To answer the question of Jesus’s birthplace being a stable, we have to explore the text and culture of the time of his birth. "There's no room at the inn," the innkeeper declares. You may have noticed that this familiar school nativity scene is missing from the biblical narrative. The word "inn" was an unhelpful translation of καταλύματι in Luke 2:7, originating with Englishman William Tyndale (c. 1522–1536), which was later included in the King James Version.

The Greek word is better understood as a “guest room” inside the house. The Gospel writer, Luke, uses the same word in reference to the “upper room” where Jesus observed the Passover (Luke 22:11). If Luke had wanted to indicate a commercial inn, he would have used the word πανδοχεῖον, as he does in the parable of the Good Samaritan (10:34).

In Israel in the days of Jesus, commercial inns were not often used except by Gentiles, as the culture was one of hospitality. Joseph takes Mary to his ancestral home, where his extended family reside (to register for the census). It would be unthinkable, and even an insult to him, for him to have to rent a room in an inn in the village of his extended family. Renowned Biblical scholar Kenneth Bailey explains, “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. 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. What can we do for you?’ If Joseph did have some members of the extended family resident in the village, he was honor-bound to seek them out. Furthermore, if he did not have family or friends in the village, as a member of the famous house of David, for the ‘sake of David,’ he would still be welcomed into almost any village home” (Bible and Spade, vol. 20, no. 4, Fall 2007).

It seems that with everyone traveling for the census, it was a busy time and the family guest room was already full, so Joseph's relatives accommodated the couple in the area of the house normally used to keep animals overnight. In a first-century home, most families would live in a one or two-room house, with a lower compartment of the main family room reserved for animals. This is where Mary laid Jesus in a manger, not in a drafty barn or separate outbuilding. It is likely that the animals were not even there, but in the comic, I draw them corralled at one end of the room.

This article is an extract from our new Christmas nativity graphic novel. Find it in our online store : https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy

Was Jesus born in a stable?

More OF OUR Blogs on similar topics:

TOP BLOGS

BUY A COPY

Become a Patron

FOLLOW

The Word for Word Bible Comic

More OF OUR Blogs on similar topics: