Well, it seems that someone is going to rewrite the whole Nativity story. Minister and academic Reverend Ian Paul insists Jesus Christ was not born in a stable, but in a family home.
According to a scholar, a common misconception was caused by a wrong ranslation of the original Greek text. He argues that Jesus’ birth did not take place amid farm animals in a barn or stable, but actually in a family house full of relatives.
He claims that the snag is in the Greek word ‘kataluma’ which was wrongly translated as ‘inn’ instead of ‘private room’ or ‘lodging’. Such version of translation fundamentally changes the whole story.
The Reverend wrote on his blog: “What does it mean for the kataluma to have “no space”? It means that many, like Joseph and Mary, have travelled to Bethlehem, and the family guest room is already full, probably with other relatives who arrived earlier.
So Joseph and Mary must stay with the family itself, in the main room of the house, and there Mary gives birth. The most natural place to lay the baby is in the straw-filled depressions at the lower end of the house where the animals are fed.
The idea that they were in a stable, away from others, alone and outcast, is grammatically and culturally implausible. In fact, it is hard to be alone at all in such contexts. In the Christmas story, Jesus is not sad and lonely, some distance away in the stable, needing our sympathy.
He is in the midst of the family, and all the visiting relations, right in the thick of it and demanding our attention. This should fundamentally change our approach to enacting and preaching on the nativity.”
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