Posted on 12/23/2015 3:49:48 AM PST by moneyrunner
The Bible story of the virgin birth is at the center of much of the holiday cheer this time of year. The book of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus decreed a census should be taken. Mary gave birth after arriving in Bethlehem and placed baby Jesus in a manger because there was “no room for them in the inn.â€
Some people believe Mary and Joseph were mistreated by a greedy innkeeper, who only cared about profits and decided the couple was not “worth†his normal accommodations. This version of the story (narrative) has been repeated many times in plays, skits, and sermons. It fits an anti-capitalist mentality that paints business owners as greedy, or even evil.
It persists even though the Bible records no complaints and there was apparently no charge for the stable. It may be the stable was the only place available. Bethlehem was over-crowded with people forced to return to their ancestral home for a census – ordered by the Romans – for the purpose of levying taxes. If there was a problem, it was due to unintended consequences of government policy. In this narrative, the government caused the problem.
The innkeeper was generous to a fault – a hero even. He was over-booked, but he charitably offered his stable, a facility he built with unknowing foresight. The innkeeper was willing and able to offer this facility even as government officials, who ordered and administered the census, slept in their own beds with little care for the well-being of those who had to travel regardless of their difficult life circumstances.
If you must find “evil†in either of these narratives, remember that evil is ultimately perpetrated by individuals, not the institutions in which they operate. And this is why it’s important to favor economic and political systems that limit the use and abuse of power over others. In the story of baby Jesus, a government law that requires innkeepers to always have extra rooms, or to take in anyone who asks, would “fix†the problem.
But these laws would also have unintended consequences. Fewer investors would back hotels because the cost of the regulations would reduce returns on investment. A hotel big enough to handle the rare census would be way too big in normal times. Even a bed and breakfast would face the potential of being sued. There would be fewer hotel rooms, prices would rise, and innkeepers would once again be called greedy. And if history is our guide, government would chastise them for price-gouging and then try to regulate prices.
This does not mean free markets are perfect or create utopia; they aren’t and they don’t. But businesses can’t force you to buy a service or product. You have a choice – even if it’s not exactly what you want. And good business people try to make you happy in creative and industrious ways.
Government doesn’t always care. In fact, if you happen to live in North Korea or Cuba, and are not happy about the way things are going, you can’t leave. And just in case you try, armed guards will help you think things through.
This is why the Framers of the US Constitution made sure there were “checks and balances†in our system of government. These checks and balances don’t always lead to good outcomes; we can think of many times when some wanted to ignore these safeguards. But, over time, the checks and balances help prevent the kinds of despotism we’ve seen develop elsewhere.
Neither free market capitalism, nor the checks and balances of the Constitution are the equivalent of having a true Savior. But they should give us all hope that things won’t be as bad as so many seem to think they will be.
First of all, when there is not a room available, what is the owner supposed to do? Kick out someone else?
Second...if this is a mistranslation, what else is “mistranslated?” You are going to get some “word of God” folks upset at that! Ha ha.
Waiting to see a liberal accept strangers in their hotel room next time they are on vacation.
Inn is full, we have to double up occupancy!
Next time you are flying, the overbooked travelers will no longer have to fly standby. BOTH passengers will be permitted onboard and you’ll just have to take 15 minute turns sharing the seat (one sits, one stands).
Today, letting a couple use the stable would be a major violation of code. Owner could be shut down entirely, fined, license pulled. Child protective services would step in too...
Not a mistranslation, more of a generous use of the word. The Greek is "katalymati" and referred to a place to stay after a long journey. Similar word is used in Luke 22:11 "katalyma" as "guest" or "upper" room. 1st Century Judea had dual purpose homes where the upper room was for guests and the lower room was where the family and the animals slept (for those who owned some animals). Not every house had this, but some on the edge of an established town.
Summation: an upper room that would be rented out to sojourners, aka "inn".
Place where travelers stay is a better translation and probably refers to space in private houses.
In this case, the private house probably belonged to a distant cousin of Joseph. They were not the only family of the house of David to be traveling to Bethlehem at that time, and families tended to congregate together.
When there is not even any space on the floor you can put the cousins in a tent in the back yard.
Jesus was born in a barn and laid in a manger because it was GOD’S PLAN that He be born in a barn and laid in a manger!
An interesting aside, and way, way off topic...
Back in the old expansion days in the US it was not unusual to rent a bed when you were on the road. It was more like a dormitory than an inn. You were “expected” to share a room with a stranger.
Kind of like the hostel life in some parts of the world today.
So, if the rooms really were all full, that must have been some party.
Yes, or perhaps even Joseph's immediate family. While Scripture seems clear that Mary was from Nazareth, the notion that Joseph wasn't himself from Bethlehem would appear to be more of an inference than anything else. Luke writes: "And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city." Luke 2:3 (KJV). While it has been supposed that Bethlehem was Joseph's "ancestral" home, as it were, a straightforward reading of the text suggests, alternatively, that Bethlehem was in fact his home town.
Note, too, in this regard, that Matthew's Nativity narrative has Mary and Jesus living in a house, in Bethlehem, at the time of the adoration of the magi, which likely occurred many, many months after Jesus's birth. Matthew 2:11. In other words, by that time, Joseph and Mary had wed and were permanently residing in Bethlehem.
Thereafter, after the flight into Egypt, Joseph's original intention was to return to Judea, but "being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into parts of Galilee." Matthew 2:22 (KJV).
The First Century Middle Eastern “inn” was actually a “caravanserai” which housed the animals on the ground floor, and the human guests on the second. There are ruins of these “inns” in the Middle East to this day, most notably in the Israeli city of Akko (Acre).
If this was the type of inn, then Mary and Joseph would still be sheltered, albeit not on the second floor.
Tradition holds that the “stable” was actually a cave, of which there are many in Bethlehem. The one beneath the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is generally believed to be the actual spot, by nearly all branches of Christianity.
However, even the craftsmen in Bethlehem itself, when designing creches for the touring public, depict the “stable” as a peaked roof wooden structure more resembling Medieval Europe than First Century Judea.
And that’s OK. The important thing is that Christ is born in Bethlehem, Glory to God in the Highest!
Neither - the Lamb of God had to be born in a stable.
Boarding houses were a little different.
And my understanding is that families were encouraged to take in a boarding vet after WWII while homes were built. I grasped that from some old time radio shows like Burns & Allen.
There are still some restaurants that have family style seating (you may be sitting next to strangers).
Oh, I am going back much further than boarding houses. I am talking Dodge City days of the 1880’s. But we have become a society of strangers.
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