Did Mary ride a donkey? Was Jesus born in a stable or somewhere else? Did baby Jesus cry? And why do we keep putting three kings in the nativity scene? Most of us have pictured the Christmas story the same way for as long as we can remember. It is on Christmas cards and in songs and plays and kids’ programs, and somewhere along the way a few things may have slipped into your beliefs that are not fully biblical. I want to ask some Christmas questions, some Christmas curiosities, and we put a booklet together to go through some of them. Not to ruin the story, of course, or to question our faith or anything like that. We are not trying to nitpick any of it. We just want to slow down, look at some of the details, and ask, “What does the Bible actually say about that?” If you are new here, my name is Ryan Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California. A few years ago I put a surprising amount of research into a children’s Advent book I was writing, Once Upon a Time, and in the appendix I included a ton of research, things I had looked up and questions I had chased down. Several years ago I just went on a tear through all kinds of books: this one from David Jeremiah, a good book; Max Lucado; this one from Sinclair Ferguson; and this one from Paul David Tripp. And here is the book I wrote, with the research in the appendix at the back. I was looking at Orthodox perspectives and many other perspectives, going through the Christmas carols. This one has a great amount of research; I met the author of this one. I was looking at children’s versions as well as beautifully designed versions, trying to put together an Advent storybook that was both biblical and entertaining, pulling a bunch of different ideas from all over the place. Eventually all those notes turned into a Christmas sermon called “Christmas Curiosities,” so this video is that sermon, walking through the questions one by one.
As a core idea, God tells us what we need to know about Christmas, but sometimes He leaves some things out, and we just do not need to know them. That is okay. Tradition and familiarity have filled in some details Scripture never addresses, and we just need to discern the difference between what is actually biblical and what we can stylize in the Christmas story. That is okay. We want to enjoy the Christmas story a little more thoughtfully, and we do not want to force answers where there are no scriptural answers. But they are called curiosities, and I am naturally curious about some of these things. We are going to walk through three chapters in this book.
Chapter One: Where Scripture Is Silent
Chapter 1 is about where Scripture is silent. There are some Christmas questions we ask simply because the Bible is silent in those areas. They are not bad questions. It just means God did not choose to give us those details, and that is okay. The first question: did Mary ride a donkey? Luke tells us about their journey to Bethlehem in Luke 2: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus.” Joseph went up from Galilee, it says, “to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.” If you read the entire passage, you will see who traveled, where they traveled, and why they traveled, but it never tells us how they traveled. We picture Mary on a donkey probably because of Christmas plays; you know, the old flannelgraph boards put Mary on a donkey. Maybe we think of it because Jesus later rode in on a donkey, so we connect the donkey to Jesus. There is a second-century book that mentions a donkey, but that is not Scripture. Biblically, the most honest answer is, well, we do not know. Okay, that answers that question.
Next question: how soon did Mary have her baby once she arrived in Bethlehem? Luke tells us Mary was already great with child. Luke 2:6-7: “And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” So the Bible just says that while they were there, the days were accomplished. Was that immediately, or after some time? The Bible does not specify. We can presume, and I happen to think she had the baby shortly after she got into town, but if we are honest, the Bible does not say. All right, next question: were there other animals present? Jesus was laid in a manger, and a manger is a feeding trough, so apparently there were some animals nearby, but we do not know which ones. Scripture does not say. So it is okay to have animals in our nativity set, but that is based only on the word manger. Next question: did baby Jesus cry? There is a popular Christmas carol that says, “No crying He makes,” but that is not what the Bible says. Jesus was fully human, and He developed in a normal human way. Luke 2:52 says Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. Being a normal human baby… human babies cry. Some are quieter than others. My babies were not quiet when they were babies, so who knows how quiet Jesus was. That does not mean we have to throw out the Christmas carol. We are just not going to build our theology on a Christmas carol. We will base it on what the Word of God says.
Next question: how many babies were killed by Herod? Matthew 2:16 records how Herod was angry and trying to wipe out the one they perceived as the Messiah: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.” Scripture tells us it happened, but it never tells us exactly how many babies were killed. Bethlehem was a small village on the outskirts of Jerusalem, a few miles away. Obviously even a few dozen would have been horrific, and God tells us exactly what matters and leaves out what perhaps we did not need to know. When I was growing up, I was thinking thousands and thousands of babies, but there were only hundreds of people in the village of Bethlehem, so a percentage of that would have been very small. Historians do not even record the killing of these babies in the village of Bethlehem, but I believe that is partly because Herod was such a horrific person that this was par for the course. This is just what he did. He was routinely killing those who might oppose his throne, so something like this would have been too small, historically, even to record.
Chapter Two: Where Tradition Fills In
Chapter 2 deals with where tradition fills in: Scripture speaks, but tradition rearranges the picture. Here are a few of those questions. I go into more detail on all of these answers in the book; I am just giving some highlights here. Were the wise men at the nativity, at the very birth of Jesus Christ? No, they were not. Matthew 2:11 says, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” They were not coming to a stable or to the manger scene. They were coming to a house; there is a different word there. He was not a newborn; there is a different word for a toddler or young child there. It is not wrong to include the wise men in the nativity scene. That is okay; they just arrived later. They were not at the nativity. Having seen the star in the east, they made their way to see the baby, to see the Messiah, and they presented their gifts then, but we do not know exactly how much later it was. Of course, Herod was seen telling the soldiers to kill all the babies two years old and under, hedging his bets and taking the outside estimate, so it must have been within that two-year range that the wise men eventually showed up. The next question is, how many wise men were there? Is it “We Three Kings”? Again, the Bible does not tell us. There were three gifts, but that does not necessarily mean there were three men. Their names are not given. In my Christmas book I use the traditional names; tradition fills in their names, Caspar and Balthasar and Melchior, or something like that. Their names are not given in Scripture, though, so that is where tradition steps in. Because of the three gifts, maybe we can still sing “We Three Kings.” We just do not know whether there were three. Likely there was a whole entourage traveling with them.
Next question: when did Mary and Joseph meet? If you read Luke and line it up next to Matthew, they both give us pieces, but not a full timeline. God’s intention was never to give us a linear progression of time. Luke shows Mary leaving immediately to visit Elisabeth after she finds out she is with child. Matthew shows Joseph wrestling with the situation: Mary tells Joseph she is with child, and he goes to sleep all distraught, wondering whether he will have to put her away publicly or privately. So we do not know exactly the timeline. If they were in Nazareth together, it would have been strange for her to tell him, have this big argument about her being pregnant, and then immediately leave to go see Elisabeth. There might have been some kind of arranged marriage through a family connection with Zacharias and Elisabeth. Joseph might have been from Bethlehem, which is why they had family ties there to go back to, their original home, during the census, the taxing. It is likely that Mary was from Nazareth, and perhaps through some kind of arranged marriage they would have had to meet up at some point. Scripture does not exactly lay it all out or give us a linear timeline. I give it my best stab at the back of my Once Upon a Time book, and I give an overview in the Christmas Curiosities book, but Scripture does not exactly say. So we hold our theories very loosely and say we just do not exactly know. But it is fun to think through the human element of the characters in the Christmas story.
Next question: what was the star? Matthew 2:9 says, “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” There are all these theories, that it was some kind of comet, or a supernova, a star exploding. Whatever it was, it was something God used deliberately to guide them. The star was some kind of supernatural shining to show the wise men exactly where to go. I think they were more than just curious astrologers. I think they were truly wise men from the east, following this star in order to come to the place, and then, once they were in town, God somehow supernaturally guided them to where baby Jesus was. We do not know exactly how, but the Bible says the star guided them. Next question: was there an innkeeper? In the Christmas programs there is always an innkeeper, and he is the angry one kicking poor Mary and Joseph out, but Luke just says there was no room for them in the inn. The word for inn there can also mean a guest chamber. Luke uses a different word in the original language when he is talking about a commercial inn, as when the man was beaten and left for dead, and the good Samaritan came by, put him on his own beast, took him into town, left him at the inn, and left money with the host. That was a different kind of inn. Bethlehem was small, Joseph was likely just seeking family lodging, and Bethlehem probably did not have a big commercial hotel like we think of. We can think of that inn like a bed-and-breakfast, an Airbnb, a connected lodging room that would have been filled. With the census, the taxation, all the families had to go to their hometowns, and it is very likely that young teenage Joseph and his teenage wife would not have had any room. They would have been at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak, and would not have gotten the prime locations the rest of the families were taking. Whether it was a standalone inn or a connected room like an Airbnb attached to the family home, either way the Scriptures just tell us there was no room for them in the inn. So they had to bed down where there was a manger, probably in the cave beneath the home where the animals were kept at night. So it is an interesting little detail that there is actually no innkeeper recorded. Again, it is not bad to include an innkeeper in the Christmas stories and the Christmas plays we have all the time.
Next question: was the nativity in a stable, a wooden structure like we often see? The Bible never says it was a stable. It does use the word manger, but it does not say stable. I happen to think it was a cave; that was very common back then. It might have been some kind of courtyard area of these mud or rock houses. Scripture does not say, and it is not as if wood was abundant enough to build some kind of wooden structure. So I do not know that there was a full stable. There might have been some wooden doors across a cave to keep the animals in and protected at night. But it does not say stable. Again, it is okay to have a stable. We have multiple stables around the church in the nativity sets our decorators have set up, and I think it is wonderful. We have a really nice one my brother built over in our children’s wing. It is totally fine to have a stable; it is just another of those little Christmas curiosities. Next question: do angels sing? Luke 2:13-14 says, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” In Revelation we see the angels saying things, but does it say they sing? No, it does not say they sing. Do I think they sing? I think angels sing; I am going to say probably. But does the Bible say angels sing? No. It says that they say. I am just extrapolating from the data. Here we are surrounded by this beautiful music. We are given a picture of worship in the Old Testament that includes singing, and that seems to tie into the worship around the throne in Revelation. So I believe there is singing in heaven, and I believe there are singing angels, but I cannot be dogmatic about it. That is maybe where tradition fills in.
Chapter Three: What Actually Matters
The third chapter deals with the things that actually matter. We move from tradition and the silence of the Scriptures to some things more connected to doctrine. Maybe not this first one. The question is, when was Jesus born? Some would say December 25th is His birthday; others would argue strongly against that. The Bible never tells us the date, but what does matter is that He was born. That is what matters most, the doctrinal thing: He entered our world as a human. His birth, His physical humanity, was necessary for the sacrifice He made on Calvary for us. Connected to that is sometimes this question: is Christmas pagan? Does it come from a pagan date? Does December 25th have a pagan origin? Well, no, it does not. Many others have done extensive research on that and talked about certain dates. My dad has a booklet (we are actually trying to dig it up; we lost it over time) that we used to have in our booklet rack on the plausibility of December 25th being the time when the latter rains would have covered the hillsides with grass, and the sheep would have been out in the middle of the night when the angels appeared to the shepherds. It is very plausible that Jesus could have been born on December 25th. And even if there are some connections to pagan roots, that does not necessarily mean Christmas itself is pagan. Christians are free to give thanks to God for whatever gifts He has given us, and that includes this gift of Christmas. Some would follow up and say, “Well, what about Christmas trees and Christmas gifts? Are those pagan?” They point to Jeremiah as though he were talking about idols. Well, no. I am in Jeremiah in my Bible reading right now, and he is not talking about Christmas trees. If you read Jeremiah, it is very clear he is talking about wicked pagan idolatry, and that has nothing to do with Christmas trees. So what if someone cannot celebrate Christmas in good conscience? Then they should not. Scripture teaches liberty of conscience, and according to Romans 14 we should be able to live and thank God for every single thing He has blessed us with. So live according to your conscience, but we do have the liberty to celebrate Christmas, and I am glad we can celebrate the birth of our Saviour.
Another question: why do the genealogies differ? How come Matthew and Luke do not line up exactly? There are a lot of different viewpoints on this. I believe Matthew traces Joseph’s legal line and Luke traces Mary’s bloodline. There is the royalty of Jesus Christ, and there is the physical descent, the Jewishness, and He had to be accepted on both fronts to be the Messiah. I believe the two genealogies show those two different lines to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the rightful Messiah: Joseph and Mary, the legal line and the bloodline. That is what I believe the two genealogies are about. Next question: why Nazareth? Why did Jesus end up in Nazareth? Joseph intended to return to Bethlehem; we know that from the Christmas story. But Archelaus was reigning there, so God redirected them to Nazareth. I do not believe that was where they originally intended to land long-term, but Nazareth was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. That is a little detail that matters according to the Scriptures.
In closing, we did not answer every Christmas question, because not every Christmas question has an answer, and that is okay. God has told us exactly what we need to know. We can enjoy this Christmas season. We can sing the songs. We can set up our nativity. Just remember: where Scripture speaks, we can be dogmatic, and where Scripture is silent, we can be silent as well. There might be a few little details we fill in for poetry’s sake, for example, but the most important thing is that Jesus was born of a virgin, that He lived a human life, a perfect human life, as fully divine here on earth, and that He died to take our sins on Himself. That is the beauty of the Christmas message: Jesus came to bring us eternal life. If you do not know Jesus in that way today, I encourage you to read the Gospels. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read about Jesus Christ, the life He lived, the death He died, and the resurrection when He rose from the grave, having taken our sins upon Himself. I encourage you this Christmas season to find the reason for the season. God bless you, and we will see you in the next video, our hundredth YouTube video. God bless you. We will see you then.
