My Annual Christmas Clarification

I guess the love of truth will always keep me repeating this. Enjoy.

The magi existed. They came from the east. My guess: Babylon area (there is a history of Hebrew lore in Babylon at that time due to Daniel's influence as a magi). But they came a year to two years after the birth.

As for where Jesus was born, the Bible never puts him in a stable. It says he was laid in a manger, no more. A manger is not made of wood. it is a stone feeding trough.

The Bible doesn't say there was a star above the home on Christmas. There was a star later, when the magi arrived. (How many magi? We don't know. The Bible doesn't say. Were they kings? No reason to think so).

The word translated "inn" is better translated "upper room." (Luke, the author of the account uses a Greek word for "Inn" in the same book when speaking of the story of the good Samaritan. It is NOT the same word he uses in the Christmas story. On the contrary, this word should be translated upper room or spare room.)

It is beyond reasonableness that Mary and Joseph traveled alone from Galilee. the Bible does not say this, and the situation of the day shows it was not the custom. it would have been dangerous. such travel in the holy land was more often in groups. Indeed, in Luke's gospel elsewhere, Jesus' parents lost him when he was 12, leaving him behind in Jerusalem as they headed back to Galilee. How did they miss Him? They were in a caravan and he was lost in the crowd.

It is unlikely that Mary would travel when she was nine months pregnant. The ancients were as smart as we were, and they could count to nine. No one travels on such a journey at nine months. The Bible does not say that they arrived in Bethlehem the night the birth happens. It says something different. It says that "the days to give birth were completed" while they were in Bethlehem.

In all likelihood, Jesus was born in a house, with family around. Why? Because they went to their hometown. In that area, the Bible tells us other relatives lived (Elizabeth, Mary's cousin) and in those days, where people were not a transient as today and the populations were much smaller and hospitality was a premium, it is inconceivable that with the many family members around (both Mary and Joseph were from that area), that they would be turned out of hotels and sleeping in barns. Check the Bible. There is no innkeeper, no barn, no animals, etc.

IN ancient near east homes, it was common to NOT have many bedrooms. They were a luxury. Families normally slept all in one room. If a poor family had an upper room or a spare room, and there were many relatives in town --as there certainly were--then they would indeed have slept in that room. Where do we put the pregnant mother (who will need some privacy)?

Well, in those homes there was often an area where animals could come in from the cold. It is easy to conceive that this area was converted to a nursery, and the goat had to sleep outside.

There were shepherds. They were not guided by a star, but by information from Angels. The sign of the baby was that he was lying in a food bowl (manger). When they found the house, saw the baby, they told the people in the house all they saw on the hillside. The Bible says that "all who heard it were amazed" but that "Mary saved the words in her heart." The language of the Bible points to multiple people in the house, as we would expect in a family situation.

There you have it. Check the Bible.

As for December, we don't know when Jesus was born.

But don't think this takes away at all from Christmas. God is still becoming man. In fact, it shows he was less like a spectacle and more like us when he was born. It was still a virgin birth. Shepherds, poor as they were, came to welcome Him. That is appropriate, for He Himself was to be a Shepherd.

Merry Christmas to all.