Mr. King says:
"The place yet shown as the scene of their (the Magi's) adoration at Bethlehem is a cave."[155:4]
The Christian ceremonies in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem are celebrated to this day in a cave,[155:5] and are undoubtedly nearly the same as were celebrated, in the same place, in honor of Adonis, in the time of Tertullian and Jerome; and as are yet celebrated in Rome every Christmas-day, very early in the morning.
We see, then, that there are three different accounts concerning the place in which Jesus was born. The first, and evidently true one, was that which is recorded by the Matthew narrator, namely, that he was born in a house. The stories about his being born in a stable or in a cave[155:6] were later inventions, caused from the desire to place him in as humble a position as possible in his infancy, and from the fact that the virgin-born Saviours who had preceded him had almost all been born in a position the most humiliating—such as a cave, a cow-shed, a sheep-fold, &c.—or had been placed there after birth. This was a part of the universal mythos. As illustrations we may mention the following:
Crishna, the Hindoo virgin-born Saviour, was born in a cave,[156:1] fostered by an honest herdsman,[156:2] and, it is said, placed in a sheep-fold shortly after his birth.
How-Tseih, the Chinese "Son of Heaven," when an infant, was left unprotected by his mother, but the sheep and oxen protected him with loving care.[156:3]
Abraham, the Father of Patriarchs, is said to have been born in a cave.[156:4]
Bacchus, who was the son of God by the virgin Semele, is said to have been born in a cave, or placed in one shortly after his birth.[156:5] Philostratus, the Greek sophist and rhetorician, says, "the inhabitants of India had a tradition that Bacchus was born at Nisa, and was brought up in a cave on Mount Meros."
Æsculapius, who was the son of God by the virgin Coronis, was left exposed, when an infant, on a mountain, where he was found and cared for by a goatherd.[156:6]
Romulus, who was the son of God by the virgin Rhea-Sylvia, was left exposed, when an infant, on the banks of the river Tiber, where he was found and cared for by a shepherd.[156:7]