Ken Bailey in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes asks some interesting questions regarding the traditional nativity story which we're accustomed to seeing every year in displays, figurines, and Christmas pageants...
1. Why was there no one in Bethlehem (their own hometown) that could provide Joseph and Mary lodging for the birth of Jesus? Hospitality isn't a nice gesture in the middle east. A family's honor, not to mention the honor of an entire village, is often at stake. Surely being Joseph's hometown it seems to hard to believe he and his wife would have been left out in a barn/stable/cave to stay, says Bailey.
2. Bailey continues, “simple rural communities the world over always assist one of their own women in childbirth regardless of the circumstances. Are we to imagine that Bethlehem was an exception? Was there no sense of honor in Bethlehem?... [It would have been] an unspeakable shame on the entire village.”
3. According to the traditional story, why would the shepherds, after visiting the baby Jesus in a animal stable or cave, have not invited them into one of their homes? Are we to believe that they rejoiced and praised God that they had seen the birth of the new king and then left this family in an animal pin?
4. Bailey also points out interestingly, “Joseph had time to make adequate arrangements. Luke 2:4 says that Joseph and Mary ‘went up from Galilee to Judea,’ and verse 6 states, ‘while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.’ The average Christian thinks that Jesus was born the same night the holy family arrived –hence Joseph's haste and willingness to accept any shelter, even the shelter of a stable.”
These problems get resolved, says Bailey, by getting a better answer to two questions: Where was the manger? And what was the “inn”? He uses a background study to make the case that mangers were traditionally held in the homes of the average villager and uses a word study to make the case that “inn” is better translated “guestroom.” –not a commercial inn. It is the same word translated “upper room” in Luke 22:10-12. In sum, he argues it is far more likely Jesus was born in an average villager's home, not outdoors in a stable or cave. Very interesting. Worth reading even just the first chapter.
It reminds me of how much I still read the scriptures through my own interpretive lens.
1. Why was there no one in Bethlehem (their own hometown) that could provide Joseph and Mary lodging for the birth of Jesus? Hospitality isn't a nice gesture in the middle east. A family's honor, not to mention the honor of an entire village, is often at stake. Surely being Joseph's hometown it seems to hard to believe he and his wife would have been left out in a barn/stable/cave to stay, says Bailey.
2. Bailey continues, “simple rural communities the world over always assist one of their own women in childbirth regardless of the circumstances. Are we to imagine that Bethlehem was an exception? Was there no sense of honor in Bethlehem?... [It would have been] an unspeakable shame on the entire village.”
3. According to the traditional story, why would the shepherds, after visiting the baby Jesus in a animal stable or cave, have not invited them into one of their homes? Are we to believe that they rejoiced and praised God that they had seen the birth of the new king and then left this family in an animal pin?
4. Bailey also points out interestingly, “Joseph had time to make adequate arrangements. Luke 2:4 says that Joseph and Mary ‘went up from Galilee to Judea,’ and verse 6 states, ‘while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.’ The average Christian thinks that Jesus was born the same night the holy family arrived –hence Joseph's haste and willingness to accept any shelter, even the shelter of a stable.”
These problems get resolved, says Bailey, by getting a better answer to two questions: Where was the manger? And what was the “inn”? He uses a background study to make the case that mangers were traditionally held in the homes of the average villager and uses a word study to make the case that “inn” is better translated “guestroom.” –not a commercial inn. It is the same word translated “upper room” in Luke 22:10-12. In sum, he argues it is far more likely Jesus was born in an average villager's home, not outdoors in a stable or cave. Very interesting. Worth reading even just the first chapter.
It reminds me of how much I still read the scriptures through my own interpretive lens.
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