THE MANGER AND THE INN

The Christmas story has always captured our imagination. And no wonder. The coming of Jesus into the world is the defining event of all history. But a beloved story such as this, told and retold over vast centuries, in varying nations and cultures, is likely to attract embellishments.

Most people these days know that the gospel never specifies how many Magi came to see the baby Jesus. We assume there were three because three gifts were mentioned. We also understand that the “wise men” came to a house rather than a stable (Matt 2:11) and that the visit occurred some considerable time after Jesus had been born.

But Kenneth E Bailey, in his book “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes”, questions other aspects of the popular version of the nativity story.

Luke 2:6 says that, while Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, “the days were completed for her to be delivered.” This seems to suggest that the birth wasn’t as urgent as is often portrayed.

Also, when Luke writes (2:7) that there was no room “in the inn”, he does not use the word for a commercial inn, pandocheion, as in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34). Instead, he uses the word kataluma, which simply means a lodging place or guest chamber.

Bailey makes the point that typical middle eastern homes, then and even now in some places, would often have one main room, a guest room, and an attached section into which the family would bring their ox or donkey at night. Jesus may well have referred to this in Luke 13:15, when He said: “Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?” In other words, you bring your animals out to water every day, including the Sabbath. Apparently, no-one in the synagogue that day was able to deny Jesus His point.

By the way, the word for ‘stall’ in 13:15 is phatne, the same word that is used for ‘manger’ in Luke 2:7. The manger, where Jesus was laid was thus more likely part of the house where Mary and Joseph were being lodged. And incidentally, there is no mention in the Bible account of a stable.

The picture we are left with is that Mary and Joseph would have been staying with relatives, but not in their kataluma guest room, which would have been already full. According to Bailey, it would be unthinkable for a descendant of David, coming to David’s home town, would be denied basic hospitality among relatives.

Does any of this change the importance and relevance of the Christmas story? Not at all, but it does remove some of the sentimentality of the common version we hear. The point is that God sent His Son into the world to save us.

Emmanuel, God is with us.