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The Birth of Jesus Christ 4: An angel tells Joseph about Jesus Stock

The Birth of Jesus Christ

Jesus is born

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-7)

Comments

1) If he was conceived in the month of Kislev as discussed above, that puts the birth of Jesus Christ in the month of Tishri (September-October).

2) In the month of Tishri was the Feast of Tabernacles. It lasted for 8 days. (Lev 23:33-36) And every male from all over Israel was supposed to come to Jerusalem for it. (Deut 16:16) Bethlehem was like a suburb of Jerusalem, only a few miles away. So it would have been packed with people staying there. Add that amount to the displaced people from the census and it's no wonder that the place was packed with people. As a side note about the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, there is no mention of a donkey used in the trip. That's the first of many ways we're going to make you wonder how a certain version of the birth of Jesus got so cemented in your mind. So, no donkey for Mary to ride. Maybe there was one. Maybe there wasn't.

3) The Greek word (kataluma) that is usually translated as "inn" in English is probably not properly translated. The only other situation that it is used is in the New Testament it was translated "guest room" or "upper room" in describing the place where the Last Supper took place. So it seems like all of the Christmas plays with grumpy innkeepers saying "No room" may have misinformed us. Notice that there is no mention of an innkeeper in the Bible. Joseph's extended family was right there in Bethlehem as we were plainly told. And family bonds were very important in that society. So it is probable that Joseph and Mary would stay in the guest room of a relative of Joseph.

4) Also, notice that there is no mention of a stable. What!? No stable!? Right. No stable is mentioned. And no animals are mentioned either. And no hay. A manger is mentioned. A manger is an animal's feeding trough. So that might lead one to assume it was in a stable, and that animals were present. Well, whatever shelter they stayed in probably was something that could be used like a stable, but was not one of the free-standing stables devoted to taking care of several animals like our barns would be or the stables on old Western movies where people kept their horses while traveling.

5) What has been found archaelogically in that area of the world is stone mangers in the lower floors of homes. Apparently they would sometimes keep animals in a lower room where there was a manger made out of stone. These rooms were often almost like caves instead of what we would think of as a room. (In today's terms think of a basement/garage combo that some people have in their homes. It's not exactly inside and not exactly outside. You might bring a pet or an injured or pregnant animal in there to be warm.) Sometimes the manger was free-standing and sometimes built into a wall. Then they could also use that room as a guest-room for people to sleep when necessary. Jesus' type of crib picture 1, picture 2, picture 3. However, it is possible that if the family that they were staying with was rich (unlikely), then there could have been a free-standing building for their animals. Young's Literal Translation of the Bible translates Luke 2:7 as "she brought forth her son -- the first-born, and wrapped him up, and laid him down in the manger, because there was not for them a place in the guest-chamber". What we have is Jesus being born in a house that was apparently packed with people. Maybe there was a guest room upstairs that was so full that they ended up down below where the animals were. Remember, it says there was "no room." But it seems unlikely that a woman in labor would be treated like that. It seems more likely that they and several others were jammed into the only thing like a guest room that these people had. So there was no bed for Jesus. The manger was a good place to put him so he would be up off the floor, and couldn't roll and fall out. It was a pretty good baby crib really.

6) They gathered up some cloths and swaddled him with them. Babies loved to be swaddled. It keeps them warm and calm. The climate in the area of Jerusalem and Bethlehem is fairly warm anyway. Swaddling was and is the normal thing to do with babies in many parts of the world even today.

7) Many others have written on the question of what year the birth of Jesus took place. The question is too big to be addressed on this page. Ernest L. Martin in The Star That Astonished the World (Second Edition; Portland, Oregon: ASK Publications, 1996) ISBN 0-94-5657-87-0 does a good job of showing that Herod the Great died around 1 B.C. which would put the birth of Jesus in maybe 2 or 3 B.C. However, there is much dispute about this, especially when combined with the phrase "This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria". Hundreds of people have studied this in-depth and it still continues to be argued. Sorry, we can't take on this question here. But we should be on really solid ground by assuming that the birth of Jesus occurred somewhere between 10 B.C. and 10 A.D.

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