Shepherds' Fields

The pastureland in the Judean highlands surrounding Bethlehem where shepherds were "living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8) when an angel of the Lord appeared with news of the Messiah's birth. Tradition places the encounter on the terraced slopes east of Bethlehem near the village of Beit Sahour, where pilgrims have venerated the spot since at least the fourth century.

Sheep-keeping was the staple of the Bethlehem economy in the first century — much of the flock raised in these fields was destined for temple sacrifice in Jerusalem, only an hour's walk north. The shepherds who heard the angels were the lowest rung of rural labor, ritually unclean by their work; that the heavenly announcement of the King of Israel came to them first is one of the quiet shocks of Luke's nativity.