Ben Witherington has a nice little Christmas sermon, although there are many difficulties with his depiction of what happened (whether on a literary level or a historical one). He is certainly right that “there was no inn in the room”. The word translated “inn” in many English versions of the story is translated “upper room” later in Luke, and is better translated “guest room” or “extra room”. The word for a commercial inn does appear in Luke’s Gospel, in the only context where such an inn is appropriate – in the story of the ‘good Samaritan’. A Samaritan is just the sort of individual travelling in Judea who might use a commercial inn. Note how Paul the Apostle, travelling all across the Roman Empire, makes use of the hospitality network, as would be expected. He never tries to “check into a hotel”. Those interested in this subject should read Kenneth Bailey’s classic study. The manger, rather than being “around the back”, was probably in the main room of the house where the animals would have been brought in at night. On the subject of whether Jesus was suspected to have been illegitimate, I’ll simply point readers to my article on the subject in the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.
Theo Geek discusses whether pistis christou is best translated “faith(fulness) of Christ”
Jim West has drawn attention to another post on The View From Jerusalem about the now infamous documentary on the Talpiot tomb. The Jesus Dynasty blog has a different perspective to offer.
Find And You Shall Seek discusses an article in Harper’s about belief in hell.
Hypotyposeis continues to explore the topic of Matthew’s counting in his genealogy.
Metacatholic discusses the topic of educated preachers in relation to the Church of England’s 39 Articles. Kata Ta Biblia has a discussion of Anabaptists and nonviolent theories of the atonement. The Lead shares a number of interesting pieces, including one on Oliver Cromwell’s “war on Christmas”.
Someone shared a link to a post of mine in a comment at the Flying Spaghetti Monster (sauce and heapings of fresh basil be upon him) site. ERV has a prayer request.
Finally, here are a few more keyword searches that have led people to my blog (I find it so interesting to know what people are looking for and where they end up as a result):
an animation vs 50 other animations and jesus
are there any true transitional forms? (I hope they now know the answer!)
mitochondrial dna and aryan invasion
lebanese genetic origins
infancy narratives vs. the gospel of john (Not ‘and’ but ‘vs.’!)
unchristian ways (I’m very surprised that leads one to my blog!!!)
behe admits believes in evolution (I hope the person who did this search will come back and say more!)
star wars christmas presents (I’m glad some of my less academic posts are useful)
therese banyan (I’m glad I’m helping the legend live on)
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