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The New Testament says Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, but one rogue Israeli archaeologist says it is far more likely the Christian savior was born in Bethlehem of the Galilee, more than 60 miles from Jerusalem. Aviram Oshri spent nearly eleven years excavating artifacts in Bethlehem of the Galilee — an ancient biblical village near Nazareth that was later settled by German Templers — which he believes show that the traditional account of Jesus’s birthplace may be wrong. But when he produced his findings for his employer, the Israel Antiquities Authority, he found his proposal dismissed and called...

I. The Paradox of this Night - In a way, we are too familiar with the Christmas story, and so many of its strange paradoxes and stunning “absurdities” fail to shock and amaze us. And yet it does not take long to consider that no human being would ever craft this sort of entrance of God into our world. Surely we would envision God’s entrance in Cecil B. DeMille proportions.  (DeMille was producer of “The Ten Commandments” and other classic Hollywood Epics, in case I’m showing my age). Yes, there would be grand sets, a cast of thousands, palaces, trumpets,...

The new movie that debuted on December 1st, The Nativity Story, has received many positive reviews around the country already and also a fair number of attacks by the standard group of village atheists.Criticisms notwithstanding, the movie certainly has many redeeming qualities to it including its portrayal of Joseph and the touching scene of Mary's visit to Elizabeth, but at the same time I feel it necessary to correct the record about its presentation of Mary. More to the point, twenty centuries of theological reflection on the Virgin Mary have been effectively glossed over in the movie, and we have been...

During the filming of The Nativity Story, director Catherine Hardwicke's silent prayers included an appeal for one more hour of sunlight so that she could film another scene before dark. "I didn't want to pray for things," she told WORLD, "but sometimes you just have to." She was baking in the late afternoon heat of the Sahara Desert in Morocco when the donkey accompanying Mary and Joseph refused to walk on the scorching sand. "I don't blame him—who would?" said Hardwicke. After all, when the Humane Society representative put a digital thermometer in the sand, it read 135 degrees. To...