The Nativity Scene
We've all seen them, the lighted plastic figurines of peculiar looking people, animals and winged angels placed carefully on somebody's front lawn or displayed upon the roof of some business. We call it the "Nativity Scene," as it is suppose to depict the birth of our Lord. One wonders how much of this is from the Bible and how much is simply from tradition. Let's examine the facts to see the true picture.
The Cast is always assembled in and around what we are to assume is a manger. Luke in his Gospel does write that Yeshua (Jesus) was born in a manger because there was no room for Mary and Joseph at the Inn (LUKE 2:7). In today's vernacular, we would call it the "parking garage." This manger was where the travelers at the inn stalled their donkeys and camels as they stopped for the night. It was not a farmstead with sheep and cows as we so often see displayed. It could be a wooden structure attached to the inn, or it could be a cave a short distance away.
Gathered somewhere above the manger in these Nativity Scenes, we usually find a few singing angels. Never in Scripture can we find even one reference to angels ever singing at any time. Howbeit, in Church Tradition they are plentiful.
Then we have the three wise men kneeling outside the manger with their gifts of "gold, frankincense, and myrrh." However, the Bible gives us quite a different account. First, there is never a reference to how many wise men there were, only that there were three gifts. These wise men were actually "magi." They were eastern Astronomers (probably from the land of Persia) who had traveled many months after having seen "His star," so as to worship the new King. Travelers of that distance would always travel in large caravans, especially if they were carrying treasures. Matthew gives the following account.
MATTHEW 2:1-2 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east [in the rising], and are come to worship him.
They didn't fly, they walked, and that took many months.
MATTHEW 2:3-5 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
Sure he was troubled. There was never enough room for two kings and Herod knew he had to find and slay the child. Unfortunately for him, no one in Judaea knew how to accurately read the stars, as did these magi from the east. Calling together the chief priest and the scribes, Herod discovered from Scripture Bethlehem as the birthplace, but still needed to know the age of the child.
MATTHEW 2:7-10 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
Herod sent them to Bethlehem, but the magi instead followed "the star, which they saw in the east." No mention is made here of exactly where they found the "young child," thus tradition has assumed it to be Bethlehem, on the night of His birth. But they didn't find a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. They found a "young child", in a house.
MATTHEW 2:11-12 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
"When they [the Magi] were come into the house…" Notice that it was a house wherein they entered, not a manger. By the time the magi had traveled from "the east," Joseph, Mary and Yeshua had left the manger and had moved into some house, its location not made known.
MATTHEW 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
Notice that Herod "slew all the children…from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men". If Yeshua had just been born, Herod would not have needed to kill two year olds. The fact that he did indicates he believed Yeshua to have been up to two years of age.
Lastly, I doubt that any of the participants had halos about their heads. Not Joseph, Mary, or even Yeshua. The halo was the sign of the Babylonian sun god.