Investigating Christmas: The Facts of the Birth of the Messiah

Misconceptions spread through art, plays, music, television, and unfortunately sometimes sermons. Biblical literacy is important because if we don't know the truth, then we risk being deceived and believing in something that is not Christianity.

The typical Christmas story we hear repeated is:

“It’s about 2000 years ago, the evening of December 25. Mary rides into Bethlehem on a donkey, urgently needing to deliver her baby. Although it’s an emergency, all the innkeepers turn them away. So they deliver baby Jesus in a stable. Then angels sing to the shepherds. Afterwards, they all join three kings with camels in worshiping the quiet, newborn.”

The problem is, this story may be almost entirely wrong. The events surrounding the birth have been retold so many times and in so many ways—in plays, poetry, books and movies—that most people have a distorted view of the true events. The only accurate record is found in the Holy Bible, God’s Word.

The following are a few scenes from that story that I think should be clarified.

1. The Road to Bethlehem - Luke 2:1-5

Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem for the census. They were in Nazareth at the time. As you can see these two towns are quite a distance apart. There are 2 possible paths that they could have taken. The Bible does not say which way they went, so we won’t know which one is the one they took. The first path would have been to take the major highway where they would cross the Jordan River, go around Samaria, but stay in Jewish territory. This would make their journey longer.

The second option would be the more direct option but, it would go through Samaria. Jews at that time did not like to go through Samaria, but they would sometimes. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, said it was not uncommon for Jews to take this route when they were going to Jerusalem for Passover. Mary was very pregnant, so maybe a few less travel days was appealing, especially if other Jews were going that way.

Both paths had their challenges. Both would be busy with everyone returning to their hometowns. Misconception: Mary and Joseph traveled alone. Truth is they probably did not travel alone. Perhaps they were traveling with family? They at least traveling with other Jews.

Whichever path they took, Mary being pregnant and the traffic on the roads would have made the journey take several days, perhaps 10 or more days. That’s a lot of walking! Misconception: Mary riding a donkey. The popular scene of Mary and Joseph traveling is Joseph leading a donkey that the very pregnant Mary was riding. The Bible makes no mention of the transportation. This idea that Mary was riding comes from the extra-biblical writing in the gospel of James. This was written around 150 AD and Christians did not believe this writing to be inspired or even true. The writing says it is from James, the brother of Jesus and who wrote a book of the Bible, but it was from someone else using the pen name of James But the Jews enjoyed the stories from it. As Protestants, we take any of these type of documents with a grain of salt.

Perhaps Mary was riding a donkey, but there are other methods Mary could have been riding a camel, horse, or a cart drawn by horse or donkey. Some doubt the camel because that would be very hard for a pregnant lady to ride. We don’t know how they traveled.

2. The Inn - Luke 2:6-7

Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem and they go to the local motel, right? Perhaps not… Misconception: The innkeeper told them there was no room at the inn. There was no such conversation recorded. In fact, logic dictates that perhaps there was a different scene. If Joseph was from Bethlehem, then certainly he had family there. His parents probably would have had a house there. We don’t know any details because Luke 2:6-7 is all we get about Bethlehem. If they had gone to his parents house, they would have a guest room that would have slept about 6. But if Joseph had other siblings, then the house was most likely full. This word inn is translated as guest room in Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11. Some translations don’t use inn at the end of Luke 2:7. The new NIV translates guest room, the NLT says no lodging was available, and the Holman standard says lodging place. Mary and Joseph probably weren’t turned away from a hotel and had to stay in a stable, Joseph’s family probably put them where they kept the animals because that’s where they had room.

Luke 2:6 says while they were there in Bethlehem… Misconception: Mary gave birth the night they arrived in Bethlehem. The Bible does not paint a picture of Mary and Joseph running around looking for a place to stay and then having Baby Jesus that night. They went to Joseph’s family and had to stay where the animals were kept.

3. The Manger - Luke 2:7

Luke 2:7 states that Jesus was placed in a manger. Misconception: The manger scene. We typically see that as part of a stable or a barn in our manger scenes, but this word manger just means feeding trough. They could have been in a barn or stable or it could have been in a cave in the side of a mountain or under the house. Baby Jesus may have been surrounded by animals or not? We don’t know what the manger scene looked like.

Speaking of the manger, Away in a Manger has something to say about this scene…

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.

Misconception: Baby Jesus did not cry. While this song is great, verse 2 paints a picture of a silent night. But a baby crying is not a sin. Jesus is fully God and fully man. While the Bible doesn’t say if Jesus cried or not, he probably cried like all babies. Sometimes we forget the humanity of Jesus and focus a lot of attention on the supernatural. This does not mean this song is bad, just doesn’t paint the full picture.

4. The Magi - Matthew 2:1-12

Misconception: There were three kings who visited the manger. First, let’s deal with the number of magi. As seen in the Bible, Matthew makes no mention of how many magi traveled to see Jesus. Tradition has made a one to one correlation from the number of gifts, 3, to the number of magi. Different traditions around the world have stories of the names of these magi and where they were from. The Western Church has a tradition that they were from Persia, India, and Babylon. The Eastern Church has a tradition that says there were 12 magi. But the biblical text and historical documents do not provide us the number.

Next, let us look at who these magi actually were. Contrary to the popular song, these were not kings that visited Jesus, they were magi, or translated into English, wise men. From the Bible we see that they interpreted signs and they must have know parts of the OT. And they had an interest in seeing the Baby Jesus.

Thirdly, as you all know I am sure, the three wise men never made it to the manger, in fact Mt 2:9 and 11 uses a term not for newborns, but young children. We also see in this passage that the family was in a house in Bethlehem. So we know for a fact the magi were never at the manger.

5. The Christmas Star - Matthew 2:2; 9-10

Another part of the Christmas story is the star of Bethlehem or the Christmas Star. Misconception: We know exactly what this star was. There are many different theories about what this star was, but we cannot know for sure exactly what it was… The Bible says they 'saw it in the east' and then when they were in Jerusalem that it 'went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was'

There are of course a variety of theories.

a.       Some think this object was a comet. However, no comets were reported around the same time as Jesus’ birth. Haley’s Comet did appear a few years before scholars think Jesus was born, but this is too early of a date.

b.      Another theory is that there was an alignment of planets. Kepler supported this view. There was an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in 6 BC, however, planet alignments don’t produce the single light source that Scripture describes and they are not that uncommon. Also they move together across the sky.

c.       Like the previous theory, there are scientists who are looking at formations around the time of Jesus’ birth and there were several alignments of stars and planets with the possibility of being this bright star.

d.      Another theory is the star was a super nova, or a dying star. A super nova is an unstable star and explodes. When it does this it emits a bright light. There are no recorded super novas during this time.

The big issue with all of these explanations is it is hard to imagine any of these explanations leading to a house and then stopping exactly where Jesus was. Perhaps there is a better theory…

e.       Lastly, and I think the most plausible explanation, it was a supernatural event. Whether this the hand of God helping one of the other scientific explanations or a bright light created just for this night, I think it is easier to believe in a supernatural explanation, than some sketchy science. I won’t discredit science all the time, but I believe in a God that does supernatural things. I read a commentary once on Exodus and the author tried to scientifically explain all the miracles with science with the plagues and the parting of the red sea. I’d rather just take it at face value that God performed a miracle.

6. December 25

As you know, Christmas is on December 25. And you probably know that some don’t think Jesus was actually born on that day. The first suggestion of Jesus’ birth being on Dec 25 came around 200 AD. The first evidence of a Dec 25 celebration is in 354 AD in the Western Church. The Eastern Church celebrated the birth of Christ in connection with the Epiphany on January 6. The East would later adopt the Dec 25 date.

There are several theories as to why the Dec 25 date was chosen. Some say that this day was chosen to counter the pagan celebrations around this time. Others say it was chosen because it was 9 months after when the conception of the Baby Jesus is celebrated on March 25. This date came from the early church fathers in the mid to late 100s AD.

Some think we can’t know when exactly when Jesus was born. Some think that it could not have been December because it would have been too cold for the Shepherds to be out keeping watch over their flocks at night. Others say that’s true because there were shepherds that were out even in winter.

These theories are interesting, but in the end are unimportant. Except for a few segments of Christianity, Christmas is celebrated on Dec 25.Whether he was actually born on this date, we will not know. Scholars date the birth of Jesus around 6 - 4 BC, but even these dates are best guess.

If the date was so important, God would have told someone to write it in the Bible. What is important is what we do know. We know that Jesus came to this earth as a lowly baby born in a manger. We know that he came to this world to die for our sins. To save us. To be our Savior. That is what Christmas is really about.