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. What is the story of Jesus and the Bible all about? Ian nor the rest of the men on this blog don’t even see the pattern. Maybe it was fitting that shepherds outside Bethlehem should witness the birth of the new David, when the first David had looked after sheep on those same hills? To call first century Iudaea/Judea “Palestine” would be as anachronistic as referring to “Roman England”. We get this idea from Christmas carols, artwork, and other stories, but the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus do not indicate that He was born in a stable, a barn, or a cave. On the contrary, the term was used by Ovid in the fifth century BC with reference to the region as a whole, so it is not anachronistic to use it. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Instone-Brewer does make a very interesting follow-on suggestion that perhaps the shepherds were told first because of the fact that shame was one of the things that defined their occupation. Last modified on Thu 30 Nov 2017 02.36 GMT. If you enjoyed this, do share it on social media (Facebook or Twitter) using the buttons on the left. In the popular New International Version it reads: '[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son. Kenneth Bailey, who is renowned for his studies of first-century Palestinian culture, comments: Even if he has never been there before he can appear suddenly at the home of a distant cousin, recite his genealogy, and he is among friends. 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. Jesus) was born. I wish it were not so, but there we are. If any one thing has defined most Jews post-AD 70 it is that the vast majority have been urban dwellers, not pastoralists. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 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. Given the time frame above a quite substantial building, rather than a “hastily built annex” could have been built. This is true throughout the liturgical year, but it is especially painful to me at Christmas. 7) M & J live peacefully in Bethlehem until the baby is born. The Wiki entry is helpful here: ‘The first clear use of the term Palestine to refer to the entire area between Phoenicia and Egypt was in 5th century BCE Ancient Greece,[7][8] when Herodotus wrote of a “district of Syria, called Palaistinê” (Ancient Greek: Συρίη ἡ Παλαιστίνη καλεομένη)[9] in The Histories, which included the Judean mountains and the Jordan Rift Valley. While the Bible doesn’t use the word “stable,” it does say that the baby Jesus was laid in a manger—in other words, a feeding trough, which tells us they were in an area where animals were fed (Luke 2:7). People might even start asking questions about how we read the Bible and understand it for ourselves! But no man including Ian looked at the behavior pattern that ensued after Katie on December 3rd posted a very provocative question challenging the premise of the ‘shame’ position of this post. 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). Previous. “But Jesus wasn’t born in a stable, and, curiously, the New Testament hardly even hints that this might have been the case.”. Moreover the modern christmas story and practice is one that has little resemblance to the original in truth or action, I read it all. 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. Well, I am glad too! 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. And the etymology of the word is quite general. It is a complete fabrication of Western popular culture. I remembering noticing the place for cattle underneath the family home in houses in Switzerland. Another interesting conjecture. This makes no sense unless everyone lives in the one room! Ian, I really appreciate you writing about this every year. This objection also assumes that the events in Matthew’s Gospel take place immediately after Jesus was born. We cannot easily continue our normal routines and traditions, especially leaving our homes in order to travel to a cold and drafty building to make the once-a-year pilgrimage to a place of devotion, as so many do (and mostly do not return in the New Year). He was denounced to the inquisition for his pains and reprimanded by them, though not actually burned, tortured or imprisoned as might have happened to heretics. You are quite right that the areas under Roman jurisdiction were known as Judea and Samaria along with the other regions, as shown on the map here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_(Roman_province). I remember visited excavated houses at Chorazin, with roofs made of basalt blocks because of a lack of timber in the area. Ah, you’re creeping onto Know(man’s)land here! 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. Yes, but where? He was placed in a manger. C. Mary and Joseph had arrived in Bethlehem too late to find a room at the inn. – (i) In 5th C. BC Greece an inn used for the shelter of strangers (pandokian=’all receiving’). Ian’s motives are entirety honourable. 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. So Luke is definitely trying to tell us that Jesus’ birth was extraordinarily humble (laid in a manger) because of a ‘lack of room’. 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. Surrounded by farm animals, the Christ child is laid within a manger, a stable that was likely made of wood with hay on the ground. In Luke’s gospel this somewhat fits with the theme (though I know the wise men do not appear here), of Jesus looking for and finding ‘saving faith’ in surprising places. Really enjoyable, always informative (annual) read – thanks! 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. 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. Does anyone sell a ‘Palestinian house’ like you describe that can be used in a nativity set? Suppose Jesus was born eight months after they married—why would that be a cause of public shame? We already know this is Mary’s home town, and it would be usual for the woman to travel to the man’s home town (Joseph’s Bethlehem) to complete the betrothal ceremonies. There was no place or people group with that name. Although I have used the words “Palestine ” and “Palestinian” as geographical references before, I think this is probably wrong now. Details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria_Palaestina. Carlson’s contribution inspired me to try and put together a new narrative. Older versions translate this as ‘inn’: And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. I’m not a Biblical scholar, but I have a question in response to the threads regarding the shame Mary and Joseph may have experienced among relatives in Bethlehem. Simeon foresees this will happen (2.34), but there is nothing in these chapters to match Herod’s murderous intent. For some reason I have never been invited again to preach in Advent. Though the gospels do use some of these terms, they often refer to the land of Israel, especially Matthew and Luke, which of course is a term drawn from the OT (see eg Matt 2.20, 8.10, Luke 1.80, 7.9). 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. But is there any ancient evidence of this? Joseph was not a carpenter. 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. So Joseph and Mary must stay with the family itself, in the main room of the house, and there Mary gives birth. He believes that Bethlehem was not Joseph’s ancestral home, but his actual family home, for two reasons. Study Questions. I would assume she would tell her family what the angel said. The shame question is I think a cultural/contextual rather than a textual issue (and can be readily seen even today in GB amongst immigrant subcultures such as that in which my wife works). There was no such thing as a “Palestinian house” in the first century because there was no such place as “Palestine” before the Romans imposed that political name in AD 135. I agree the term “Judea” is a little untidy because it was also the name of the southern subdivision, but overall, the name of the Province was Iudaea, so something like “Roman Iudaea” seems the best descriptor, just as “Roman Britain” best denotes the other end of the Empire. It was Colin Chapman who, years ago, first put me on to Ken Bailey’s work. Unknowable but still interesting…. Decades of research have shown that men and women often behave differently in situations involving risk taking [34–37]. 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. 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). It does not detract from the fact Jesus came, died and rose again for us all; and that’s the important news. Worth also noting that the Jewish newspaper based in Jerusalem was called the Palestine Times, reflecting the pre-1948 use of the term in cultural, rather than political terms. I noted on a previous blog post on passages from Luke that the willing reception of Jesus by pious, observant Jews is also a prominent theme in Luke, and it puts the lie to the lazy progressive trope ‘Jesus was rejected by religious people’. So my conclusion is that the Greco-Roman name “Syria Palaestina” was not how the land was known by the actual inhabitants from the 2nd century BC until AD 135. David Instone Brewer’s article in this month’s Christianity magazine raises an interesting further angle on this – the place of shame in the story. 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