This is the food that gives us true life, eternal life. Thus the manger becomes a reference to the table of God, to which we are invited so as to receive the bread of God. From the poverty of Jesus’s birth emerges the miracle in which man’s redemption is mysteriously accomplished.
Jesus was born in a place used for birthing sacrificial lambs. A manger is also a Christian symbol, associated with nativity scenes where Mary and Joseph, forced by necessity to stay in a room for animals instead of a guest room, used a manger as a makeshift crib for the Baby Jesus .
The birth of Christ may be the most famous Bible story of all, reprised annually in nativity scenes across the world each Christmas: Jesus was born in a stable, because there was no room at the inn.
The Gospel of Luke says that when the shepherds went to Bethlehem, they “found Mary and Joseph , and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” Matthew tells the story of the three wise men, or Magi, who “fell down” in worship and offered gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Nativity scenes exhibit figures representing the infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. Other characters from the nativity story, such as shepherds, sheep, and angels may be displayed near the manger in a barn (or cave) intended to accommodate farm animals, as described in the Gospel of Luke.
Only Luke mentions a manger, shepherds and a chorus of angels. There’s no mention in either version that Mary rode into Bethlehem on a donkey . And there’s no mention of any animals in the stable — though one can assume some were present.
The rest of what is believed to be left of the manger is kept at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome . The thumb-size relic was unveiled at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem before it arrived in Bethlehem, where it was greeted with marching bands and cheerful crowds, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.
Some apocryphal accounts state that at the time of her betrothal to Joseph, Mary was 12–14 years old . According to ancient Jewish custom, Mary could have been betrothed at about 12. Hyppolitus of Thebes says that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of her son Jesus, dying in 41 AD.
Using these methods, most scholars assume a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC, and that Jesus’ preaching began around AD 27–29 and lasted one to three years . They calculate the death of Jesus as having taken place between AD 30 and 36.
Jesus’ name in Hebrew was “ Yeshua ” which translates to English as Joshua . So how did we get the name “Jesus”?
Dec . 25 is not the date mentioned in the Bible as the day of Jesus’s birth ; the Bible is actually silent on the day or the time of year when Mary was said to have given birth to him in Bethlehem. The earliest Christians did not celebrate his birth . 25 became known as Jesus’s birthday .
From Rome, the Christ’s Nativity celebration spread to other Christian churches to the west and east, and soon most Christians were celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25 .
(The pollsters did not, apparently, think of putting the question to Muslims, although the Koran states—no less clearly than the New Testament—that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus; the difference, of course, is that for Islam Jesus was an inspired prophet but not the son of God .)