I. A Reality Check
Here’s a true-false quiz:
1. Mary and Joseph had to travel as quickly as possible to Bethlehem because Mary could have given birth at any moment.
2. The Bethlehem innkeeper was fully booked, and so Mary had to give birth to Jesus in the barn/stall nearby/behind the inn.
3. Initially, this experience must have been frightening and lonely for Mary and Joseph.
4. “The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.”
5. The angels who appeared to the shepherds had wings.
How’d you do on the quiz? Check your answers below. (Some of these
thoughts are taken from a talk I gave on what really happened that first
Christmas.)
Marcus Borg, a member of the liberal Jesus Seminar, claims that the
Gospels are in serious conflict: Jesus was born “in a stable” in Luke
but in a home in Matthew (Marcus Borg [and N.T. Wright], The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
[San Francisco: HarperSF, 1999], 180). As it turns out, this isn’t
really a conflict at all. Contrary to the traditional Christmas story, Jesus was indeed born in a home! Borg’s claim is based on the notable King James Version’s mistranslation of Luke 2:7: “there was no room for them in the inn.” But the KJV rendering goes against Luke’s in(n)tention. Keep Reading >>>
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