I confess; there are parts of the Christmas story that have always bothered me. Trying to bring the stories of Matthew and Luke together have been difficult at best. Recently, I started reading the works of scholar Kenneth E. Bailey. Bailey is a professor, lecturer, and author who lived for 40 years in the
In Luke 2, we read that there was no room for the family “in the inn.” The word translated “inn” in Greek is kataluma. This is not the common word for an inn as we know it. Thankfully, Luke uses this word again in his gospel, in chapter 22, verse 11. Here, Jesus tells his followers to ask a man, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”
A couple of thousand years ago, in towns like
(You can see a good diagram here, as well as read parts of the first chapter of the book here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0830825681/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link).
“The main floor is where the family cooks, eats, lives, and sleeps. The end of the room next to the door, was generally down a couple of steps. In this part of the room, the family would bring in their animals at night, taking them out each morning and tying them up in the courtyard.” (Not directly quoted, but pretty darn close.)
3 comments:
I liked that!!!!
your blog is so good......
well doesn't that change things... interesting.
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