Category Archives: Birth of Jesus

Which Bethlehem?

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According to Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4-7, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea – about 6 miles south of Jerusalem.

However, Israeli archaeologist Aviram Oshri surmised that Jesus was born, not in Bethlehem of Judea, but in Bethlehem of Galilee.

It is certainly not news that there were two Bethlehems – one in Judea and the other in Galilee.  The latter is mentioned in Josh 19:15.

As reported in this article in The Times of Israel, Oshri asks:

‘How would a woman who is nine months pregnant travel 175 kilometers on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem of Judea? 

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The births of John and Jesus – similarities and differences

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Craig Evans, Joel Green and others have noticed a series of remarkable parallels between the births of John (the Baptist) and Jesus, as recorded in Luke 1.

  • In both cases, the conception was unexpected, Lk 1:7; 1:26f, and is announced by the angel Gabriel, Lk 1:11-19, 26-38.
  • Both future parents are ‘troubled’, Lk 1:12, 29, but are told not to be afraid, Lk 1:13, 30.
  • Both are promised a son, Lk 1:13, 31, and are given names for their unborn offspring, Lk 1:13, 31.
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Twelve Ways of Christmas

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Most people, including the totally unchurched, will celebrate Christmas one way or another.  How can we connect them with the Christian meaning of this season?

Andrew Knight has some helpful suggestions.  I present them here in slightly abridged form

1. Host

‘The holidays offer a myriad of opportunities to have people over to your home. You can invite others over for family meals, dinner parties, work parties, dessert gatherings, neighborhood functions, or school holiday celebrations. Christmas affords you the opportunity to gather for anything, whether secret Santa, ugly Christmas sweaters, or a good Christmas movie.’…

Luke 2:7 – Jesus was (probably) not born in a stable

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2:6 While they were [in Bethlehem], the time came for [Mary] to deliver her child. 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

‘No room in the inn’ (along with a grumpy inn-keeper) is part of the fabric of the nativity story, as popularly told.  But the biblical text makes no mention of a stable, and the word commonly translated ‘inn’ may well mean something else.…

The magi – Nabatean courtiers?

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In his book Mystery of the Magi, Dwight Longenecker develops a case for the Magi of Matthew 2 being courtiers from the kingdom of Nabatea.

Longenecker writes:

‘At the time of Jesus’ birth, the city of Petra was the thriving capital of the Nabatean kingdom, a major power in the Middle East. Covering most of the Sinai Peninsula and extending halfway along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, the Nabatean kingdom, at its height, spread across northern Arabia and present-day Jordan to Damascus in Syria.’

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The Magi – the Damascus connection

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Dwight Longenecker, in his book Mystery of the Magi, proposes that the magi were courtiers from Nabatea (capital: Petra) in Arabia.

Their journey would have been undertaken on horseback and would have taken a few days.

We know from Matthew’s account that they returned by ‘another route’.  This might have taken them to Damascus (which was at that time also part of Arabia, but later became part of the Roman empire).

If the magi sheltered in Damascus, they would have been ‘in their own country’ but sheltered both from Herod and from their own king, Aretas III. …

Matthew 2:11 – ‘Gold, frankincense, and myrrh’

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2:11 As [the magi] came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Summary.  Rather than supposing that the gifts brought by the magi carry symbolic meaning, it is probably better to view them as gifts ‘fit for a king’.

Do the gifts have symbolic meaning?  I have some hesitation about this, but I’ll put this out as a gentle warning to my fellow-preachers anyway.…

Why are Matthew’s and Luke’s birth narratives so different?

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The most celebrated critical commentary on the birth narratives is that of Raymond Brown – The Birth of the Messiah.

In discussing the birth narratives as history, Brown cites two sets of problems:

1. The problem of corroborating witnesses

Regarding the main body of the Gospel narratives, there is no shortage of witnesses whose reminiscences could be harvested.  And there was a tradition that had been passed down from this first witnesses.  See Acts 1:22; 1 Cor 15:3 etc.…

Lk 2:22-24, 36-38 – Anna’s story (sermon notes)

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(This is a slightly revised version of a short talk that was first drafted many years ago)

Text: Luke 2:22-24, 36-38

Some 80 years before a certain baby boy was cradled in a manger in Bethlehem, a little girl was born just a few miles away.  No doubt she was her parent’s pride and joy.  And no doubt she was strong, active and healthy.  Anyway, in due course, she grew up and fell in love with the man of her dreams. …

The virgin birth in Luke

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Andrew Lincoln (Born of a Virgin?) maintains that the birth narratives in Luke’s Gospel witness to the virginal conceptions of Jesus.  Specifically, Lincoln cites:

1. The step-parallelism between the birth accounts of John the Baptist and Jesus.  As Lincoln remarks:

‘If an infertile woman can bear a child, then the greater miracle is for a virgin to conceive without any male seed being involved.’

2. Mary’s response to the annunciation: ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’…