Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…
Merry Christmas 2018
I wish you all the best and happiest.
It pisses me off to see what I think is a ridiculous piece of propaganda making the rounds for Christmas. It is the idea that baby Jesus and family were homeless immigrants. The claim is for obvious political reasons and assumes you know nothing of the details of Jesus life… and certainly nothing about first-century life under the Romans as a conquered people.
In first-century Roman they had taxes… and they had a population census to know how many should be paying taxes. The Romans had conquered the Israelites. They were not about to send someone to count them. Wrong image. The Jewish people could come to the Romans to be counted. This is all known from secular history. The Romans were audacious records keepers.
This meant that every family traveled to the town of the head of the family’s birthplace, we would say more accurately the family’s patriarchal ancestor and register. Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth. Joseph was a descendant of King David. Thus the trip. This wasn’t immigration. It was a visit to comply with government regulation and later return home. They were not going to Bethlehem for a better job or to escape persecution but to comply with the law.
They were staying in the stable of the Bible story because Joseph flubbed the room reservations and there were no vacancies. Not because they were destitute. Further reading shows the ‘wise’ men did not visit them in the stable but in a house that Joseph apparently rented.
House? Where did that come from? Look at Matthew 2:11 – After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother;. The New Testament written in the Greek of the day used the word oikia meaning according to Strong’s Greek dictionary a house, dwelling, an abode, certainly not a stable. (I cannot find an English translation that uses any word other than ‘house’.)
After the birth, King Herod came after them. They fled to Eygpt to avoid Herod’s plan to kill their child. As best we can tell they ran but did not live in abject poverty. The Magis’ gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh paid for their stay in Eygpt and Joseph may have worked.
But, this is not the story open borders people tell you. Not all of them, but it is prevalent. If they lie about this, what else will they lie about?
It does not take a Bible scholar or a devotee to check this out. A few minutes on Google and you can dig up the true story. So, I think it is obvious how ignorant politicians and social organizers think people are. Truth is no obstacle to their attempts to manipulate. Be informed not manipulated.