Did you know: "he was born in a stable"

Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Jesus’ stepfather Joseph was ‘of the house and lineage of David’ (Luke 2:4). He would had been something of a celebrity if he could prove this genealogy, for true descendants of David were quite rare. It’s therefore likely that he would have sent notice of his intention of travelling to Bethlehem before setting out, for his pedigree made it imperative that he was received well; it would have caused dishonour if any true descendent of David was not received with honour.

Reading the account of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s Gospel through this cultural lens suggests we need to read the narrative differently.

Luke 2 says that all the inns of Bethlehem were full when Mary and Joseph arrived (Luke 2:7), which implies their arrival did not occur according to schedule, which seems quite likely given Mary’s pregnancy reaching full term and the high tension surrounding the census. Their pre-booked accommodation was otherwise rented out. Luke suggests that an innkeeper found them emergency accommodation, but that bed could not have been the stable of popular imagination because of Joseph’s high status.

Most people in the Middle East kept animals for transport, milk, and food. It represented economic necessity. Some animals—especially those regarded as ritually ‘clean’—were kept indoors, particularly during the colder times of year, in a sectioned-off part of the house. They would have been safer that way, and the larger animals’ body heat would also have helped warm the room. Read this way, the holy family were not lodged in a draughty stable but were safe inside the innkeeper’s own rooms, and Jesus was probably born on the Innkeeper’s own bed.