This valley has been amazingly preserved, almost as it was in ancient times. Located along the ‘cobblestone way’ that leads between Bethlehem and Ein Kerem (where Elizabeth and John the Baptist were living), it is easy to imagine Joseph and Mary traveling this way as they returned from the Census. New discoveries of ancient churches such as that at Katisima (with the stone where Mary rested on her way to the Fields; ‘Katisima’ means ‘seat’ in Greek and was mentioned in the proto-Gospel of James 17:2-3 as the spot where Mary rested), the Judah Kings’ Palaces and church (discovered at nearby Kibbutz Ramat Rachel), the Byzantine-era church in the valley of the Shepherds’ Fields. In the Book of Luke, Chapter 2 it is written that:

“…the shepherds were in the field, watching their flocks by night. Suddenly, they heard and saw the angelic host above those fields, declaring ‘today, here in the City of David (tower = city, like the tower used for the ‘sacred goats for God’, in Hebrew: Migdal haEder in Bethlehem-Ephrata) a Savior has been born!"

They were told to go and see that baby,

"…wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

While standing in the valley, one can also see the Church of the Nativity (so named by Queen Helena in the 4th Century as the ‘birthplace of Jesus’) - - all of these places and names have all been helpful in identifying and evidencing that this is the location of the true Shepherds’ Fields Valley of Bethlehem-Ephrata in Judah.