Joseph and Mary Travel From Nazareth to Bethlehem

MichaeI, I wrote an article on this sometime back. Here's an excerpt based on Luke 2:1-7. I'm delighted the End Notes transferred to here!! The references and other notes are there. I don't know why the End Notes changed to Roman numerals. Feel free to use anything or nothing.

God bless

{charley}

The first miracle in the New Testament is not the story of something Jesus did. It describes the act of God. In the birth story, as in the passion story, Jesus is passive and God is the actor. This is the nature of the Gospel as such. It is not the story of amazing things done by Jesus, but of what God has done for humanity in the event of Jesus Christ. Matthew tells the story in such a way that no one could mistake Jesus for a baby God.

Whereas Mark and John begin without any accounts of the birth of Jesus, Matthew opens with a genealogy * and an account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem * , the family’s subsequent flight to Egypt, and their return to Nazareth. Luke is distinctive; it is the only Gospel to report the births of both John and Jesus. Luke also elevates the roles of Mary and Elizabeth, whereas the story in Matthew is guided by Joseph’s dreams.

Matthew saved this action to be the end of this unit, the point to which he has been building: the naming of Jesus by Joseph, which incorporated Him into the Davidic line.^[i]

Turning to Luke’s account, surprisingly, after a long chapter describing the annunciations of the two births, the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, and the events surrounding the birth and naming of John, the birth of Jesus is reported with a minimum of detail. The first seven verses describe the setting of Jesus’ birth in the context of the census. Only verses 6 and 7 are devoted to the birth itself.^[ii]

Notes for: Verse 1.

Caesar Augustus (63 B.C. – A.D. 14) was the first Roman emperor. He reigned as emperor from 27 BC to AD 14. Born Gaius Octavius in September of 63 B.C., the Roman senate gave him the name “Augustus” in 27 B.C. to honor his defeat and annexation of Egypt. Formerly one of three co-rulers, Augustus gained sole control of the empire and reigned from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14. Although harsh and unrelenting, he was a master administrator who restored order to the empire after two decades of civil war. He was responsible for ushering in Rome’s Golden Age—an era known as Pax Romana or Pax Augusta (meaning “Roman Peace” or “Augustus’ Peace”), which lasted for roughly 250 years.^[iii] Julius Caesar was his great-uncle by marriage.

Augustus was a superb organizer, and this census must have served a needed function in the administration of the Roman Empire. In God’s providence, it was used to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem in order to fulfill the prophecy of the Messiah’s birth in Micah 5:2.

By A.D. 6 wide-scale censuses were taken every fourteen years; before that time, periodic censuses seem to have occurred at less regular intervals. A tax census instigated by the revered emperor Augustus initiates the contrast between Caesar’s earthly pomp and Christ’s heavenly glory in 2:1–14.  Censuses were important for evaluating taxation; they were generally conducted locally, so all local governments in all regions probably did not simultaneously implement Caesar’s decree.

The requirement that each person should go to his own native place to be enrolled was contrary to Roman custom (which based tax on residence rather than ancestry) and would also be impractical.

Persons, however, with property in another district than the one where they resided had to go to his own native place to be registered. Although Luke does not make it clear, it must be presumed that Joseph had some property in Bethlehem. It is unlikely that everybody would have been compelled to return to their ancestral homes, but in view of Joseph’s Davidic descent, which is more important for his story, Luke has stressed this aspect of the matter.

Notes for: Verse 2.

Some scholars dispute whether Quirinius was governor of Syria at this time. This dispute will not be addressed here. The governor of Syria is mentioned because the Roman province of Syria included Palestine under its jurisdiction. At this time Syria was a Roman province including all Palestine, and a tract four or five times as large lying to the northeast of Palestine.

Notes for: Verse 3.

In the first centuries B.C. and A.D., Nazareth was a small agricultural village in southern Galilee that had a population of a few hundred people. Nazareth is approximately 92.838 miles from Bethlehem and Bethlehem is approximately 6.507miles from Jerusalem. Pottery samples suggest a recent migration of people from the Bethlehem area to Nazareth around this time; Joseph’s legal residence is apparently still Bethlehem, where he had been raised. Nazareth has been inhabited continuously since the third century B.C.. and the city where his ancestors had been settled by Joshua when he divided the land—Joshua 13–19.

Notes for: Verse 4.

There’s important theological significance for Jesus’ Bethlehem birth. Bethlehem was the birthplace and hometown of David, and David, of course, was the prototype of the Messiah. God promised that, through David’s descendants, God would raise up a Messiah, a King, a Savior for His people. So that is one of the key theological significances, that connection to David.

Related to that, the prophecy in Micah 5:2–5 that predicted a great ruler would arise from Bethlehem—a David-like king who would shepherd God’s people, who would bring the nation peace and security. Matthew actually cites that passage in Micah as a fulfillment formula, whereas Luke does not mention Micah 5. Instead, he focuses on this Davidic connection, that Jesus was from the line of David and therefore fulfilled the promises related to the Davidic Messiah.

If Joseph and Mary avoided Samaria and traveled down the Jordan Rift, they would have turned at Jericho to the west, heading up the Ascent of Adummim *   toward Jerusalem. At Jerusalem they would have joined the “Road of the Patriarchs” and followed the ridge south to Bethlehem.

The Ascent of Adummim  is a road mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 15:7 and 18:17 that was the border of the tribe of Judah. Adummim is the gorge where the ascent is going up to Jerusalem from Jericho, the road of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel account.

This is the first time in the Lukan account of Jesus’ birth that Joseph does anything, though even here he is introduced to us primarily in his relationship to Mary and in his inherited status from David (cf. 1:27).

• No where does the Bible tell us that Mary ever rode a donkey.
• No where does the Bible tell us that Mary ever traveled alone.
• No where does the Bible tell us that Mary gave birth by herself.

It is unlikely that Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem because they were a poor family (cf. Luke 2:24), and a donkey could cost many months’ wages. As a carpenter-mason, Joseph would have had less need of one than a farmer.

The journey of almost 92.838 miles (actual travel due to twists and turns in the road) takes four to five days on a dusty, dangerous road, very likely in a crowded, unruly caravan.

Notes for: Verse 5. Betrothal provided most of the legal rights of marriage, but sexual intercourse was forbidden; Joseph is courageous to take his pregnant betrothed with him, even if (as is quite possible) she is also a Bethlehemite who has to return to that town. Although tax laws in most of the empire required only the head of a household to appear, the province of Syria (then including Palestine) also taxed women. But Joseph may simply wish to avoid leaving her alone this late in her pregnancy, especially if the circumstances of her pregnancy had deprived her of other friends.

Notes for: Verse 6.

Under normal circumstances, there would have been no reason for Mary to give birth in Bethlehem instead of at her home in Nazareth. Yet world events demanding a cross-country trip intervened at a most inconvenient time. Luke records that a decree from Caesar Augustus required all the inhabitants of the Roman Empire to register for the census, undoubtedly to facilitate the collection of taxes. For Mary and Joseph, this meant traveling to the territory of the clan of David, which was in the southern region of Judah in the area of Bethlehem—approximately 90 miles from Nazareth—that was located in the northern region of Galilee.

Mary’s circumstance is also of importance in this regard. In the ancient Near East, childbirth was an important community event. It seems unthinkable that the people of Bethlehem would have failed to help pregnant Mary, let alone hometown boy Joseph of the royal family of David. And even if that was the case, Luke recorded that only six months earlier Mary had visited relatives nearby in the “hill country of Judea” (Luke 1:39).

If Bethlehem had been inhospitable, Joseph could have taken Mary to stay with her relatives. It appears from the text that there may have been time to make such arrangements before the baby was born, because Jesus was born “while they were there” (Luke 2:6), suggesting they had been in town a “while” when Mary gave birth. His humble stable birth emphasizes the poverty and obscurity that surrounded His early years.

Midwives normally assisted at birth; especially because this was Mary’s first child, it is likely (though not clear from the text) that a midwife would assist her. Jewish law permitted midwives to travel a long distance even on the Sabbath to assist in delivery. For the mother’s purification (forty days after the birth of a son), see Leviticus 12.

Notes for: Verse 7

Luke focuses on the response to the birth more than the birth itself. He succinctly reports that Mary comes to full term, gives birth, wraps the baby, and lays him in a manger while they are in Bethlehem (Luke 2:6–7). (see firstborn  *  in the End Notes.)

By the early second century A.D. even pagans were widely aware of the tradition that Jesus was born in a cave used as a livestock shelter behind or underneath someone’s home, and they reported the site of this cave to the Emperor Hadrian * .

Five Myths:

1. Myth. Jesus Was Born The Night They Arrived. There is no indication in the text that the birth of Jesus was the night Mary and Joseph arrived. They came to Bethlehem, but the birth is not necessarily on that same night. It may have been days, weeks, [or] even longer after that. It simply says the time of her birth came while they were in Bethlehem. So that is the first myth of the traditional way the Christmas story is sometimes told.
2. Myth.  There Was A Wooden Manger. Wrong. Wooden mangers were rarely, if ever, used in this entire area because of a scarcity of wood and wood was very expensive.  The idea of a wooden manger actually comes from later European interpretations of the Birth of Christ. The association of Jesus with the trough—a symbol of food—anticipates the Last Supper (22:19). The “manger scene” or crèche (in the USA), with both Magi (from Matthew 2) and shepherds (from Luke 2) was invented by Francis of Assisi * in the thirteenth century.^[iv]  That is the second myth of the traditional way the Christmas story is sometimes told.
3.  Myth. There is no mention of The Presence of The Animals which normally used the manger; these found their way into the Christmas story from Isaiah 1:3. The point is rather that at His birth Jesus had to be content with the habitation of animals because there was no room for Him in human society (9:58). That is the third myth of the traditional way the Christmas story is sometimes told.
4.  Myth. The Inn and The Innkeeper. Every good Christmas pageant has Mary and Joseph arriving [and] coming to the inn where the grumpy innkeeper says, “I have no rooms left, so you have to go and stay in the stable.”  Just as there is no inn, there is no innkeeper. That is the fourth myth of the traditional way the Christmas story is sometimes told.
5.  Myth. No Room At The Relatives’ Places. So, Joseph and Mary may have been trying to stay with relatives in Bethlehem, but because of the crowded conditions, there was no room in the guest room in their relatives’ home, so they had to move to an area reserved for animals. Again, [that’s] a different picture than we normally get. There is no mention of an innkeeper—and probably no inn either—in that context. That is the fifth myth of the traditional way the Christmas story is sometimes told.

The “swaddling clothes” were long cloth strips used to keep babies’ limbs straight so they could grow properly (cf. Wisdom of Solomon 7:4 * ). Midwives normally assisted at birth; especially because this was Mary’s first child, it is likely (though not clear from the text) that a midwife would assist her. Jewish law permitted midwives to travel a long distance even on the Sabbath to assist in delivery.

The first thing done after the birth of a child was to wash it; the second to wrap it in swaddling clothes, and the rank of the child was indicated by the splendor and costliness of this, its first attire. Sometimes a fine white shawl, tied with a gold band, was used for the purpose; at other times a small purple scarf, fastened with a brooch. The poor used broad fillets of common cloth (Luke 2:7, 12; Ezekiel 16:4.^[v]

The stone manger (Greek: φάτνη phatne ≡ G5336), was a feeding trough for animals; sometimes these may have been built into the floor. Wooden mangers were rarely, if ever, used in this entire area because of a scarcity of wood!  The idea of a wooden manger actually comes from later European interpretations of the Birth of Christ. The common building material in Israel is stone, and so it is not surprising that the mangers were made from stone. If wooden mangers existed in the first century, they have not been preserved.

The Greek word for “inn” does not mean an ancient hotel. Κατάλυμα (kataluma ≡ G2646), ‘lodging’, ‘caravansary’ can be used of a guest-room (22:11; Mark 14:14) so that the reference may be to a room rather than to an inn (πανδοχεῖον pandocheion ≡ G3829 , Luke 10:34), and to a room in a private house rather than to a room in an inn. The same word is used of the room reserved for the Last Supper.

Bethlehem would have been much too small to have a roadside inn in the sense of a hotel. Normally, inns in that day would be along major highways. In any case no private room was available for the birth, and Mary and her child were deprived of normal comfort. With all Joseph’s scattered family members returning home at once, it is easier for Mary to bear (or care for the child after birth) in the vacant cave outside. Jesus, then, was born in a house, among family and animals that needed protection—not in the barn of a hotel. The traditional birthplace of Jesus is in a cave. There are many examples of ancient houses in the area that are built wholly or partly into caves.

The context of Jesus’ birth, therefore, has thematic and theological significance. Jesus, the son of David, the bringer of peace, was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. The Savior of all people was born under the reign of Caesar Augustus, whose peace paled before that announced by the angels. The Messiah born under Roman oppression, which was so evident in the forced registration, would overthrow the powerful and raise up the oppressed. In yet another respect, therefore, the context of Jesus’ birth—like the annunciations—serves as commentary on His future role.^[vi]