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Musing On Biblical Themes

Was Christmas Like This?

Most popular images of the first Christmas don’t get the story quite right and I think that matters.

We all know the Christmas story; it’s depicted on Christmas cards, crib scenes. Joseph, Mary (and the wee donkey) made there way to Bethlehem, were refused a room by the inn keeper and so Mary had to give birth to the baby Jesus in a stable, where she serenely welcomed angels, shepherds and wise men (and a drummer boy?).

The thing is, the Bible doesn’t actually give a lot of detail about the first Christmas and so we have filled in some details through tradition, sentiment and a misreading of what the Bible actually does so.

In what follows, I will try to stick to what the Bible does say, but I will fill in some details from my reading of history and my experience of living in other cultures around the world. What results, is – I believe – a more believable story and hopefully, one which is closer to the reality than our traditional reading.

The first thing to realise is that Joseph and Mary were poor; by our standards they would have lived in unbelievable poverty. Perhaps they had a donkey, but they almost certainly didn’t have the fine robes that they are generally pictures as wearing. They probably had two sets of clothes, worn ones for everyday and newer ones for special events.

They went to Bethlehem because of a tax/census that required everyone to return to their ancestral home; which in Joseph’s case was Bethlehem. They didn’t receive this demand by email or post; someone went from town to town, reading out the proclamation. Now doubt it was backed up by a lot of muscle. You can’t imagine Joseph being keen to drag his pregnant wife on a trip that was 100 miles each way or to lose the income from his job for an indeterminate period. I’m sure that there were Roman heavies around ensuring that people did move and Jewish informers pointing out to them, who belonged where.

Walking a hundred miles over tough terrain is hard going. I know, I’ve tried it. The road to Bethlehem wasn’t a nice graded route, it was more a track or a footpath and Mary and Joseph weren’t wearing good hiking boots. Then again, they were young and used to physical labour. It’s hard to know how long the journey would have taken them, but it could be anything from four days to a week. No doubt, they had plenty of company on the way, because lots of people would have been disrupted by the tax. They wouldn’t have had a lot of baggage to carry; they probably didn’t own that much. I suspect that Joseph carried some of his tools as he would need to earn some money or pay for his keep on the way. Middle Eastern hospitality can only carry you so far.

Joseph’s family were from Bethlehem, so when they arrived there, they would have looked up some of his relations. The last thing they would have done is to have gone to an inn. This is where the mistranslation comes in. The Greek word that gets translated as “inn” in some Bibles is better rendered guest room (read this article if you want more on this). Far from being cast out into the snow by some cruel innkeeper, Mary and Joseph were welcomed into the family home and given the only space that was available; the downstairs room that some family members shared with the animals. Presumably other family members had got there before Joseph and Mary and had snagged the best room. It might seem cruel to us to put a pregnant girl in the roughest room in the house, but to be honest, the guest room probably wasn’t much better and anyway; in those contexts a young girl would be expected to give way to higher status family members (by which read, older and male).

While they were in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. We don’t know what happened, but I’m sure she screamed and she called out for her mother. There was no gas and air or epidural available to her. However, the women in Joseph’s family would have surrounded her and cared for her. No doubt some of the older women had skill and experience in midwifery and they would have done what they could. The notion of a young girl being left to give birth alone in a stable in such a relational culture is patently absurd.

Joseph probably paced around outside, while the men in the family offered him glasses of wine and made inappropriate jokes – things haven’t changed that much!

So, we have Mary in the family room, cradling her baby. She is tired, she is sore and she desperately wants to sleep but a bunch of smelly shepherds turn up from the hills to see the baby. It’s probably the last thing she wanted, but hospitality rules meant that the family would usher them in to see Mary and the child.

It’s not a pretty story. It’s about a young couple who were forced to take on a difficult journey at the whim of a colonial power. It’s about poverty and tiredness and suffering. The amazing thing is that Mary had the presence of mind to remember everything that happened and to reflect on it.

So why am I bothering to split hairs like this? Why spoil a perfectly pretty Christmas story by bringing in poverty, screaming and family members rallying round?

The thing is, Jesus was born into a normal family at a specific time and a specific place. At a point in history, where most people were exceptionally poor, Jesus came to a family living in poverty. He didn’t float down from heaven to a beatific mother in a blue robe. He was born as you and I were, in pain and a bit of chaos.

Jesus was real. He didn’t float around six inches off the ground in a nightie that never got dirty. He lived a real life, with a real birth and ultimately a real death. He was more than human, but he was never less than human.

Because of this, he can identify with us and ultimately – if we permit him – he can revolutionise our lives.

I have probably got a lot of details wrong, but I would argue that my retelling is much closer to the original events than our normal sanitised Christmas card story.

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8 replies on “Was Christmas Like This?”

Kenneth Bailey’s book ‘Jesus Through Midde-Eastern Eyes’ is brilliant on this and other New Testament accounts.

If you stuck to the bible on what it says about Christmas, your article would be totally blank, not a single word because that is exactly what the bible says about Christmas. Christ demanded we remember and set forth his death, not his birth. You along with millions more have made a holiday out of something the bible is silent about, and which apparently our Savior had not intent for us to remember.

You say the words “Son of God” isn’t mentioned in the Bible that may be true BUT God speaking to us it is mentioned several time where God is saying “this is my Son” so wouldn’t you believe that Jesus is the “Son of God?” God is saying Himself “this is my Son listen to Him”
Mark 9:7

Where in this post do I say anything like that? I’m sorry, I’ve reread it a number of times and I can’t tell to what you are referring.

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