Recent Archaeological Finds May Have You Rethinking Your Nativity Scene

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One of the most recognizable symbols of the Christian aspects of Christmas celebrations is the nativity scene. We see them everywhere from small tabletop scenes to large illuminated sets on church grounds to inflatable scenes outdoors. This year, there’s even a nativity scene on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol for the first time.

Growing up, my family had a hand-carved nativity set from Jerusalem. It was beautiful, but one year, the chipmunks in the attic stole Baby Jesus out of the manger and replaced Him with acorns. This caused is to joke that “He is risen!”

The nativity scenes generally look similar. There’s Jesus in the manger with Mary and Joseph standing alongside them. There might be animal figurines, shepherds, or Magi. The elements of the nativity scene are based on the accounts of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2 and the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2.

What if I told you that archeological findings might make you rethink your nativity set? It’s not the kind of difference that will shake anyone’s faith or make anybody think twice about their theology. It’s more akin to the understanding that Jesus’ birthday probably isn’t December 25; you’ll just see traditions in a different light.

I recently heard an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, “Digging for Truth” from the Associates for Biblical Research. In it, the co-host, whose name escapes me (sorry), interviewed pastor and scholar Bryan Windle and attorney and archaeologist Tommy Chamberlin about archaeological findings related to Christmas.

One of the topics they discuss in the podcast is the narrative surrounding the birth of Jesus. We tend to think of the scene at the nativity as Joseph and Mary alone in the cold, laying Jesus in a bed of straw in a wooden trough and surrounded by animals. It’s a heartrending scene, but it might not be accurate.

“I think maybe the typical churchgoer in North America, when they read the Christmas story told every year, what comes to their mind is this idea of Mary and Joseph arriving late at night to the local Motel 6 and some cranky innkeeper tells them that there’s no vacancy left and sticks them in the barn out back with the sheep and Jesus is born in this wooden trough,” Windle says. “But when you actually — that’s a very Western reading of the text — what would be a better reading? First of all, the Bible, the word the Bible uses for ‘inn,’ there was no room at the inn, is not the word that’s typically translated [as] a motel.”

The same word that we see in the nativity story as “inn” appears later in Luke’s gospel as “upper room,” and Windle explains that Joseph’s family may not have had room in their upper room because of so many guests. Instead, Joseph and Mary would have to stay in the stable, which also may not be what we picture.

“It seems that houses had a stable room on the ground floor where they would keep maybe the fatted calf or the new lambs or a sick animal from the flock they would keep within their house for protection in this little stable room,” Windle says of 1st-century Hebrew homes. “And so kind of putting this all together, and I don’t think we’re stretching the evidence, it’s just one possibility here that Joseph and Mary arrive back in Bethlehem and they go to perhaps Joseph’s ancestral home. And when they get there, other family members who also owned land in the area have come there and they have the guest room, the upper room already.”

“And so they put Mary and Joseph in the stable room, which may have been very well in a cave that was incorporated into this domestic structure,” he continues. “And so that changes the story a little bit.”

Indeed it does. Instead of Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus alone and fending for themselves in the cold, they may have been surrounded by family.

“When you understand what the text is actually inferring here, I think about how we celebrate Christmas and we tend to make Christmas a big family celebration, and yet we tell a story of isolation is what we tell,” Chamberlin chimes in. “But I think when you understand what the text is saying and understand the Greek, I think that baby Jesus is born into, into a situation where there’s family, extended family around.”

It’s definitely a different look at the original Christmas story. Windle published an article last year in which you can see some of the archaeological findings near the Church of the Nativity, as well as an example of a 1st-century stone manger.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you throw away your nativity sets, but consider the different take on the nativity story that archaeology suggests. Let it deepen your sense of awe and wonder and your worship this Christmas.

Merry Christmas!