Isn't it improbable that Mary, heavy with child, would have walked or ridden a donkey 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem over several days just to be with her betrothed Joseph?
@Jazzy
The Bible indicates that they both went there to "be registered."
Yeah, there are some "issues" (or I'd prefer, mysteries).
1. It seems that only adult males needed to register, so why is Mary along - especially considering she is "with child?"
2. There evidently is some indication that people COULD register anywhere. Here the "hint" seems to be that Joseph and Mary wanted to register in their ancestral home, "because they were of the house and linage of David." It MAY have been a political statement; a way of saying "I'm Jewish."
THEORY: They knew the prophecy... every Jew did... that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They traveled there primary for a reason not stated in Scripture, so that the Baby would be born in Bethlehem. I understand this is the common theory, but it does beg the question: Why doesn't Scripture state that? Why state a secondary reason but not the primary? I don't think we can know.
Joseph had relatives in Bethlehem, so surely one of them would have put them up. No, the idea of the stable was brilliant PR.
1. We don't know if Joseph had known relatives there. But it probably didn't matter, the very high value of hospitality would STRONGLY suggest that the people of Bethlehem would care for these sojourners - regardless of whether or not they were known or unknown relatives.
2. And
therein lies a great mystery. The text does NOT say that there was no room in the hotel for them. There is a koine Greek for a hotel - a place that rented out rooms for the night. They existed primarily for the wealthy. And hotels existed in the Holy Lands in the First Century but only in major cites - Bethlehem was far too small to have had a hotel. But the Bible does not use that word, it uses the word "kataluma." The word does not mean "hotel" it means "guest space." Nearly all Jewish homes had a place in their home were guests (and yes, sojourners) could sleep. This corner was the "Kataluma." Virtually all of the 50 or so homes in Bethlehem would have one. The question (and it's a big one): Why did NONE of them offer their kataluma, there "guest space" to Mary and Joseph? Especially given the enormous value of hospitality among Jews? We simply don't know. There's something simply not stated, a critical piece of the puzzel we aren't told.
THEORY: There's nothing to suggest the common image that they arrived in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve... with Mary already in labor. They may have arrived weeks, even months before Christmas - there's nothing in the text that suggests otherwise.
POSSIBILITY: It's possible that none they knew had the ability to put them up over a long time (that would be beyond Jewish hospitality) but they are offered a space with the animals. Remmber: houses then often had two connected rooms - one for the animals at night, one for the people (and a roof over both as the bedroom). Sleeping with the animals was not unusual... it was even preferred in cold weather (no fireplaces, no heaters back then), so given a place to stay (perhaps for months) with the animals would be okay given hospitality; there was no usual kataluma (in the people part of the house) but rather with the animals. There are problems with this common theory: The Bible indicates that when the Wise Men came, the Holy Family was "in a house" which IMPLIES where people (not animals) usually stayed (perhaps they found kataluma after the birth?). And some suggest they went to the "stable" for privacy for the birth, but in that day, privacy was the last thing a mother wanted... birth was done with women present (and sometimes kids to watch); that Mary gave birth with only Joseph present is another mystery... why just Joseph? We just don't know.
Part of the problem for US is that
none of the Gospels are biographys. They are sermons.... things told so that "we might know that Jesus is the Christ and that in Him we have life everlasting." Luke is the most biographical... John the least.... but none of them are biographical in nature. Wr are left with holes (including one of nearly 30 years - the childhood and youth of Jesus). We simply aren't told His biography... and so we are left with a LOT, a LOT, of unknowns. But then, do we NEED to know why Jesus was born where animals were kept? Do we need to know when Joseph died or what exactly he did for a living? Does knowing (or not knowing) these details impact whether we have faith or not? Again, the issue is not knowlege of the details of Jesus' life but faith in Him as our Savior.
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