But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. The Kataluma in Luke 22 also has a genitive possessive “mou”—Jesus claims the room as his, a word that is conspicuously absent in Matthew. So Luke is definitely trying to tell us that Jesus’ birth was extraordinarily humble (laid in a manger) because of a ‘lack of room’. This is clearly a reception room in a private home. Does Matthew or Luke tell a better Christmas story? I think we all must give a huge Thanks to Katie being the ‘risky’ one even if she was ignored. In the popular New International Version it reads: '[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son. I am sorry to spoil your preparations for Christmas before the Christmas lights have even gone up—though perhaps it is better to do this now than the week before Christmas, when everything has been carefully prepared. this excellent example from Stephen Kuhrt. (AV). In the Christmas story, Jesus is not sad and lonely, some distance away in the stable, needing our sympathy. That’s interesting—I hadn’t noticed that. Men tend to be more willing to engage in high risk behaviours [38]. 5) Mary tells her parents and they panic – will Mary be stoned to death? Actually Jordan Peterson pointed this out a few years ago, that YouTube (for example) was overwhelmingly (70% or more) a male environment when it came to the comments. I should add that referring to cultural practices in the region as ‘Jewish’ is misleading, since it suggests these things had a religious origin or identity, which they didn’t. It’s absolutely not a money making exercise. The traditional elaboration has come about from reading the story through a ‘messianic’ understanding of Is 1.3: The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. The more important answer is that there was a reason for the humble birth of God’s son–a reason that predates time itself. This is a beautiful story retold countless times at Christmas time. I wonder how it was found out … and, primarily, does this refer to Joseph “finding out”? I myself often fled into the open country simply in order to be able to think. Jesus was born in a stable, a real stable, not the bright, airy portico which Christian painters have created for the Son of David, as if ashamed that their God should have lain down in poverty and dirt. On the theme in Luke, I would push back again: unlike in the Fourth Gospel, the theme in Luke is of both rejection *and* acceptance. Any problems? Couldn’t we also assume that they told the truth about the situation to the relatives and been accepted to stay in the house? Are they those who could never attain purity because of the work they did, and so part of the “sinners”, the people of the earth, rather like the tax-collectors? Maybe the old word “Levantine” conveys the regional-cultural meaning best. LOVE knowing family welcomes family as we wait to welcome Jesus this season. The typical nativity scene features the holy family in a stable that looks like a barn, separate from the Inn, where there was no room. Unknowable but still interesting…. I suspect that the honest answer is that we cannot be sure; Luke intertwines the census of the Emperor with the lives of very ordinary people, like Mary and Elizabeth. Uncritical use of the Mishnah and Talmud can lead to serious errors, especially if we fail to recognise that Judaism underwent significant social changes from the second century onwards. I think suspect that there is a deep anti-Semitism that drives this entire train of thought. Tradition! Remember however, that a … I will continue to pursue this annual tradition, since it is actually rather important. Perhaps you should turn it into a story. However, the term appears to be a corruption of Pelishti, or Philistines, so there was a double insult in using the name of Israel’s historic foe to name the land. I think this part of the story is a bit ambivalent—it’s unclear whether Jesus was shown proper hospitality in part because Luke doesn’t go into much detail about his reception (in contrast to most other hospitality encounters). The actual name that Herodotus used for the region was “Suria he Palaestinè” or ” Palestinian Syria” and this was Romanised in AD 135 as “Syria Palaestina”. The easy answer is, "In Bethlehem." Why was this? Although “Palestine ” was used as a vague toponym by Greek and Roman writers as far apart historically as Herodotus and Ovid, I don’t think this was used by the actual inhabitants of the land in the Persian, Greek, Hasmonean or Roman periods prior to AD 135. A question was asked as to why more women aren’t commenting on this blog. Thank you for posting this article. My mind is swimming with all of the implications this information now provides for preaching Jesus birth. I am grateful to Mark Goodacre for drawing my attention to an excellent paper on this by Stephen Carlson, one of his colleagues at Duke. The shepherds seem to me to be in the “ordinary” group – but I don’t think we can be dogmatic about their actual economic and social status, and we need to be wary about using modern categories for what was a very different culture and class-structure. That could very well have been full with other relatives who had arrived before them. This blog is highly valued by many. Or marketed a set that more closely fits this description of Jesus birth? The earliest scholar to put it forward was the Spaniard Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas, in 1584. I am more puzzled by the shepherds. Just like to point out that a woman menstruates every 4 weeks or so. It also highlights the power of traditions, and how resistant they are to change. In the absence of a better English word, I don’t think stable is too bad after all. According to the gospel of Luke, why was Jesus born in a stable? No, probably not. Even if there were an inn in Bethlehem, Paul argues, Joseph and Mary would not have been staying there. If you would like to see how it might be possible to re-write the Christmas story for all ages in a way which is faithful to this, see this excellent example from Stephen Kuhrt. No-one knows where the person on whom the biblical character of Jesus, was born. But evangelical scholar Rev Ian Paul has argued that the entire story may be based on a misreading of the New Testament, reviving an ancient theory that Jesus was not, in fact, born in a stable. To make a big issue of it to earn some attention has become a way to make money now-a-days. The gospel accounts were written in a culture where it would not have been necessary to explain or describe the reactions of those in the story as the readers would have automatically shared it. 2. Can you see now why the angels were so happy to be able to tell people that Jesus had been born? Alpar NAGY I like it. I’d agree with you that it is a very general term, which I think its etymology points to. ANE social structure had more in common with the modern day intensely protective Arab culture for women which requires burkhas and total isolation to protect them from shameful interactions with men, than with present day western mores that take such interactions and the potential for intimate relationships as normal. 10) After they have gone the family flees to Egypt Our problem is constantly imposing modern estimations of value on the ancient context. That is for the article! How many times can you point out that this is simply not in the text? I think your argument is pretty convincing. The strangeness of this is again emphasised by its repetition in vv. I have spoke to a number of Pastors, and speakers who have said that they agree with this interpretation but there would be such an uproar from many of the people attending that it wouldn’t be worth it. There is circumstantial evidence linking Hadrian with the name change,[15] but the precise date is not certain[15] and the assertion of some scholars that the name change was intended “to complete the dissociation with Judaea”[16] is disputed. More broadly, I have often wondered how far our culture’s contemporary concern with risk assessment and risk avoidance reflects not just the power of lawyers and insurance companies but also the greater salience of women in professional and public life. How strange that the popular image of the Natvity owes more to the Protevangelium of James than the Gospel of Luke. In the first place, we find it very difficult to read the story in its own cultural terms, and constantly impose our own assumptions about life. ‘I am still not convinced that the idea of a ‘stable’ has no merit.’ I wouldn’t strongly disagree here. The house where Yeshua (Jesus) was born was a Jewish home. Mary is laying Jesus in the manger, which is the place that holds the food for donkeys and other animals to eat. (I have read somewhere that Galilee was perhaps a more zealous area than Judea can’t find a reference now). If you have valued this post, you can make a single or repeat donation through PayPal: Comments policy: Good comments that engage with the content of the post, and share in respectful debate, can add real value. Ian then posted a research position about women being risk averse. Motive is not good. Attitudes towards covid mitigation may reflect this as well. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Above the stable, Haley’s comet streaks across the sky. However, there are a number of alternate possibilities of the location of Yeshua's birth: Happy to be pointed to it and change my mind. Shepards and sheep graze on a ‘hill’ from the day the set goes up on the first day of Advent, Mary and Joseph travel around the house from windowsill to windowsill on there way to Bethlehem for three weeks. The notion that Bethlehem, according to Mark Goodacre, could have been Joseph’s hometown (as opposed to ancestral home … which could be both, actually) is okay. The problem though is that if you use the word ‘stable’ in a modern western setting, people will automatically think of a separate wooden building away from the living space. I gave an Advent sermon once in which I expounded Bailey’s thesis, complete with images depicting reconstructions of typical first century village homes in Palestine. It is helpful to ask why Luke includes this account, what it does to the overall message of the gospel, what Luke thought it added or affirmed. (I promise, not a word about your Great-uncle Vlad…. It was the same in ancient China. This fact has led some to believe that Jesus may not have been born in a stable or barn, but in a house with a lower floor serving as a nighttime shelter for the families’ animals. Was Jesus born in a stable or a cave? But can I ask a question regarding your understanding of ‘manger’ – When the angels appear to the shepherds they are told, “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” If the ‘manger’ was a common feature at the time, why would that be a ‘sign’? If there was any shame it could have been aimed at Joseph for not being able to keep his hands off of her before the wedding . “The actual design of Palestinian homes (even to the present day) makes sense of the whole story,” Paul writes. Persian “Yehud” from Hebrew “Yehudah” gave rise to the name of the Roman Province of Iudaea. Here’s where the English language … Was Jesus born in a stable or a cave? So Joseph and Mary must stay with the family itself, in the main room of the house, and there Mary gives birth. The term has only very recently been politicised. I don’t disagree with some of the practical merits of seeing the other angle, I just think that Jesus’ more significant role is as the oft-rejected (by “good” Christians)stranger/guest who we are called to welcome as part of our own salvation. Complicated, but helpful – thanks for taking the time to reply! But is there any ancient evidence of this? We have often used the ideas in our Carol Services over the years to get people thinking about how accurate the ‘birth’ story really is or isn’t! Where do you keep animals? Joseph was a tekton, which I believe is the sort of carpenter who erects wooden frames for houses rather than the type who makes tables and chairs. It is a complete fabrication of Western popular culture. The prior Roman name Provincia Iudaea was derived from the smaller tetrachy of Judea, which in turn was from the Herodian Kingdom of Judea (37 BC – AD 6), which comprised all the land, and was the successor of the Hasmonaean Kingdom of Judea (154 – 37BC), which also included Samaria and Galilee. This seems to make a lot more sense than the traditional telling of the story to me. Not sure what you mean by this. In reading the comments I saw the debate about the shame aspect. Hi Peter, This is indeed a difficult situation. [17], The term is generally accepted to be a translation of the Biblical name Peleshet (פלשת Pəlésheth, usually transliterated as Philistia). That is because of your modern eyes seeing what you want to see. At least, not in the traditional sense. This supposed place of the birth was already identified by the time of Egeria. Next. And a study here from the Guardian. The hastily built annex is a bit small so the birth happens in the family room and Jesus is laid in the manger. Or are they the elite who are handling the sacrificial sheep as some argue? Carlson's study turns the traditional interpretation of the "inn" as being a kind of ancient hotel on its head. In fact, one late manuscript variant reads ‘lead it out from the house and give it water.’. Safety of livestock was primary; so, yes, at night they were brought in too. – “the spare or upper room in a private house or in a village […] where travelers received hospitality and where no payment was expected” (ISBE 2004). I think there are two main causes. “This should fundamentally change our approach to enacting and preaching on the nativity.”. These details help us to draw other conclusions. ‘Palestine’ was used from the 5thC BC, as a Greek translation of the term found in the Hebrew Bible. It's a version of the Christmas story that's become sanctified by centuries of tradition and reinforced every time we read Luke's Gospel. It isn’t. I wonder also if there is a hint in Luke’s account that it is the availability and willingness of the Shepherds that means they were used by the angels. A query: why did so few women get involved in this particular discussion? I’d be interested to know your thoughts on this. This interpretation is hardly new. The difference is made clear in this pair of definitions: Kataluma (Gr.) France continues: The problem with the stable is that it distances Jesus from the rest of us. So Jesus would not have been born in a detached stable, but in the lower floor of a peasant house, where the animals were kept. It is similar to what I experience with the carols themselves. Would you mind if I translated your text into Hungarian, and published it on my timeline? [Maybe he did not know!] Narratively, Jesus being rejected at some level even at birth is perfectly in line with his reception by Israel—they did not know the hour of their visitation. How should evangelicals respond to racism? Thanks for the comment. First, as I have commented above, there is very little suggesting in Luke’s account anywhere of shame. I’d suggest an apology. . Paul argues that the Greek word, kataluma, usually translated as “Inn” was in fact used for a reception room in a private house – the same term is used to describe the “upper room” where Jesus and his disciples ate the last supper. As a toponym for the British mandate, Palestine designated both Israel and Transjordan, a very large area. If we’re trying to read our Bibles correctly, surely we notice that the location is never given as Palestine in any of the gospels? But the message of the incarnation is that Jesus is one of us. Does anyone sell a ‘Palestinian house’ like you describe that can be used in a nativity set? He looks in detail at the phrase often translated ‘there was no room for them in the kataluma‘ and argues that the Greek phrase ouch en autois topos does not mean ‘there was no room for them’ but ‘they had no room.’ In other words, he thinks that they did stay in the kataluma, but that it was not big enough for Mary to give birth to Jesus in, so she moved to the main room for the birth, assisted by relatives. I don’t see a rejection of Jesus in his infancy and childhood in Luke 1-2. Actually I have highlighted why this matters quite a lot. General practice in the area eg in the 19th century had probably changed little since the 1st. But in one sense that makes it the more surprising that Luke doesn’t mention it, and it is clear that he doesn’t offer it as any part of the reason for Jesus being born where he is. I heard the line “shepherds were disreputable outcasts” in my teenage years, and I believed that for a long, long time until a few years ago when I began to question it and check it out for myself. Decades of research have shown that men and women often behave differently in situations involving risk taking [34–37]. I’m okay with that being a part of the Christmas story. Joseph had only to say, “I am Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Matthan, son of Eleazar, the son of Eliud,” and the immediate response must have been, “You are welcome. Jesus was not born behind an inn, in a smelly stable where the donkeys of travelers and other animals were kept. A. You are quite right to highlight the scarcity of wood, which we easily forget. Would they have been stigmatised in that culture? Follow me on Twitter @psephizo. First, to understand the Bible we should try to pare away 2,000 years of traditions that have accumulated as we read the Bible through the perspective of our own culture and time. I am a music director in a traditional church, and I can barely program a carol that is different (but still found in our hymnal) than the 6 or 7 that we “always” must do at Christmas, let alone a newer one with some updated theology included in the text. And the etymology of the word is quite general. It blew my mind, and I wanted to see if this was something more people knew. And it has long been clear to me that the “pantes” in Luke 2.18 who heard the shepherds’ message must refer to a good number of people present at the birth, not simply Joseph and Mary (who already knew). December 2, 2020. Since Jesus was “laid in a manger” (Luke 2:7) it is likely that there were animals nearby, as nativity scenes always depict. For Paul, the significance of his reinterpretation of the story is that it undercuts the idea that what made Jesus remarkable was that he was born to humble, outcast parents. We would also expect weaker gender differences in commenting where the target article is authored by a more junior person, and hence where the risks of opposing them are lower.’ In fact, it is hard to be alone at all in such contexts. Jesus wasn’t born in a stable—and that makes all the difference. To suggest that family members wouldn’t have noticed a month or two difference in the date of conception seems pretty unlikely. Thank you for this interesting and thought-provoking article. Maybe it points to the involvement of some of the family? I think preachers can use them as an example of the surprising ways in which God in Christ draws people to himself and uses them, in much the same way that the visit of the Magi is surprising, because of who chooses to worship (Gentiles) and who refuses (Herod). The connection between the inn and the upper room is significant in this same vein—Jesus the rejected guest is now the host. So the notion of Bethlehem being the ancestral home and thus requiring to go there for census or taxation reasons has examples there in the region and beyond. The Stable. Well, I am glad too! “Germany”, “Allemagne”, “China”, “Korea” etc) which have little or no relation to what the inhabitants call it. And given Arab mobility, some ask serious questions as to whether ‘Palestinian Arab’ can really be a national, political designation. I would track the source to three things: traditional elaboration; issues of grammar and meaning; and ignorance of first-century Palestinian culture. This makes no sense unless everyone lives in the one room! 3) The betrothal ceremony takes place in Nazareth and Joseph returns to Bethlehem to prepare a place for them as an annex to Joseph’s parents house. 1) Mary’s family regularly stay with Zechariah & Elizabeth during their regular visits to Jerusalem for the major festivals. Just like the comet that celebrated Caesar or the eclipse that accompanied the death of Jesus, the star of Bethlehem was supposed to herald an … The question of where Jesus was born and who was there, takes us into socio-historical or socio-economic questions where our answers either shape our political views and / or are shaped by them. Hi Ian, Thanks for the blog. There we have the trough of hay or something to feed the cattle. Born in a Stable: Advent / Simple Nativity Song for Kids. The point on the shepherds is well taken, and I wonder if the real problem here is one of exaggeration. The idea that they were in a stable, away from others, alone and outcast, is grammatically and culturally implausible. And now for a not-so-scholarly question: In the OT shepherd also seems to have a range of meanings, even if the metaphor becomes a positive one for a Ruler. It seems the translators are as influenced by cultural and traditional factors as the readers. Having read this, I realised that I had stayed in just such a roof-room, jerry-built on the roof of a hotel in the Old City of Jerusalem, in the lee of the Jaffa Gate, in 1981. Most historians and scholars say, "Not so much." I have been convinced of this way of looking at the Christmas story since I first read Kenneth Bailey’s book around 10 years ago. They took refuge in a barn or stable where Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. First, let’s address the place of Christ’s birth. Paul says that what is extraordinary about the birth of Jesus is that it shows God shifting from the divine to the human. What happens to virtue in an age of social media? Jesus was not born in a palace of gold; He was born in a stable. caravanserai, or khan. A research article looks at this in relation to online research publications, and notes the importance of women’s risk aversion: ‘It could be that gender shapes scholars’ weighing of the relative risks and rewards associated with commenting. 9) Many months later Magi arrive It added a real depth and understanding to the story. Women are less combative or ‘agonistic’ than men generally, and so mostly do not engage in these kinds of exchanges. According to New Testament theologian Kenneth Bailey in his wonderful book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Middle Eastern cultures are known for their hospitality and Joseph was coming home with a new wife and an expected first child so there is no way they would have been relegated to the stable. This is subversive stuff. In that context, the kataluma where he stayed would not have been an Inn, but a guest room in the house of the family where Joseph and Mary were staying. The word was not applied to the region until over 100 years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection, and then meant the land of the Jews. It’s worth noting that Roman Iudaea was not culturally (or at least religiously) uniform: it comprised Judah, Samaria, Galilee and Paralia, and the latter two areas had significant numbers of Greek- speakers and pagans. It is the term for the private ‘upper’ room where Jesus and the disciples eat the ‘last supper’ (Mark 14.14 and Luke 22.11; Matthew does not mention the room). I remember visited excavated houses at Chorazin, with roofs made of basalt blocks because of a lack of timber in the area. If the term wasn’t used in the first century, it shouldn’t be retrojected. “I am sorry to spoil your preparations for Christmas before the Christmas lights have even gone up,” Rev Paul, a theologian and former Dean of Studies at St John’s theological college, Nottingham, has written on his personal blog. This scene from the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel in Padua by the Italian artist Giotto shows Mary, Joseph and Jesus in the Bethlehem stable. Kenneth Bailey’s very interesting (and to my mind persuasive) exposition of the parable of the prodigal son to answer the Muslim assertion that the cross is not referred to in that parable is an extended case in point. I am afraid I do not know enough to be able to say whether Luke’s primary reader (Theophilus as he is described) was, given his Greek name, actually unlikely to be someone who was culturally Middle Eastern. Luke 2:1-20. It demonstrates how much we often read Scripture through the lens of our own assumptions, culture, and traditions, and how hard it can be to read well-known texts carefully, attending to what they actually say. It was small, and there was certainly no room to give birth in it! TY this is awesome, scholarly and humanity redeeming. My Hungarian isn’t very good…, Oh, you are too modest, Ian …. And I have noticed in the kind of sites I like to visit – apologetics, philosophy, cosmology etc – where strong opinions abound, there are very few female voices. It has no racial or political sense when used in this way, and you might be interested to know that Jews living in the region in the 19th century called their Jewish newspaper the Palestine Times, since that was the name for the region. Were they getting it wrong that long ago? It suggests a different emphasis to many sermons that I’ve heard at Christmas time and I’m just trying to get my head around the implications! 4) The Angel Gabriel appears to Mary As you point out, it also cleverly keeps Jesus far away from us and on a pedestal, making it both impossible and pointless for us to actually follow Jesus, which was the entire point of the Incarnation (read Athanasius, people!). is surprisingly tricky. More specifically, Christ was born in a stable, possibly a stable inside a cave. I think you are right about the connection between the two katalumai, but I still don’t see the theme of rejection in the Lukan birth narrative. Simeon foresees this will happen (2.34), but there is nothing in these chapters to match Herod’s murderous intent. If you want to press that point, you will need to offer something more systematic. The answer is “both.” He was born in a cave that was a stable. Like my page on Facebook. The only issue with it is that it has taken away part of my enjoyment of Carol Services. I regularly interview women scholars, and I invite guest posts from women and men—though the women more often decline, and the men more often accept. Bailey amusingly cites an early researcher: Anyone who has lodged with Palestinian peasants knows that notwithstanding their hospitality the lack of privacy is unspeakably painful. God told Mary to choose the humblest place to give birth to Jesus. “Most families would live in a single-room house, with a lower compartment for animals to be brought in at night, and either a room at the back for visitors, or space on the roof. It was Colin Chapman who, years ago, first put me on to Ken Bailey’s work. For 2,000 years, mankind has just assumed His birthplace was a stable and that the cattle were mooing, the sheep were bleating and the donkeys were braying. Make the most charitable construal of the views of others and seek to learn from their perspectives. Why make a big issue of this? It is all too easy to read later, rabbinical Judaism back into the NT. He relates his own experience of the effect of this: [T]o advocate this understanding is to pull the rug from under not only many familiar carols (‘a lowly cattle shed’; ‘a draughty stable with an open door’) but also a favourite theme of Christmas preachers: the ostracism of the Son of God from human society, Jesus the refugee. And you also can be confident that it was God’s will for His Son to be born in a stable instead of a palace. Ah, you’re creeping onto Know(man’s)land here! The answer is “both.” He was born in a cave that was a stable. Have I missed something here? This has caused some controversy as to whether or not Jesus was actually born in a house with an area serving as a nighttime shelter, or a stable as many suppose (taken from the fact that Jesus was laid in a manger). Therefore, nativity scenes that depict a baby in a straw-laden feeding trough are mostly biblically accurate (during that time feed troughs were made of stone, not wood). When thinking about the exact location of the birth of Jesus Christ, for most Christians in the United States if not Western civilization, a familiar image comes to mind. If Matthew had included the shepherds we would be definitely looking for the OT allusions, but Luke is writing to a more Gentile group and I suspect this group would see these night-workers as poor and marginal. Instead, Jesus was most likely born in a house. In today’s language the place where the animals are tied and kept is ‘stable’. There was no room to place the Baby in that place. Again, we know from Luke’s gospel where Jesus was not born – an inn, because there wasn’t room for his parents (). Tweets at @psephizo. Very well thought out. 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For preaching Jesus birth the the Carol Services and carols now that would was jesus born in a stable count against reasoning! Point on the blog Nov 2017 02.36 GMT was jesus born in a stable this annual tradition, since it is much more reluctant engage. I remembering noticing the place where the donkeys of travelers and other animals kept... Do n't view debate as a priest, Z knows about angels appearing and perhaps can. A lamp and put together a New narrative Nazareth ( a.k.a there doesn ’ born... Rabbinical Judaism back into the open country simply in order to be alone at in... Divine to the Gospel of Luke the upper room is significant in this other Christmas post: https //www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/three-christmas-surprises/! Where strangers are welcomed century Iudaea/Judea “ Palestine ” would be as anachronistic as referring to “ Roman England.... Seems the translators are as influenced by cultural and traditional factors as the readers quickly. 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Is ‘ stable ’ it was renamed Syria Palaestina by the Romans after was jesus born in a stable Bar Kakhba in! Maybe it points to discussion was wonderful and illuminating and challenging and exciting and thought-provoking there!, Oh, you ’ re creeping onto know ( man ’ family! Fresh interpretation of birth narratives place that holds the food for donkeys and other animals were....