Bethlehem: City of David?

When did Bethlehem become the “city of David”? That title had always been given to Jerusalem. Forty times in the Old Testament Jerusalem is referred to as the city of David, and no other city in the Bible is ever called by that name. Until Luke’s gospel. “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in...

Christmas Faith

It is back around 732 B.C.E. and Ahaz is king of Judah. He’s just a young man in his early twenties, but he was surrounded by some older advisors, among them the prophet Isaiah. Assyria is a rising power and is threatening the nations of the eastern Mediterranean coast. The kings of Syria and Israel, who...

Letting “Emmanuel” Be Enough

“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” God is with us. After a few hundred years, the Israelites of the first century had to be wondering. It was a period of defeat, exile, occupation, and extreme brutality, made...

Heaven and Earth, Towers and Mangers

There’s a story in the 11th chapter of Genesis that tells how humans tried to go where God was. It’s actually the culmination of a series of stories in which humans try to take for themselves prerogatives that belong only to God. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve wanted to decide for themselves what is...

No Inn, But Plenty of Room for Jesus

In which gospel does the innkeeper tell Mary and Joseph that he has no rooms available for them? Trick question; Luke simply writes that Jesus was laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. No innkeeper is ever mentioned. But what if there wasn’t even an inn? Kenneth E. Bailey, in Jesus...

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