Away in a Manger?

 

Merry Christmas everyone! Although I generally don't make it a secret that I consider the birth of Christ to most likely be mid autumn, some time between September/October, the vast majority of people insist on observing it smack-dab in the middle of winter. Whereby, at least for the moment, my December postings take on a more Christmas-y tone. 

Today, I'd like to explore a topic that was inspired my my very wonderful oldest brother. After I re-shared my last year's posts on Christmas carols, he approached me with an article on how western culture has appropriated the nativity story and taken things out of their middle eastern cultural contexts.

One of the things this article suggested was that Yeshua was born in a stone feed trough in a guest room, rather than a wooden manger in a barn, a concept of renaissance Europe.

In truth, it is possible that English has misinterpreted the idea of 'no room at the inn'. The Greek word is 'kataluma', which can be taken as 'guest room'. As per Luke 22:11 "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?"

So rather than the image of Mary and Joseph wandering the streets of Bethlehem, knocking on motel doors, the cultural context suggests that despite the controversy of Mary's mysterious pregnancy, the couple's family still would've sheltered them. Cultural context suggests they were thus staying with friends or relatives, but the house was simply so full of other relatives that instead of the upper room, they had to stay in the lower portion, with the household animals.

But approached by this theory, an additional thought came to me. How did the shepherds know where to find the child? All they were told was "you will find the baby in swaddling clothes in a manger".

Did they search every house in the town? Did they just automatically know where to go? Surely a star would've been of little to no navigational use for such precision, considering that the magi went to Jerusalem.

And so my search began. And I still need to dig more to fact check everything. But here is the theory.

In the Jewish Mishnah (Baba K, vii.7) it states: “One may not raise small domesticated animals, i.e., sheep and goats, in settled areas of Eretz Yisrael, as they graze on people’s crops.”

The exception to this is sheep raised for temple sacrifices, which apparently had to be raised by priests.

By this theory, the shepherds were not told of the Messiah's birth because they were the 'least of these' lowly outcast that western tradition suggests. They were priests assigned to the keeping of sacrificial lambs.

They would have known messiah prophecies very well. Such as:

Micah 4:8:
“And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” 

 A 'tower of the flock' was historically a stone watchtower from which shepherds could see their whole flock. And especially for the temple flock, this would have a stone manger, where the spotless sacrifice lamb would be ceremonially cleaned and wrapped in swaddling clothes prior to being carried to the temple. Though with Roman occupation, it is likely any such tower in Bethlehem would've been repurposed as a military outpost. Forcing the temple shepherds to keep their ceremonial lambs elsewhere.

We know Elizabeth and Zechariah were both Levites, and Elizabeth was Mary's blood relative (often interpreted as cousin, but not necessarily exact). We know that Elizabeth was 'of the daughters of Aaron, suggesting her mother was Levite. We know that Joseph was a direct descendant of King David of the tribe of Judah, as was Mary. So this implies that Mary's father was from Judah, but her mother easily could've been Levite. Perhaps Mary's mother was sisters with Elizabeth's mother. Perhaps Mary's mother was Elizabeth's sister. If Elizabeth was Mary's aunt, that would explain the age gap.

But in short, Mary very well could've had priestly relatives in Bethlehem. Though not necessarily related to the shepherd priests, these relatives may have lived in the home where the sacrificial lambs were kept en-route to the temple. Thus, at the sign of a manger and swaddling clothes, the first thought of the shepherds would've been this ceremonial manger, over any other manger in Bethlehem.

What a new perspective! And no wonder these shepherds would've been filled with such wonder and praise! The messiah of their people, born in their flock's ceremonial stone trough and wrapped in swaddling clothes in preparation for his future role as the sacrifice lamb! And no wonder John would later proclaim, "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world"!