Not "The Most Wonderful Time of Year" for the Bible!

The Christmas season is upon us. Sunday, December 2^nd, is the first day of Advent and many churches will be conducting series of messages on the Christmas story.

Sadly, many of these messages will include embellishments of the Christmas story that are not found in Scripture, and do not fit the historical and cultural context of the time.

Careful consideration of “What Does the Scripture Say?” speaks to the following truths: 

1. Mary did not necessarily ride into Bethlehem on a donkey. The Bible does not say how they traveled.
2. Mary did not give birth the night she arrived. Luke 2:6 states, “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.” They may have been in Bethlehem for several days or weeks before Mary went into labor.
3. There was no innkeeper who turned Joseph away because there was “no vacancy” in the inn.  There is no mention of an “innkeeper.” There is some question as to whether or not there would have been a commercial inn (Gr. pandoxeion cp. Lk. 10:34) in Bethlehem at that time.
4. Jesus was not born in a barn or stable. The word translated “inn” is ketaluma which speaks of a guest room. The guest room where Joseph and Mary were lodging was full, so Jesus was born in the main family room of the house, where the animals were kept during the night.  A manger, typically found in the family room of a Palestinian home, served as a makeshift crib. This is in line with what we know about the historical and cultural context of the time.
5. Jesus was not necessarily born on a cold winter’s night.  The Bible doesn’t say when Jesus was born. Some question it being winter due to the shepherds watching over their flocks by night. The Bible doesn’t even say the time of day when Jesus was born, only that the announcement was made to the shepherds at night.

No doubt many more items can be added to this list. 

“So what?” Some may say. “Is it really a bad thing to add drama to the story to make a point?”

At issue are two things: (1) The sufficiency of Scripture.  When we start to use imagination to embellish the story we are basically telling God that He did not give us enough information. (2) We are not very careful when it comes to reading the Bible and separating what the Scripture says from what we think the Scripture says.

Remember God’s Word to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2-4: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”  Let’s  not confuse people by inserting fables into the Scripture.

For more on the topic of what belongs and does not belong in The Christmas Story see The Manger and The Inn