Loading...Here are some more particularly interesting and significant questions I’ve received from readers, with answers for all here to check out.
QUESTION:
Dr. Ehrman: I find it interesting how the understanding of the Greek translation might affect such a crucial NT story. Also, it is in Luke’s narrative that we get the “no room in the inn” comment. I have read one commentary that the Greek original literal translation is more like “the travelers shelter was not for them”. Do you have any thoughts on the Greek original of Luke 2:7?
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LOL…only $2000 USD or so for the Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity six volume set!
But through an institution you may have access to it through referenceworks.brill.com
I am hoping my current institution has access…
Good thing I already have “The Other Gospels”.
James Tabor suggests that the custom would be for Joseph to seek and expect shelter with a relative, not an inn. If the relative did not have room in the house then they were put with their animals, which would still be part of the house, in essence (although I’m skeptical of the whole Bethlehem story). Also interesting that the Proto-gospel of James says the reason that Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes and put him in a manger was not as a crib but to hide him from Herod’s soldiers. Now that’s an interesting variation on the story!
My view is that it is unlikely that Joseph has relatives in Bethlehem. (The fact that his ancestor from 1000 years earlier was born there would not be particularly probative.) Does the Proto-Gospel actually say that she put him in the manger *in order to* hide him from the soldiers?
Here’s the version of the Proto-gospel that contains the story along with Elizabeth’s and John’s escape (a variation or addition?):
CHAPTER 16
1. Then Herod perceiving that he was mocked by the wise men, and being very angry, commanded certain men to go and to kill all the children that were in Bethlehem, from two years old and under.
2. But Mary hearing that the children were to be killed, being under much fear, took the child, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in an ox-manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
3. Elizabeth also, hearing that her son John was about to be searched for, took him and went up to the mountains, and looked around for a place to hide him;
4. And there were no secret places to be found.
5. Then she groaned within herself and said, O mountain of the Lord, receive the mother with the child.
6. For Elizabeth could not climb up.
7. And instantly the mountain was divided and received them.
Right. I was wondering if there was a different translation you were using. It actually doesn’t say that she was trying to hide/disguise him. Oddly, it says she wrapped him up and put him in the manger BECAUSE there was no room in the inn. Go figure.
Hi Dr. Ehrman, when was Quirinius the governor of Syria and the census conducted? In your comment of Luke I think you meant “…(which was 14 years after the census at 8 BCE)”?
I believe he was appointed governor only when herod the Great’s son Archeolaus was dismissed, in 6 CE.
Hi Bart, I have the similar question as leemy0095. You said “Luke indicates … [the census] happened in the days when Quirinius was the governor of Syria (which was 20 years after the census of 6 CE).” Can you please clarify what exactly took place in 26 CE? Initially I thought you meant Quirinius became governor of Syria in 26 CE, which you just reject. Do you mean another census took place 26 CE?
Thank you.
I think I got the numbers mixed up in my head. What (I think) I meant to say was that Quirinius became governor of Syria 14 years after the lustrum / census at 8 BCE. Not sure how thta happened! ot sure how 20 and 6 crept in there. Scribal corruptions of the text?
I think it’s so helpful to point out likely errors like that with the Gospel of Luke, Dr. Ehrman. Obviously, the author got his dating of Quirinius wrong. Reminds me of Josephus and Onias III.
“Traveling to one’s ancestral home”
Since the author of Luke states that he’s not from the area, could he be talking about property tax?
In Herod the Great’s Judaea it had to be collected per town, annually. This is a land output tax. With Quirinius, this changes to an ad valorem tax.
“Nuclear family” home ownership was uncommon in First Century Palestine (and look further back at Egyptian Jews in the Elephantine papyri for how people begin claiming just portions of an ancestral home.)
Also, in patrilineal society such as with First Century Jews, the expectation would be that the pregnant woman would give birth in her husband’s family’s home.
As far as Joseph’s ties to either Judaea or Galilee, archaeology finds no people with Yah theophoric names buried in Galilee. Most are in the city of Jerusalem, perhaps indicating an ancestral tomb. And there’s so many Yah theophorics in Joseph’s family, too.
Dr Ehrman:
Thank you for your clear concise writing. Yesterday I was speaking with a dear friend in Shanghai & they are going through some real pain there.
She was part of the church that I grew up in. & left recently, so I told her stuff that she couldn’t accept.
– How was the “Bible” copied over the ages. & often times the scribes or translators made mistakes or additions. Something that ad bothered me since 8th grade. As that church says WE ARE THE CHURCH AS PHILIDELPHIA.
– I brought up many of the NT books were not written by their namesake, even the Pauline letters, some were written by others.
– the Spirit inspired [now written] Scripture was St Paul? addressing the OT, not the letters or books that became NT
– The Old Church loved to condemn everyone, so I brought up the point that the NewTestament was compiled in Rome around 350 & the letters & other NT books were written in Greek, none of the original language of Jesus or his disciples’ Aramaic [lost in translation]
– God didn’t bless China like how I learned that he blessed the USA. I saw how Shanghai went from behind the times to ahead.