takeover of the Holy Land and remained apparently unnoticed
> >during the Crusades. It reappeared in writings of a 12th Century
> >Russian monk.
> >
> >After the Har Homa contractor did some damage, the antiquities
> >authority was able to get funds from the Housing Ministry and the
> >contractor to do a month of digging. It uncovered as much as 70
> >percent of the church, prompting the patriarch to proceed.
> >
> >"We hope to develop a major tourist and pilgrimage site here," Avni
> >said at the dig Sunday morning.
> >
> >Rev. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, professor of the New Testament at
> >Jerusalem's Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise, was skeptical
> >that there is any "historical basis" for whether Mary rested on this
> >spot.
> >
> >Murphy-O'Connor, who has written extensively about archeological
> >evidence for Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel,
> >noted that in the view of many scholars Mary and Joseph lived in
> >Bethlehem and may not have had to travel or stop there as is written
> >in the New Testament.

Murphy-O'Connor knows his stuff; the reporter doesn't. The Gospel of
Matthew assumes that Jesus' parents are from Bethlehem; it is the Gospel
of Luke that locates them in Nazareth and requires a trip to Bethlehem.

> >"I think that's completely wrong," he said of the account of the
> >kathisma, though he acknowledged it stems from early Christian lore
> >and writings. "This is the tradition going back to the Byzantine
> >period.

That means, very late relative to earliest Christian traditions; the
Byzantine period is subsequent to Constantine, in the early 4th century,
and it was Constantine's mother Helena who was especially active in
identifying and/or creating "sacred sites" in Palestine after Christianity
became legally recognized and politically favored. Building churches on
such sites became a regular activity, along with associated pilgrimages.

> >"It's just was a convenient place for pilgrims to stop walking between
> >Jerusalem and Bethlehem," he added. "And I would say the tradition
> >started when they thought that if they rested there, this may be where
> >Mary rested as well."
> >
> ____
> Julia Bolton Holloway
> via del Partigiano 16, Montebeni, 50014 FIESOLE, ITALY
> [log in to unmask]
> http://members.aol.com/juliansite/Juliansite.htm

-- 
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
[log in to unmask]
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html


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