The absence of the creche

kw: personal beliefs, biblical interpretation

I seldom inflict my beliefs on this blog; this isn't what it is mainly about. But belonging to a church that mostly ignores Christmas, I found myself asked by someone, "Just how accurate are all these Nativity scenes? Is that what things really looked like the day after Jesus' birth?"

In a word, No.

In a typical nativity scene, we have, of course, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in a barn or stable. So far, that is accurate. The baby is in a manger (a feeding trough) and there are animals about. Already getting dicey; the animals would have been in stalls. You don't let a donkey run about when an infant is present. Then there are some shepherds. Yes, in Luke chapter 2 the shepherds visited, sometime prior to the eighth day. What eighth day? The day to circumcise and name the child, as recorded in Luke 2:21; this was followed a month later by a visit to Jerusalem. By the way, if the shepherds were keeping their flocks in the field, there is no way this happened in December.

Who's missing so far? O, yeah, the wise men. A nativity scene typically has three Wise Men bearing gifts, and some kind of comet-shaped thing on a wire above it to represent "the Star". This is recorded in Matthew chapter 2. Funny thing is, the wise men (actually called Magoi or Magi—they were astrologers, but it is from this word we get words like "magic") were bearing at least three gifts, but their own number is never mentioned. Might have been just two of them, maybe five or eleven. We don't know. Funnier thing: Matt 2:11 says they "came into the house". Not a stable. No manger. Then there is a chronological note. After they left, warned to leave by a different route, Herod orders the children in Bethlehem to be killed, "from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men."

We know what happened next. Joseph was warned to flee to Egypt. The gifts given by the Magi financed that trip. Shortly after that, Herod died, and the family returned to Nazareth, Joseph's home town. Luke has given us a solid clue here that his account records what happened when young Jesus was about two years old. And by the time the Magi came, Mary and Joseph had obtained accommodations in a house.

All these allow us to pin down a few other things. Herod died early in the year 4 BC. The flight to Egypt probably took place in 5 BC, which means Jesus was born sometime in 6 or 7 BC, probably 7.

As long as I am myth-busting, I'll take on a couple more. The date of the crucifixion has been reliably determined to be in April of 32 AD. Jesus was then 38 or 39 years old. Luke 3:23 is often wrongly translated "Jesus began to be about thirty years old", when it should be, "When Jesus began [his work] he was past thirty years old." He was actually closer to 35, maybe 36. After just a couple of years on the road, he was mistaken for a man approaching 50, in John 8:57. The much-touted 33½ age had come and gone before he began to minister…unless the four Passovers in John are not all there were. Is it possible that Jesus ministered for nine years? Again, we can't know for sure, just from Bible verses.

Finally, we have no clue what the "Star of Bethlehem" was. Whatever it was, it lasted two years. It could not be a planetary conjunction therefore, and comets don't last nearly that long either. It might have been a long-lasting supernova, but there is no supernova remnant known that dates to around 7 BC. It must have been something unexpected, or the Magi could have predicted its coming, as they could predict eclipses and conjunctions. Then they would not have been two years late for His birth, and perhaps those familiar Nativity scenes would be accurate!