{"id":40116,"date":"2012-11-27T00:07:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T07:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=40116"},"modified":"2014-12-30T11:01:27","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T18:01:27","slug":"i-love-that-this-is-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/11\/i-love-that-this-is-news.html","title":{"rendered":"I love that this is news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Telegraph<\/em> stunned to hear Pope aware that Jesus was not born in 1 AD.<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s even funnier is that even the author of the story admits that this is not news, but still tries to pretend it\u2019s news anyway:<\/p>\n

\n

The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new \u2013 many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world\u2019s one billion Catholics is striking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One may be forgiven for asking, \u201cWhy is this \u2018striking\u2019?\u00a0 Does anybody *not* know this?\u201d\u00a0 Catholic faith has never\u00a0depended on an exact dating of the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 We\u2019ve always had a rough idea of when it was, and current scholarship is doing an interesting job of pinning that year down with more exactitude<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As to other features of the piece, it is notable that the English press, as is its custom, has treated the publication of the Pope\u2019s book\u2013which is intended as a theological reflection and is explicitly set forth as something to be subjected to comment, criticism and argument among other theologians who may even correct the Pope in his personal views (as is the way with the scholarly community)\u2013is treated as though it is an edict from a dictator.\u00a0 So the Pope does not \u201csay\u201d.\u00a0 He \u201cdeclares\u201d.\u00a0 This is of a piece with the press\u2019 tendency to perpetually speak of the Vatican \u201ccracking down\u201d on this and that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pope further notes that the New Testament does not mention animals in the stable at Bethlehem, which the Telegraph<\/em> declares \u201ccontroversial\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why, since in fact, the New Testament does not mention animals in the stable at Bethlehem.\u00a0 Luke, to whom we owe the information about the stable at all, is interested in this detail because a) it prefigures Jesus\u2019 being one who is \u201coutside the camp\u201d of his countrymen (aka \u201cdespised and reject of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief\u201d, aka one of God\u2019s poor ones or anawim), and b) it prefigures the Eucharist (\u201cBethlehem\u201d=\u201dHouse of Bread\u201d and Jesus is laid in a *manger* or feed box).\u00a0 Luke, in fact, bookends his whole gospel with the Eucharist, mentioning the manger at the beginning and the Emmaus disciples recognizing him \u201cin the breaking of the bread\u201d at the end.<\/p>\n

So where do the critters come in?\u00a0 First and foremost, they come in because Christian iconographers always put an ox and an ass in the stable as a reminder of Isaiah\u2019s rebuke to Israel:<\/p>\n

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: \u201cSons have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master\u2019s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.\u201d (Isaiah 1:2-3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This theological motif in Christian art and theological reflection gets an extra boost in medieval Italy when St. Francis invents the creche, using real animals.\u00a0 And, of course, Christian reflection on the first Christmas naturally assumed that, it being a stable and all, there likely were animals there.\u00a0 So Christians who don\u2019t read the Bible much but get their information from centuries of Christian imagery just sort of assume \u201cthe Bible\u201d talks about the cattle lowing and the poor baby waking and so forth.\u00a0It\u2019s all perfectly legit Christian piety, likely historical, and even theologically sound to suppose an ox and ass and other barnyard critters may well have shared the stable with the Holy Family.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that it\u2019s not actually mentioned in Luke\u2019s account.\u00a0 He has other fish to fry.<\/p>\n

The Pope, not surprisingly, accepts the unanimous consensus of both the New Testament writers and all of Holy Church (until a few recent clever scholars tried to deny it) that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This is what we call \u201ccommon sense\u201d.\u00a0 And finally, the reporter quotes a scholar repeating the tired wheeze that Christmas is just a warmed over solstice celebration, which Yr Obedient Svt addresses here<\/a>.\u00a0 Next time somebody tells you Christianity is just collection of warmed over solstice and equinox festivals, ask yourself, \u201cWhy is there no evidence for this?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The happy thing about the normal train wreck of press coverage of the Pope\u2019s new book is, of course, that the Pope\u2019s new book is getting a lot of exposure.\u00a0 People who read it looking for sound scholarship and serious theological reflection will be rewarded in spades as they always are whenever anybody takes up something written by Benedict XVI.\u00a0 Put it on your Christmas list for any Christian who wants to see how a smart and faithful scholar reads his Bible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telegraph stunned to hear Pope aware that Jesus was not born in 1 AD. What\u2019s even funnier is that even the author of the story admits that this is not news, but still tries to pretend it\u2019s news anyway: The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,82],"class_list":["post-40116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-recommendations","tag-take-off-50-iq-points-when-the-msm-covers-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nI love that this is news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Telegraph stunned to hear Pope aware that Jesus was not born in 1 AD. 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