Jesu was Born in Bethlehem Judea

DESCRIPTION: "Jesus was born in Bethlehem (of) Jude(a), All of a maiden, thus findeth we." The steward bids Herod to come and see. The magi come. Herod orders the children of Israel slain. Jesus flees to Egypt. Herod dies and goes to hell
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: Fifteenth century (MSS. Sloane 2593, Porkington 10)
KEYWORDS: religious death travel warning MiddleEnglish
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greene-TheEarlyEnglishCarols, #124, pp. 80-82, "(no title)" (2 texts)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1785
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #2944
ADDITIONAL: Carleton Brown, editor, _Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century_, Oxford University Press, 1939, #87, pp. 124-125,"The Journey of the Three Kings" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSSloane2593}, London, British Library, MS. Sloane 2593, folio 14
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPorkington10}, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. Porkington 10, folio 198
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] (theme of the steward telling Herod of Jesus"
NOTES [299 words]: This song is no longer found in tradition, of course, but there are several reasons to include it. First, it is found in two very important manuscripts: Sloane 2593, which is among the most important of all medieval manuscripts, and Porkington 10, which is not quite as important but is still a major source of texts. That's not quite enough, on its own, to say we should cite the piece, but the differences between the two pieces are quite noteworthy. Apart from many verbal differences, from trivial to quite significant, the two sometimes contain different stanzas:
- Only Porkington has a steward come to Herod to tell of the coming of Jesus
- Only Sloane mentions the star guiding the magi
- Only Sloane mentions the magi meeting Herod
- Only Porkington has an angel tell the Holy Family to flee Herod and guide them to Egypt
But it's the first of those points that is, to me, the clincher. There is no mention in the Bible of a Steward telling Herod of the birth of Jesus. Herod learns of it from the Magi (Matthew 2:1-11; there is no other Biblical reference to the story). The relevant part of the text in Porkington is brief but clear:
The stuarde whas bolde off that countre
And bade Errod shollde com and see
i.e.
The steward was bold of that country
And bade Herod should come and see.
In other words, this version knows at least a bit of the story told in "Saint Stephen and Herod" [Child 22] -- a tale not found elsewhere. (It is perhaps a little ironic that Sloane 2593 is the source for "Saint Stephen and Herod," but it's the manuscript of this song which does not contain the incident!) if that important bit of folklore isn't enough reason to index this song, I don't know what is.
For more on manuscript Sloane 2593, see the notes to "Robyn and Gandeleyn" [Child 115]. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: MSJWBIBJ

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