Over hundreds of years the nativity story has been greatly distorted, largely because white Christian Europeans made assumptions about the story based on their culture and geography.
The story I grew up hearing was that when Mary was nearly ready to give birth, evil Caesar Augustus suddenly decided that everyone needed to be taxed, and they had to go to their homeland to pay. So even though Mary was just about to have a baby, she and Joseph had to leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem just to pay taxes. And just as they arrived, Mary suddenly went into labor, so Joseph desperately started going to all the inns begging for a room for Mary to deliver her baby in privacy. But all the rooms in all the inns were full. The only thing resembling kindness they received was an innkeeper who said they could go back to his stable (stylized as a wooden barn). So Joseph brought Mary back to the barn, fought back the animals and tried to clean away the poop, feeling terrible that this was the best he could offer Mary and the Son of God.
Well, Mary gave birth, and Joseph had to deliver the baby, whether because they couldn't pay/couldn't find a midwife or because they had been so thoroughly rejected by Bethlehem. And because they were so poor, Mary and Joseph had to wrap their baby in rags. And they placed the baby in a wooden manger with hay. Oh, and by the way, even though the cattle made a lot of noise with their lowing and woke up Jesus, He didn't cry, because crying is selfish (and inconvenient) and He was perfect.First of all, let's look at what the Gospel of Luke says about the birth of Jesus Christ:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.6 And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.(Luke 2:1-7)
First, did Caesar Augustus really force a poor hugely pregnant mother to travel over a hundred miles simply because her husband Joseph was descended from people who had lived there?
The word "taxed" in these verses isn't a good translation. In the footnotes of the LDS version of the King James Bible, it says that a better translation would be "enrolled" or "registered." This was a census or a record of people's residence, not a tax.
In the book, Stone Manger: The Untold Story of the First Christmas, Jeffrey R. Chadwick says that after comparing notes from their visits from the angels, Joseph and Mary would have realized that if this baby was "the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32), He would need to be born in Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy in Micah 5:2: "But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days." So they decided to move to Bethlehem so that they could be registered as residents of Bethlehem and Jesus would be born and registered there to fulfill the prophecy. As soon as they figured this out they would have started making preparations to move, so they would have had plenty of time to arrive in Bethlehem before the baby was born. (See Ch. 7 of Stone Manger.)
Next, was Jesus born in a wooden stable?
Once upon a time, Ryan taught ~ten-year-olds in Primary. At Christmas time he told them that the manger was probably made of stone and there was no wooden barn, and they unanimously branded him a heretic. He told me, "These kids can't name the five books of scripture we use in the church, but every single one of them knows without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was born in a wooden stable and laid in a wooden manger filled with hay."
The scriptures actually make no mention of a stable. Presumably, at some point we assumed that there was a stable because of the manger. Some ancient writings claim that Jesus was born in a cave or grotto in Bethlehem; in fact, the Church of the Nativity is built over the Grotto of the Nativity, which some traditions claim is the birth place of Jesus. Jeffrey Chadwick suggests that Joseph and Mary took shelter in this grotto as a temporary home while Joseph built a house, but the house wasn't ready when Mary went into labor.
Another possibility is that Jesus was actually born in a house in Bethlehem. Yes, the English translation of Luke 2:7 says "there was no room for them in the inn," and the Joseph Smith translation even changes it to "inns," but the Greek word used in this verse is "kataluma," which means guest room. In fact, the same word is translated as "guestchamber" in Luke 22:11 when Jesus eats the Passover with his Apostles: "And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready." In ancient Palestine, homes (built from stone, by the way) were usually designed with two levels, or three if the family was well off. The lower level was used for household chores and had a pen for keeping a few animals, while the upper room was where the family would sleep. If there was a third level, this was the kataluma, a guest chamber. So when Luke says "there was no room in the kataluma," this means the upper level was already occupied, either because the house was very full or because an honored guest was in the kataluma (see here and here).
This is an example where understanding the culture of the people in the Bible affects how we interpret the scriptures. Most Christians now probably live in a very individualistic culture. But the people of the Bible had a culture of hospitality. (We can see this in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where Abraham is held up as an example of righteousness because of his extreme hospitality to the angels who visited him, whereas Lot is less righteous because he just gave the visitors the bare minimum, and the Sodomites were destroyed because not only were they inhospitable, but they actually wanted to sexually assault the visiting angels.) Joseph was from Bethlehem. He had family there. They would never have dreamed of refusing to take in a family member, especially a pregnant family member.
Did Joseph deliver Jesus? I mean, it doesn't say, so maybe (although the scriptures say "she brought forth her firstborn son), but more likely the women of the family would have gathered to take care of Mary and sent the men and the animals out into the courtyard while she was in labor. They may have called a midwife; ancient Christian tradition actually holds that the midwife who delivered Jesus was named Salome, and there is even an ancient tomb that is believed to be Salome's.
Next, did they wrap Jesus in rags? No. For one thing, it doesn't say rags in the scriptures. It says "swaddling clothes." For another, swaddling babies has been done throughout history. I've even used blankets specially sewn for swaddling. They wrapped the baby in strips of fabric as was the custom for babies. This is not a sign of their extreme poverty, but rather it shows that Mary was a good mother and she took care of Baby Jesus.
On the note of poverty, Joseph and Mary weren't impoverished. Joseph wasn't even a carpenter. Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 say he was a tekton, a Greek word that traditionally has been translated to "carpenter," but would be better translated as "builder" or stone mason. In ancient Israel, buildings were made from stone, not wood. (See Stone Manger, chapter 5.) As a tekton, Joseph would have been a member of the artisan class, which would have put him somewhere between the wealthy and the peasants. Joseph would have interacted with the entire spectrum of social classes because of his occupation: he would have worked with merchants and laborers to acquire materials for his building projects, and he would have worked with the wealthy as he built for them. Jesus would have grown up learning Joseph's trade, which is interesting because when he began his ministry he would have already had relationships with the entire spectrum of social classes, enabling him to teach both the poor and the wealthy.
After Jesus was born, swaddled, and cared for, Mary laid him in a manger. If they were in a grotto, Joseph and Mary likely would have had a couple of animals, maybe a sheep and a donkey, so they would have a manger outside or inside to feed or water their animals when they weren't out grazing. If they were staying with family in a house, the family would have had a pen with a manger for a few animals on the first floor of the house. But either way, the manger would have been made of stone, not wood. You can see an example on the cover of Stone Manger. People at that time would have practiced co-sleeping, but an empty stone manger was likely a convenient place for Mary to place her baby so she could rest or have both hands for work. Or maybe it was a handy place to put the baby where he could easily be seen when the family and the shepherds came in to see him.
Finally, in the song Away in a Manger, the second verse says, "The cattle are lowing; the poor baby wakes. But little Lord Jesus no crying He makes." Look, Jesus was perfect, but He was a baby in a mortal body. He cried. Babies that don't cry will die. And [climbs on soapbox] we need to get over this idea that crying is a flaw, in children or adults.
So why does this all matter? I mean, it doesn't change the fact that Jesus saved us from our sins and from death. The Atonement is still there.
One reason is that we miss out on inspiring insights if we don't understand the culture and lifestyle of the people we read about in the scriptures. Just as the first people Jesus went to after His resurrection were women, the first people to see Him after His birth were probably a group of women who had come to help Mary. We miss that if instead we fill in the story of a heartless village where literally nobody can find space in a house for a woman to deliver a baby. We miss the point that Mary swaddling Jesus means that He was cared for and loved if we say they wrapped him in rags.
Our traditional paintings and nativity sets generally show European people in a wooden barn. But Mary and Joseph were Jewish; they would have had brown skin, and so would Jesus. I've read stories about little black girls who were denied the part of Mary or an angel in a Nativity because of their skin. I know we don't mean to; we're surrounded by depictions of blond angels and marble skinned Marys at Christmas time; but when that leads to excluding people because of the color of their skin, we need to acknowledge that's harmful and change our attitudes. Knowing Jesus was brown and imagining him living in a world of stone buildings means his life was different from ours, and that's a reminder that He loves and relates to all of God's children, regardless of their race or social status. (Anthony Sweat has made a painting of Jesus that is meant to be historically accurate.) People of all backgrounds should see art that shows a Savior who looks like them and loves people who look like them.
When we talk about "no room in the inn," we also usually talk about how important it is to make room for Christ in our own lives, which is a beautiful idea. But if the word kataluma means guest chamber, it has a slightly different but interesting implication. If Joseph and Mary were staying in a home with family who had a guest chamber, but the guest chamber wasn't available, perhaps the family had an honored guest staying in the guest chamber, which is why there wasn't room for Mary to give birth there. This would indicate that the others in the house didn't realize or understand that the baby being born there was the Savior; if they had known, surely He would have been the most honored guest of all. During His ministry, Christ taught that the way we treat others is a similitude of the way we treat him:
"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. . .Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:35-36, 40)
Do we treat the people around us as if they were honored guests? Do we recognize that even when someone is dirty, annoying, difficult, mentally ill, addicted to drugs, in prison, or simply of a different political persuasion, they are a child of God and a similitude of Christ, and therefore should be honored, not scorned? I know I have a lot of room for improvement here!
The Church of Jesus Christ made a more historically accurate video of the Nativity that can be viewed here.
To summarize, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, with the intent to stay permanently and be registered, to fulfill prophecy in the scriptures that said that Jesus Christ would be born there. They stayed in one of the many caves in the region, or were taken in by relatives (because Joseph was from the region), while Joseph perhaps worked to build them a home in Bethlehem. When Mary went into labor, there wasn't room in any guest room, so she delivered Him in the cave or home where they were living, likely with the help of women in the family and possibly a midwife. She lovingly took care of the new baby, swaddling him in strips of cloth. When the shepherds arrived to see the newborn King, they found the swaddled infant where Mary had laid him, in a manger made of stone, and were some of the first to recognize and honor who this little guest really was: the Savior of the world, who had come to show us the way to eternal life, suffer for our sins and sorrows, and die and be resurrected, laying the path for all men to be resurrected and return to God.
