Editing Church of the Nativity (section)

===Constantinian basilica (326 – 529 or 556)===
The first [[basilica]] on this site was built by Emperor [[Constantine I]], on the site identified by his mother, [[Helena of Constantinople|Empress Helena]]<ref name=roth/> and Bishop [[Makarios of Jerusalem]].<ref name=Pearl>{{cite book |first=Moshe |last=Pearlman |year=1980 |title=Digging up the Bible |publisher=William Morrow and Co. |location=New York |pages=33–34 |url=http://cojs.org/church_of_the_holy_sepulchre-_325_ce/ |via=Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 325 CE: Center for Online Judaic Studies (COJS) |access-date=2020-03-16 |archive-date=9 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109123849/http://cojs.org/church_of_the_holy_sepulchre-_325_ce/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The construction started in 326<ref name=roth>{{cite book |first=Leland M. |last=Roth |year=1993 |title=Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History and Meaning |edition=First |publisher=Westview Press |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=0-06-430158-3 |pages=278, 282 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_5QDwAAQBAJ&q=nativity |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=9 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809160912/https://books.google.com/books?id=q_5QDwAAQBAJ&q=nativity |url-status=live }}</ref> under the supervision of Makarios, who followed Constantine's orders,<ref name=Clio>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Church of the Holy Sepulcher |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History |author=Spencer C. Tucker |author2=Priscilla Roberts |year=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=266 |isbn=9781851098422 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAd8efHdVzIC&pg=PA266 |access-date=16 March 2020 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024183228/https://books.google.com/books?id=YAd8efHdVzIC&pg=PA266 |url-status=live }}</ref> and was dedicated on 31 May 339<ref name=OConnor>{{cite book |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |series=Oxford Archaeological Guides |author=Jerome Murphy-O'Connor |year=2008 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=229–237 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Yy9FDcT8gC&pg=PA237 |access-date=10 April 2018 |archive-date=24 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231024183230/https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Yy9FDcT8gC&pg=PA237#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>—however, it had already been visited in 333 by the [[Bordeaux Pilgrim]],<ref name=CTS2018>{{cite web |title=Anonymous of Bordeaux |url=http://www.bethlehem.custodia.org/default.asp?id=525 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531232557/http://www.bethlehem.custodia.org/default.asp?id=525 |website=Custodia terrae sanctae, Bethlehem Sanctuary |access-date=16 March 2020 |archive-date=31 May 2015}}</ref><ref name=CTS2020>{{cite web |website=Custodia terrae sanctae |title=Bethlehem: The Roman-Byzantine period |url=https://www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries/bethlehem |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728131203/https://www.custodia.org/en/sanctuaries/bethlehem |url-status=live }}</ref> at which time it was already in use.<ref name=CTS2018/>

Construction of this early church was carried out as part of a larger project following the [[First Council of Nicaea]] during Constantine's reign, aimed to build churches on the sites assumed at the time to have witnessed the crucial events in the life of Jesus.<ref name=roth/><ref>{{cite book |last=Moffatt |first=Marian |display-authors=et al |title=A World History of Architecture |year=2003}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2016}}</ref> The design of the basilica centered around three major architectural sections:
<ref name=Gemein>{{cite book |editor=Peter Gemeinhardt |editor2=Katharina Heyden |title=Heilige, Heiliges und Heiligkeit in spätantiken Religionskulturen |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2012 |isbn=9783110283976 |access-date=8 April 2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WiASfqLGVMAC |archive-date=2 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802002056/https://books.google.com/books?id=WiASfqLGVMAC |url-status=live }}</ref>
# At the eastern end, an apse in a polygonal shape (broken pentagon, rather than the once proposed, but improbable full octagon), encircling a raised platform with an opening in its floor of ca. 4 metres diameter that allowed direct view of the Nativity site underneath. An ambulatory with side rooms surrounded the apse.<ref name=Gemein/>
# A five-aisled basilica in continuation of the eastern apse, one bay shorter than the still standing Justinianic reconstruction.<ref name=Gemein/>
# A porticoed atrium.<ref name=Gemein/>

The structure was burned and destroyed in one of the [[Samaritan Revolts]] of 529 or 556, in the second of which Jews seem to have joined the Samaritans.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crown |first=Alan D. |display-authors=et al |title=A Comparison to Samaritan Studies |page=55 |year=1993}}</ref><ref name=Shomali/><ref name=OxHist>{{cite book |first1=Robert G. |last1=Hoyland |first2=H. G. M. |last2=Williamson |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Holy Land |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |page=163 |isbn=9780198724391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzdtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729123036/https://books.google.com/books?id=uzdtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA163 |url-status=live }}</ref>