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.
It takes its name from the manger where Jesus is said to have been born which, according to Christian tradition, took place at the Grotto of the Nativity , enshrined since the fourth century in the Church of the Nativity .
Christian In the Old Testament of the Bible , a manger was used to place the best lambs for sacrifice. The lambs were swaddled and placed in the manger so they would be calm and unblemished to therefore be used in sacrifice. Jesus was born in a place used for birthing sacrificial lambs. (Greek: φατνη phatnē; Luke 2:7).
Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2nd century AD people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born .
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 .
565 (?) Reference no. The Church of the Nativity , or Basilica of the Nativity , is a basilica located in Bethlehem in the West Bank. The grotto it contains holds a prominent religious significance to Christians of various denominations as the birthplace of Jesus .
In Luke, Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem is undertaken in order to satisfy an imperial command that all individuals return to their ancestral towns “that all the world should be taxed.” Since Mary was pregnant with Jesus at the time the command had to be carried out, this explains why Jesus was born in the town of
Of the two Bethlehems in Israel – one near Jerusalem and the other up north – the former receives most of the fame while the latter maintains relative anonymity.
The Gospel of Luke states that Mary gave birth to Jesus and placed him in a manger “because there was no place for them in the inn”. Luke 1:26–27 states that Mary originally lived in Nazareth at the time of the Annunciation, before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
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 Virgin Mary, pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice. 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.
Mary , also called St. Mary or the Virgin Mary , (flourished beginning of the Christian era), the mother of Jesus, venerated in the Christian church since the apostolic age and a favourite subject in Western art, music, and literature.
The Holy Family left from Bethlehem to Egypt after an angel warned Joseph to leave with Jesus and Virgin Mary. They started their journey through northern Sinai until reaching Farama. The places they stayed in have now been transformed to churches and monasteries.
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.