Back to Bethlehem

The courtyard of Benjamin's inn is packed with travelers who have come to Bethlehem for the census, and the mood has turned dangerous. A Roman soldier named Felix holds a sword at the throat of Judah, a hot-headed young man who has been shouting against Rome, and Connie Kendall cries out for Benjamin to stop them. The innkeeper pleads for calm, insisting that his is a civilized place, but it is the arrival of a Roman general that ends the standoff. The general strolls in and pretends to be wounded that nobody invited him to the party, advises Benjamin to plan his festivals in advance so that everyone can celebrate together, and then warns Felix that if a riot breaks out in this town he will be standing in the middle of it. The soldiers leave. The crowd, still hoping for beds, is told there is not one room left anywhere, and that they may sleep outside with their animals.

Judah is not grateful to be alive. He is humiliated, and he refuses comfort from a girl. Connie tells him that she thought he was very brave - a little stupid, but very brave - and when he keeps sulking she tells him to go home and let his mother put salve on his pride. He stalks off promising revenge on the Romans.

Benjamin surveys his trampled garden and grumbles that the census will be the death of his business, while Eugene Meltsner observes that it may be the death of some of his customers too. Hezekiah, an old man who talks constantly about the coming Messiah, gets a scolding for it. Then a desperate traveler pushes to the front. Joseph explains that his betrothed is about to have a baby and that he needs only somewhere warm and dry. Benjamin has nothing to offer until Connie thinks of the stable, at which point the innkeeper announces that he was just about to suggest it himself. Connie helps carry Mary down while Eugene is left to fetch Rebekah. Hezekiah, meanwhile, is beside himself. He is certain he knows who this young woman is, though he cannot explain how he knows, and he recites the old promise that a virgin will bear a son who will be called Immanuel. He hurries Eugene away to prepare gifts for a king.

In the inn kitchen, women wrestle firewood and dough and complain about the Romans. Rebekah reports that the girl is down in the stable waiting for her time, with no mother to help her, and that she has told the frightened husband to fetch her when the pains grow worse. Connie, who is hopeless at making bread, admits she usually takes off the wrapper and puts food in the microwave, and the other women decide it is better not to ask. Aaron and the other shepherds swing through to beg a meal and to boast that they are off to brave the wilderness with the flock, where nothing ever happens and that suits them perfectly. Connie sends them away laughing with a warning they do not understand: they have not seen anything yet.

Eugene visits Hezekiah's house, empty since his wife Esther died three years ago, and finds the old man's workroom filled with carved wooden animals - horses, birds, a camel, sheep - every one of them made as a gift for the child. Eugene asks how anyone can believe for a whole lifetime without proof or evidence. Hezekiah answers that Eugene is still speaking with his mind, and that what he believes lives in the place where the mind and the heart meet. That place, he says, is faith.

Back in the kitchen, Rebekah asks Connie whether she could settle in Bethlehem with the right husband, and cheerfully informs her that Judah is smitten. Before Connie can finish protesting, Joseph bursts in. He is a carpenter, he says, and knows nothing about delivering babies, and Mary's pains are getting worse. Rebekah goes at once and takes Connie with her. The stable turns out to be a cave, nothing at all like the tidy scene Connie pictured back home. Mary tells Joseph that it hurts, that he is coming, that it will not be long. Rebekah sends Joseph back to the inn and sends Connie for clean rags and an apple, which she intends to put in the poor girl's mouth so the guests are not alarmed by her cries.

Waiting at a corner table, Joseph talks with Benjamin, who dismisses Hezekiah's talk about the strange new star as nonsense. Then Joseph confesses the whole impossible story: angels and visitations, a girl who has never been with a man and is expecting a child, a dream that told him to marry her anyway, and a promise that the son will be named Jesus and called the Son of the Most High. Benjamin thinks it was something Joseph ate, and turns to Eugene for support. Eugene says only that he needs more time to think about it.

At the well, Judah finds Connie hauling water and apologizes for his behavior. Then, all in a rush, he tells her that he cannot stop thinking about her, that there is no room for love in a world of oppression, and that in another time he would love her - before asking her to become his betrothed anyway. Connie, juggling buckets and trying to explain that it would have to be another century entirely, is rescued by Rebekah calling for more water. She asks how much longer it will be. Rebekah's answer sends her running: the pain is increasing, and the baby will come soon. Very soon.