Didn't Mary ride a donkey, while pregnant, from Nazareth to Bethlehem? I never got the impression that family was wealthy.
I never got the impression that family was wealthy....There are books out there that pretty much destroys the age old myth of Jesus coming from a “Poor family of a carpenter.” Joseph had, in the old Aramic or whatever language they used at the time, The name of “Tec” attached. Tec at that time meant Achitect, which indicates Joseph was an upper class engineer, not a carpenter. Jesus spent time as a boy in Egypt, studying (which indicates upper class means right there)quite probably while Joseph the architect was building a temple or residence for a rich Egyptian. And, yes, the very fact that Mary rode an ass for her trip to Bethlehem indicates wealth. Also, ever wonder why Joseph of Arimethia was so close to Jesus and his family? How did the richest man on the planet at that time notice “poor carpenter and his family?” There is evidence (written by the way”, that Jesus was in The British Isles (not the name of the place at that time) working for, or as the guest of, Joseph of A. while Joseph of A. tended to his tin mines. I wish I remembered the name of the Author and the book because the documentations, logic and other proof was in direct compliment to the Bible and history as told to us this day. Conclusion, Herod was in deep doo-doo with Rome for allowing the Jews to crucify Jesus because of his (Jesus’) ties to powerful, rich people in the Roman Empire.