DETAILS OF JESUS' BIRTH

  Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and returned to Nazareth. Joseph was distressed that his engaged wife was pregnant. He didn’t know about the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary or the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.   

He planned to break his engagement to Mary in a quiet way — didn’t want her to suffer public disgrace and wanted to avoid embarrassment for himself. 

As a just Jewish man, Joseph could have followed the Mosaic Law on adultery. God himself authored the Mosaic Law. Here is what justice requires for adultery, according to the Law: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10).   

If Joseph did not act according to the Law, we might consider him merciful, but not just, sources say. 

(In the case of rape, under the Mosaic Law, the woman would go free, but the man who did it should die.)
 
THE DREAM (Matthew 1:20-23)
 
“But while he [Joseph] thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.’

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.’”
 
THE MARRIAGE  
 
“The marriage was quietly solemnized according to the laws of the Jewish religion, and Joseph meekly accepted the task which Divine Providence assigned to him as the protector of Mary, and the foster-father of her Divine Child,” writes the Rev. Charles P. Roney, D.D., author of Beautiful Bible Stories. 

“And [Joseph] knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.”

Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, but that wasn’t where Jesus was to be born. 

Augustus Caesar, the Roman Emperor who ruled most of the known world at that time, helped bring about God’s will because he wanted all his subjects enrolled and taxed.

“She [Mary] and her betrothed, Joseph, were members of a conquered people group, forced to travel about 90 miles to be counted for the census of the conquering empire so that it might know just how many people it had available to tax,” sources say. 

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child” (Luke 2).
 
THE BIRTH
 
“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

“Though it flies in the face of Christmas tradition, the truth of the matter is that Mary and Joseph probably stayed with family in Bethlehem,” according to biblestudytools.com. “The Bible never says Jesus was born in a stable; it simply says he was placed in a manger: ‘She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them’ (Luke 2:7).

“Note that there was no “guest room” available for them; Mary and Joseph probably stayed on the crowded ground floor of a relative’s house, writes Tim Chaffey for Answers in Genesis. The idea of a fruitless search for an inn comes from a translation of the Greek word for guest room getting turned into ‘inn’ in some English Bibles. (Not to worry; you can still have cute animals in your nativity scene. Small animals were often brought inside the house during the night in the first century. This is probably where the manger came from.)” (from biblestudytools.com).

Whatever the details, the Bible says that in the city of David there was born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Dr. Roney writes, “Hidden from the eyes of a thoughtless and wicked world, possessed of a dual inheritance of royalty, and destined to receive a name that has no equal in heaven or earth, the Son of God made his silent entrance into the world.”