tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post8199141941718736356..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Christmas Mythbusters - Seeing The Bethlehem Story Differently Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-37590721429532411822020-12-13T14:54:48.970-05:002020-12-13T14:54:48.970-05:00Interesting, lot of assumptions here, like "t...Interesting, lot of assumptions here, like "traveling in a caravan" which "is not in the Scriptures." I'll have to check his use of the Greek with Strong's to see if he is cherry-picking like so many others, to make his case.<br /><br />The Gospel story was written as it was to make a point. Double-twisting it around to counter the twisting of the story by some, turning it into a "Jesus was a meegrant, so open your borders, filthy nationalist" narrative is not right either. And a manger - glossed over by the author - is still a trough from which drooling ruminants eat their hay, and not a comfly nor proper middle-class emplacement for any newborn, much less the King of Kings. <br /><br />Which again, was the point. oldcorps76https://www.blogger.com/profile/09281783473995122671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-27249306524202051712020-12-13T12:17:29.842-05:002020-12-13T12:17:29.842-05:00Everyone was poor by our standards, the few except...Everyone was poor by our standards, the few exceptions being the few seriously rich poobahs. I take the story of the manger as a contrast with the traditional idea of the Messiah, which more or less assumed a birth in a palace--not that a birth in a palace in that time wouldn't strike most of us today as pretty primitive.<br /><br />The modern spin on poverty is different from the Biblical spin. We have Biblical stories about poor old women with one mouthful of food left, who expect to starve to death quite soon, but who instead share their bit with a passing stranger, because as you say the hospitality tradition was quite beyond anything we can easily imagine today, when we rarely encounter anyone in such dire straits. We have Biblical injunctions to allow the poor to glean the fields after we've harvested the bulk of the crop, and to take care of widows and orphans who won't just have trouble paying for college tuition but are in danger of starving to death. Everyone else was just poor in the general sense that has applied to nearly everyone on Earth until a very few years ago. There were a few fabulously rich people, while everyone else made do, with the help of strong family ties and rich cultural customs.<br /><br />Today any mention of poverty becomes a morality tale told at the expense of whatever political enemies we'd like to accuse of greed and heartlessness. The idea that some people in a story were poor (by our standards), but nevertheless important and admired, becomes a rebuke to those fat cats who run the modern world and could pay for my healthcare and my children's graduate school if they weren't so mean. In its time, though, it was a story about people of fairly average means among other people of fairly average means, the most important point being that they weren't the royal family in a palace. People willingly took care of occasional travelers, guests, and victims of calamity who fell in their path, but didn't consider themselves obligated to guarantee the basic necessities of room and board for everyone in the county on a lifetime basis. They expected most people to hustle up a living and make themselves generally useful.<br />Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-59648797071587665932019-12-30T09:54:24.101-05:002019-12-30T09:54:24.101-05:00Good question. Tradition says that Joseph was old...Good question. Tradition says that Joseph was older, and he is not recorded as being recently around when Jesus is an adult. Mary can't have been well-off after he died. What age Jesus was then we have no clue, other than being older than twelve.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-54304754144872701162019-12-30T03:36:55.621-05:002019-12-30T03:36:55.621-05:00Were they ever poor? Were they ever poor? Tom Bridgelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13098048586042365606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-58204095838102962352019-12-28T22:34:59.463-05:002019-12-28T22:34:59.463-05:00And, of course, when they went to Egypt they weren...And, of course, when they went to Egypt they weren't poor anymore. Though, until they got out of Herod's reach, hiding was probably wise.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-41970643701182973722018-04-10T03:33:23.684-04:002018-04-10T03:33:23.684-04:00Perhaps influenced by the shepherds, I've alwa...Perhaps influenced by the shepherds, I've always visualized a stone shelter sort of out in the hills, of the sort where you might take shelter with the sheep in a storm. (Not that it would make sense to go out of town and into the hills, I realize.)jaedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03328666344764784829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-13291408044533339002018-04-03T20:20:45.619-04:002018-04-03T20:20:45.619-04:00Would caves be emergency shelters? Or more like c...Would caves be emergency shelters? Or more like campsites?jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-45768849614581975522018-04-03T19:02:09.657-04:002018-04-03T19:02:09.657-04:00The family went to Egypt, but whether there were c...The family went to Egypt, but whether there were caves or other emergency shelters involved I have not heard.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-47310433896874630542018-04-03T18:31:46.036-04:002018-04-03T18:31:46.036-04:00If you should ever go to old Cairo, there's a ...If you should ever go to old Cairo, there's a Coptic cathedral there called the Cathedral of the Cave. It tracks a story of Jesus' family's flight into Egypt, where they are alleged to have stayed in a cave even as far south as Cairo. <br /><br />As far as I know that version of the story never passed into the West, not as accepted doctrine. I remember discussing it with several other Christians of various denominations to see if they'd heard a story of baby Jesus' trip through Egypt, and none of us had. But the Copts take it seriously.Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.com