St. Jerome, who famously translated the Bible into Latin working from the same cave system in which Jesus was born, said: “Five gospels record the life of Jesus. Four you will find in books and the one you will find in the land they call Holy. Read the fifth gospel and the world of the four will open to you.” In the third episode of this four-part series, we visit St. Jerome’s study in Bethlehem with a group of Notre Dame students in the Holy Land for a summer study program. Their time in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and other key sites in Israel was a transformative experience, and not just in religious terms.

“People come here to see the holy sites,” observed University of Notre Dame at Tantur academic director Hannah Hemphill, “but while they see the old stones, they fail to see the living stones, the people who are living in the land today.” As Notre Dame students explore Israel and the West Bank, they’re exposed to different narratives about the current conflict in the region, and are forced to square the reality they’ve heard back home with the one they’re seeing firsthand. Learn more about Notre Dame's presence in and around Jerusalem.