What was Christmas Really Like?

Jesus was born in a warm, cozy, single room Jewish home, surrounded by members of the royal family… Wait… What? Wasn’t Jesus was born in a “cold tumble down stable.” It says so in the Children’s Storybook Bible and every Children’s Christmas program I’ve ever seen! The Innkeeper let him stay in the barn!

That was my reaction too. The possibility of anything else seemed absurd to me.

I too was taught that Jesus was born in a drafty stable because some meanie of an innkeeper told a pregnant woman there was no room in his hotel and that he ‘mercifully’ let Mary have the baby in the barn. I also have heard that perhaps Jesus was born in a cave. 

But, what if we strip away what we think we know about the birth story of Jesus and just focus on what Scripture says? That was one of the questions I asked myself a few years ago. I was recommended a book by Kenneth Bailey called Jesus Through Middle-Eastern Eyes, and he provided some cultural and scriptural insights that shook my understanding of Jesus birth (the following is some of his observations as well as my own). If we strip away all that we think we know about the birth story of Jesus and just look at Scripture, what will the picture be that we form in our imagination? 

First, consider where and why Joseph and Mary are going. Joseph was not going to some unknown place when he took Mary to Bethlehem. He was going to his hometown. So was the rest of his family. The census required that people return to their family’s hometown. Bethlehem, usually a small, quiet town, would have been bustling with people. Joseph and Mary would have been very close to their family. What are family reunions like? “Mary is about to give birth! Oh well, she’ll be fine out there in the barn by herself.” Talk about a cold hearted family. 

Second, are the people of Bethlehem, a small, rural community, just as cold hearted as Joseph’s family? Joseph wasn’t from some unknown family, he was a royal. In Matthew 1, we see clearly that he belonged to the line of David. In Matthew 21 on Palm Sunday, it seemed that most people knew Jesus was of the line of David. There was not a family more prominent in Israel than David’s family because of God’s promise to establish David’s Kingdom in 2 Samuel 7. It would be like if Prince Harry and Meghan came into a small town in northern England and she was about to give birth. Someone will provide a place for them. Anything other than that would be down right cruel and also a great offense to both the royal family and the town which refused shelter.

Was Bethlehem the only option for Joseph and Mary? Well… no, with a qualification. Mary had family nearby. Elizabeth, her cousin, lived in the hill country of Judea. Bethlehem was in the center of Judea and having traveled from Nazareth, it would have been possible to travel to Elizabeth’s place had they been unable to find accommodations. So let’s imagine that the first two observations and the assumptions about the people in Bethlehem fall through. The family really is the most cold hearted family you can imagine and secretly hate Mary and Joseph. On top of that, the whole town of Bethlehem is unlike any other town that has existed in history and would not care for a pregnant woman or at least find adequate shelter. Joseph and Mary still have options, if they have the time.

Now, consider the qualification previously mentioned, timing. Luke 2:6 states, “while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.” These words do not convey an urgency, as if Jesus had been born the day they arrived in Bethlehem. We don’t know the timeline for Mary and Joseph’s arrival but it doesn’t seem like her water broke while riding the donkey into town. (By the way, no donkey is mentioned in scripture surrounding the birth of Jesus, camels, or any of the other creatures in the typical nativity. However, it is likely that livestock was present. See below.)

This leads to another really important point of interest. In 1st century Judea, the most common home plan was not the rambler or the split level, it was a one room home with a guest room. The guest room was often attached to the back of the house or sometimes was a 2nd floor “prophet’s room.” This is the layout mentioned as early as 2 Kings 4:10. The main room would have been where the family worked, cooked, and ate together. When guests were present, this is where the family would sleep. 

Connected and down a couple steps, it was common to have a stable so you could bring your animals into the house at night. This provided security from thieves and warmth in the house from their body heat. Mangers would either be portable or built right into the main floor which was right at head level for a cow. This detail makes sense if you read the tragic account of Jephthah’s return home after battling the Ammonites Judges 11:29-40. Jephthah had made a vow to sacrifice as a burnt offering of whatever first came out of the doors of his house to meet him when he returned. Why on earth would he make such a vow if he even remotely thought that his daughter would come forth before the animals?

Here are a couple pictures depicting what a typical Jewish house would have looked like.

One of the most eye opening things about the Christmas story that we discover when we read through and cling to the text is the lack of an innkeeper. That’s right! No mean old innkeeper is mentioned. Luke 2:7 simply says “there was no place for them in the inn.” So what could this mean if it is not some sort of lodging place, similar to what we would think of as a hotel?

This is where there is some interesting things to note in the original language, so bare with me. The first word to consider is the Greek word topos. According to a number of Greek dictionaries, the primary meaning of topos is, “place.” That said, it is possible to also translate topos as “room.” This is how the King James Version translates the word topos and is a possibility. However, it would seem more appropriate, according to regular usage of the word as well as the context, to translate it in the more common way, “place.” So, it would mean that there is no place in the “katalyma,” or “inn.”

So that leads me to our next little word study, and if you use an ESV Bible, you may have a footnote here. The word we commonly read here is inn, but the footnote denotes a preferred translation here as, “guest room.” We see the word katalyma three times in the New Testament and in both Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11 it is translated as “guest room.” Both of these texts are in the setting of Jesus looking for a guest room to celebrate the Passover. There is another word in Greek that does mean a boarding house or inn and the Holy Spirit could have used it just as he did in the parable of the Good Samaritan, but he didn’t. Jesus wasn’t looking for a hotel, and neither, it seems, were Joseph and Mary. They were looking for a guest room.

I can go on, but I’ll cut to the point. Scripture doesn’t say Jesus was born in a stable. Scripture doesn’t say Jesus was born in a cave. It says he was born in Bethlehem. It seems to pretty clearly say there was no room in the guestroom. This guest room would more than likely have been in the home of a family member or some sort of relation. This home would have been bursting at the seams with family who were in town for the census. 

So where was Jesus born? In the barn with three walls! Certainly not. Their host family would not have allowed such a travesty to occur. So Joseph’s family provided what they could, their own quarters in the main part of the home. And the bed for the baby? A manger which was right there in the house from which the animals normally would have eaten: the 1st century equivalent of being swaddled in a laundry basket. 

So to recap, what was Christmas really like? It is possible, and I don’t think we have to be overly dogmatic about it, but it is very probable that Jesus was born in a warm, cozy, single room Jewish home, surrounded by members of the royal family. Since there were so many people in the guest room, where Mary and Joseph would have normally been quartered, the host family self sacrificially allowed Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to reside in the main room.

Maybe this wrecks some cute Christmas Programs for you. If it does, join the club. I think one of the biggest applications that I take from my study of the subject is to be careful about what we teach our children. A cute play can become dogma to them.

Keep your eyes open; Jesus is coming. Happy Advent.

*The pictures from this article are from Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey.

This article was originally published by Pr. Schultz in 2017.