December 17, 2017
taught by Ken McGarvey
First Baptist Church of Tellico Village, Tennessee
How much of the traditional Christmas story as we know it is accurate?
Believing the Bible is the totally trustworthy word of God, I believe the Christmas story, like the rest of the Bible, is totally accurate. However, our understanding of it is influenced by tradition, history, and numerous other things.
We who have been Christians for many decades and have been actively involved in church activities as well know the story of the birth of Jesus by heart. We have read books and poems, essays and articles. We have seen movies and numerous pageants, most of them involving little children. We have listened to and sung Christmas carols, Christmas songs and Christmas cantatas. We have read and/or told the story to our children and our grandchildren. We KNOW the story! If there’s something else that we don’t know about, it’s not our fault.
The problem is that it is not our story. It is not American. It is not 20th or 21st century. We receive it in English into our minds with a Western thought process. We are not Jewish or Middle Eastern, limiting our understanding of the culture into which Jesus came.
We know that when the emperor commanded a census taking, everybody had to go to the place of his ancestors and register. Mary was very pregnant when she and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, she on a donkey and Joseph walking. But when they got there, the innkeeper said there was no room, so they had to go out into the stable. Mary gave birth to baby Jesus that night, with nobody but Joseph to deliver the baby among the animals. After angels told a bunch of shepherds, they came to see the baby. And three kings, magi, who had seen a special star in the east, arrived when it stopped over the manger where Jesus was. They gave their gifts to the baby and went home. Jesus was no ordinary baby, and didn’t even cry.
That paragraph had a good mixture of truth, myth, tradition and unlikelihood. So let’s just look a little deeper at the story.
The Census
In the 2000 or so years since then nearly all records have been lost. However, in the writings we have there are mentions of censuses taken under Caesar Augustus, including at least one while Quirinius was governor of Syria. So Luke’s statement that this was the first census made while Quirinius was governor of Syria is quite plausible. Some scholars cast doubt upon it, but not because they have found anything contrary. They just don’t have other reliable records to substantiate it.
Rulers periodically have censuses taken to have accurate records for taxation. So this was not an unusual event, in any way.
The Trip
The idea that an 8½-months pregnant Mary made a 10-day (or more) hike is very unlikely. Most likely they planned ahead and traveled ahead of time. Luke says, “While they were there the time came for her to have her baby.” She was probably there at least a few weeks ahead of time. Joseph’s family was from there and he was a carpenter, so there was likely work for him to do there. Though tradition says she rode a donkey and Joseph walked, there is no way of knowing how they traveled.
Jewish families were closely-knit units, so there were probably relatives for them to stay with. If nobody in Joseph’s family had been available, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and Zechariah were only a few hours’ walk away from there. So they were probably already in a home well before the baby was due to be born.
The Accommodations
It is quite unlikely that Jesus was actually born in a stable, or that there was a mean innkeeper. The Greek word translated inn was not the one Luke used of a paid business establishment speaking of where the good Samaritan took the crime victim in chapter 10. The word is the one that was used of the upper room where Jesus observed the Passover with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. From Rev. Larry Largent, a student of the cultural and historical context of the New Testament:
Frequently the in-most room or upper-room was placed above the in-home stables. Animals like sheep, goats, and donkeys were frequently kept inside the house for two reasons. First, bringing the animals inside protected them from predators and allowed the family to keep watch over them in relative safety. Second, during the winter months the animals provided a significant source of heat for those sleeping in the upper room. The census registration likely meant that Joseph’s family had a significant number of guests staying with them. By the time Mary and Joseph arrive the upper room was already occupied. Since the shepherds were in the fields at night, the stables were likely not being used to house animals. When Joseph and Mary arrived needing shelter the stables were cleaned and arrangements were made for Joseph and his young betrothed to stay there.
Although Joseph’s family did not look down on the couple because of Mary’s pregnancy, the family would have looked down on any of their local members who did not offer accommodations to the young couple.
The Birth
While Joseph and Mary were staying there in Bethlehem, they would have made arrangements with the local midwife for the delivery. Upon arriving at the house during Mary’s labor, she would have removed all the men from the area and done both a sanitary and a ceremonial cleansing of the area. After delivering the baby and cleaning him up, she would then have invited Joseph back in to be with Mary and Jesus. It’s just the way they did it.
The Stable, or Barn
Because the part-time stable was their temporary abode, they would have had access to such things as a manger for a temporary crib. It would have been cleaned up before such use, of course.
The Star
The star did not appear in the eastern sky, but the western. The wise men saw the star when they were in the East; but they followed it west to Jerusalem. The star did not lead them directly to Jerusalem; but they logically figured if a new king was born, they would know about it where the current king lived, in Jerusalem. There they learned that the King of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem. And at that point they followed it as it led them to Bethlehem. They probably confirmed the house by the Christmas lights in the windows.
The Magi
There is nothing in the text to indicate how many magi there were, nor is then any indication that they were kings. And while the sight of three dignified men in royal clothing crossing the desert on camels makes a great picture for a Christmas card, it certainly wasn’t anything like that.
Men of means would have had servants surrounding them for the journey, both for service and for protection. Travel was dangerous, there were threats from robbers and others. So there would have been a caravan traveling from India, or wherever they were from.
The Western church historically has thought there were three wise men, and that they were kings. One scripture they related to the event was Psalm 72:10 The western kings of Tarshish and other distant lands will bring him tribute. The eastern kings of Sheba and Seba will bring him gifts. The Eastern church tradition says there were twelve magi.
We put the magi in the manger scene for convenience, rather than add them a few days or weeks later. But the theologians and church leaders have always known they did not arrive the same night as the shepherds. The tradition says it was January 6; but there is no way of knowing. Since Herod had all the boys in Bethlehem two years and younger killed, it may have been longer.
When Was Jesus Born?
The Bible gives no indication of the when of Jesus’ birth. December 25 was believed to be it as early as the second century. Eventually that date was celebrated in the West. The East celebrated January 6. Eventually they got together and celebrated December 25 as Christmas and January 6 as Epiphany, or the arrival of the magi.
Jesus was not born in year1 (or 0, as there is no year zero). In 525 Pope John the First asked a monk named Dionysius to construct an accurate calendar. He did, but missed by a few years. Hence, from what we now know, Jesus was born between 6 and 4 b.c. There are many historical things to consider when trying to establish the year, including who was king, when did he die, and how does that related to the command to kill the children in Bethlehem.
The Baby
The Christmas carol, “Away in a Manger” pretty much gets most of it wrong, as there were no cattle nearby. And to think that baby Jesus didn’t cry may sound romantic or poetic; but certainly not truth. Jesus was a normal baby and a normal child.
There are non-canonical writings from antiquity that suggested Jesus lay in his cradle contemplating the worlds he had made. However, toward the end of chapter two, Luke tells us that , like any other child, he grew physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. The amazing intellect he displayed at age twelve was simply an example of how the human mind might develop unhindered by a sin nature.
The Incarnation
The importance of the Christmas story is in the miracle of the virgin birth, the amazing fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies, the preservation of the holy family from the plot of Herod, and the fact that God became man to redeem a sinful creation from the natural and logical effects of our sins and offer salvation freely by grace.
The Christmas story is not complete without Genesis, and the sin from which we need redemption. It is not complete without the Passion and the Resurrection. It is not complete without villains and heroes; but the story is about God and his love for us. Let us celebrate joyfully!