We all know the Christmas story. It was in the middle of winter when Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem on a donkey, because of an empire-wide census. They were told to have the baby in a stable by a kind/unkind innkeeper. The shepherds followed a star to the place where the family were. They were followed by three kings.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS STORY?
1 Nothing at all is said about the time of year when Jesus was born. It is a 1 chance in 365 that it was 25th December. It is more likely to have been spring, summer or autumn because the animals were living outside and the stable was available
2 We don’t know if Mary and Joseph had a donkey, or indeed at what stage they made the journey to Bethlehem. The phrase in Luke is “While they were there…” It could have been three days, three weeks or three months.
3 It is almost certain that there was no census when Jesus was born. A census was not permitted under Jewish law, as in the time of Herod. The first census took place when Jesus was about 12, in 6 A.D, when Judaea and Samaria was absorbed into the imperial system. The Jewish king Archelaus (who ruled from 4 BC to 6AD) had ruled so cruelly that the Romans sacked him. The emperor replaced him with Quirinius as legate governor of the whole of Syria, including Judaea and Samaria. One of his first tasks was conduct a census. See Wikipedia on Quirinius.
(However, I believe that Luke did have access to the genuine memories of Mary because of the story in Luke 2.41-51 when the 12-year old Jesus got left behind in Jerusalem. They might have had to travelled as a whole family to Bethlehem for the census. Luke misunderstood and may have conflated the two incidents. But this is guesswork!) 4 There was no inn. The Greek word used by Luke is the same as the upper room where Jesus had the last supper with his disciples. The word for an inn, as in the parable of the Good
Grotto of Jesus’ birthplace, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Samaritan, is quite different. The stable was simply the cave underneath the living space of the house. Mary gave birth there so she could have relative privacy. And no innkeeper! Sorry! 5 The shepherds did not follow a star, they just obeyed the angel’s summons. Bethlehem was not a big place. 6 There were no kings. There were “magi”, i.e. Persian astrologers who interpreted some remarkable sightings among the stars and came looking for the King of the Jews. We assume there were three because of the three gifts named, There might have been five magi, two of them being cheapskates!
GOOD EVIDENCE RE JESUS’ BIRTH
Out of the four gospels only Matthew and Luke give stories about his birth. They tell quite different stories, Matthew from Joseph’s perspective, Luke from Mary’s. But they have five key facts in common: 1 Jesus was born in the reign of Herod, “Herod the Great”, died 4 B.C. 2 Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus. 3 Joseph married her in spite of her condition. 4 An angel (which simply means messenger from God – wings not obligatory) gave the child the name of Jesus (God saves) before he was born. 5 He was born in Bethlehem. There is one more reference to his birth – surprisingly in the letter of St Paul to Christians in Rome (57 A.D.): “born of the seed of David according to the flesh”; which might support his being born in Bethlehem, the town of David.
The other bits of the Christmas story are only told once in either Matthew or Luke.
MATTHEW 1 An angel assures Joseph that the Holy Spirit was responsible for Mary’s condition. 2 Three magi calculated that a bright new star meant that there was a new King of the Jews. (I think it was a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which happened in 7 BC – an incredibly rare event which is noted in Babylonian records of the time. A similar visit by Babylonian astrologers happened in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero). The paranoid king Herod reacted by having all the young children below the age of two in Bethlehem killed (not out of character), whileMary, Jesus and Joseph fled as asylum seekers to Egypt.
from the exhibition”Jesus through Jewish eyes” – the Israel Museum
LUKE 1 There is a parallel story of the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who was too old to have children. 2 The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that the baby she will bear as a virgin will be called the Son of God. 3 Mary visits Elizabeth when Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant. 4 Shepherds outside Bethlehem are told about Jesus’ birth by an angel. 5 Jesus is circumcised. After 40 days they take him to the Temple in Jerusalem where two devout old people, Simeon and Anna prophesy over the child. So I find that there is reasonable historical evidence for the key facts about the birth of Jesus, and though he was probably not born at wintertime, he certainly was born, and why not celebrate it on December 25th, just as light is beginning to creep back over the world? If you want to see how the story really played out, take a look at the four part BBC series “The Nativity” (2011) which I think comes pretty close to making sense of it all. Happy Christmas!