Where Was Jesus Born...and Why?

And she brought forth her firstborn Son,

and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths,

and laid Him in a manger,

because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:7, NKJV

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but that's not the answer to the question.

As I posted a few days ago, Jesus was not born in a barn because all the hotel rooms were taken. Two words in our English translations of this verse--inn and manger--have long contributed to certain speculations about the birth of Jesus Christ that probably are mistaken. It's nothing to stake your life upon. No major doctrine will come undone if Jesus was not born in a stable. And if it turns out I was wrong about this, well, that won't be an earth-shaking event either.

Here are some things to keep in mind as we move further into this story.

Jesus was born into a very large extended family that had its family roots in Bethlehem.

Joseph and Mary were lineal descendants of Jewish kings, nobles and priests.

Not only were people returning to the towns of their birth for the registration, but all Jews from everywhere were also converging on Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a season that started with Rosh Hashanah (the Festival of Trumpets). If an imperial decree were being carried out for all people to be registered in a province that was well known for civil unrest, it would make sense to schedule such a mass movement of people during a time when they were already on the move--so as not to disrupt their agrarian cycles and livelihoods.

So here's the story the way I believe it really happened.

Way back in March or April, shortly after Passover and the birth of John the Baptist, Joseph took Mary as his wife. By doing so, he was openly declaring to the community that he was taking responsibility for her pregnancy. Through his actions, he was saying, "This child is mine." He would do so again at the circumcision and naming. In liberal Judea, it was not unheard of for betrothed couples to share conjugal visits before they actually started living together. But in the more rural conservative areas of Galilee, it was severely frowned upon. The Bible does not tell us anything about their families' reactions to the pregnancy and premature wedding, in fact does not mention the involvement of their families at all. Is it possible that their families were so ashamed of Mary's pregnancy that they distanced themselves from the young couple? Did Joseph and Mary become social outcasts within their small community?

Already ostracized at home, Joseph and Mary probably made the trip to Bethlehem alone. Only tradition declares that she rode a donkey, but it's possible. Jews from everywhere were already trickling into Judea for the upcoming feasts. The family of David was large, and many familial relatives of both Joseph and Mary were coming to Bethlehem for both the census and the holidays. If their immediate family was embarrassed by Mary's pregnancy, imagine how the distant relatives may have felt.

The word rendered by the English language as inn is not to be misconstrued as a hotel or a tavern. It wasn't that all the hotel rooms were booked up when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem. Rather, the word refers to the guest quarters of any Jewish home of 2000 years ago--the rooftop where often a canopy was spread to expand the house's living quarters. Also connected to this area was the "upper room", such as the one where Jesus and His disciples ate the last supper. And at the Feast of Tabernacles, when Jews were supposed to move out of their permanent dwellings and live in temporary booths or shelters made from tree branches, it was common for many families to simply build their booth on their rooftop.

When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, they found no welcome among their relatives and were not offered a place to stay on anyone's rooftop. So like many others who were coming in from out of town, Joseph and Mary found a hillside and Joseph built a tabernacle out of tree branches for them to stay in during the festival. Of course, early church traditions identified Jesus birthplace as a cave, so perhaps Joseph and Mary built their shelter against the mouth of a cave. It was a little early--the actual festival was still two weeks away--but it was September and I'm sure the weather was enjoyable.

Again, the Bible doesn't tell us if any family members were present at the birth. One tradition indicates a girl named Salome was with them--perhaps Mary's sister? But when Jesus was born, Mary swaddled him in soft cloths, probably after bathing and salting him, and she laid him in the only crib-like structure available to her in their rustic surroundings--the manger where they normally kept their food stores. It wasn't a feeding trough for cattle; it was a portable cupboard for bread. And now let that imagery sink in. The Bread of Life came into the world, and his mother placed him in a bread basket.