Merry Christmas!

Here’s a baker’s dozen of Christmas songs, complied by Glen Scrivener:

See you in 2013, Lord willing!

Links before Christmas

Just thought I’d share these before the world ends on Friday. Because it would be devastating if you didn’t see this stuff before the earth disintegrates or burns up or whatever 😉

You’ve probably been told that the date of Christmas was determined by co-opting a pagan holiday. What if it wasn’t? Here’s a different take: Calculating Christmas.

Two days ago, I posted about the location of Jesus’ birth. Here’s an essay in two parts written by an American residing in Jerusalem that builds on that concept: Tonight in Bethlehem part 1, part 2.

Also two days ago, I briefly mentioned the shortcomings of a Christmas song I like. Here’s another song dissected:

  Merry Christmas to all!

The first Christmas: The innocents

Matthew’s gospel contains the only reference—inside or outside the Bible—to the massacre of the innocents, Herod’s killing of all the baby boys two years and younger in Bethlehem and its environs.

So, was it all a Christian invention to gain sympathy for their founder? Was Herod even capable of such a cruel act? Following is a very lightly edited transcript of an interview of historian Paul Maier (one of whose novels I loved). The interview was conducted by Tony Reinke for one of Desiring God’s podcasts, Authors On The Line.

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Tony Reinke: Tell us more about the character we find embedded in the Christmas story, this man we know as Herod.

Paul Maier: Well, Tony, you may be surprised to hear this, but believe it or not, if you’re ever asked which is the one figure from the ancient world on whom we have more primary evidence from original sources than anyone else in the world, the answer is not Jesus or St Paul or Caesar Augustus or Julius Caesar—none of those… Not Alexander the Great, no, no. It’s Herod the Great, believe it or not. Why? Because Josephus gives us two whole book scrolls on the life of Herod the Great, and that’s more primary material than anyone else. And I don’t think Herod deserved it. [Laughter]

He was a very remarkably successful politician, keeping the peace between Rome which had conquered Judea in 63 BC. And he acted simply as a Roman governor overseas. He was simply known as a ‘client king’. Meaning, very often when the Romans conquered a province and they didn’t want to send a governor out, and there was a local king doing a good enough job…  And so, yes, he may be called ‘king’ but he was definitely deferent to Rome for his whole administration.

In 40 BC he was awarded the title king. He didn’t actually take control of the land until with Roman help he drove some adversaries out of Jerusalem. From about 37 BC on he’s in charge until his death in 4 BC.

Actually he was remarkably successful in a lot of ways. He deserves the title ‘Herod the Great’ if we talk about his accomplishments for much of his life. He was the one who rebuilt the great temple in Jerusalem. He was the one who single-handedly created the city of Caesarea: where there was no good port in the Holy Land, he creates one by sinking some ship hulls and then using them as a base to build a breakwater in an otherwise rectilinear sea coast. He built Caesarea in 12 years, and he built other cities like that too. In Jerusalem he face-lifted the entire city in addition to building a gorgeous palace for himself. He had a hippodrome, a stadium, theatres and this kind of thing. He was kind of a Hellenistic monarch.

And he also built seven great fortresses across the land, strong points at which he could defend his administration. One, the most famous, was Masada, down along the south-west corner of the Dead Sea. Everything he touched diplomatically seemed to turn to gold. He kept peace both with Jerusalem and Rome, and that says he was very successful.

Reinke: There’s another side to Herod. Tell us a little bit about the paranoid side of Herod that begins to emerge later in his life.

Maier: Well, basically, he was responsible for many of the problems back home. His home was a can of worms, simply because he married 10 wives and each of those produced princes for him and each of those male princes was scheming to succeed as number one. And there can only be one number one. And so if there weren’t two or three collateral plots taking place before they had orange juice in the morning, you knew something was wrong.

Josephus gives a hideous tale of what was going on in the family: attempted poisonings, one brother against another. It so rattled Herod that he actually put to death 3 of his own sons on suspicion of treason. He put to death his favourite wife out of the 10 of them. Mariamne was his favourite, she was a Hasmonean Maccabean princess and he put her to death then he killed his mother-in-law—I should have said one of his many mothers-in-law. He invited the High Priest down to Jericho for a swim. They played a very rough game of water polo and they drowned him. He killed several uncles, a couple of cousins… A fellow said he’s a real family man—in that negative respect.

As a matter of fact, Augustus himself, to whom Herod was always very deferent, said, “I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.” It’s a double pun. In Greek it’s suos and huios—a clever turn on words. The other idea is that at least pigs weren’t slaughtered for human consumption over there, and they had a better chance of a longer life. And so it’s a brilliant pun on the part of Augustus.

Reinke: At one point late in his life, Herod plots to kill a stadium full of Jewish leaders. The plot ultimately failed, it doesn’t pan out. But explain that episode from his life and why he did this.

Maier: Well, Josephus says here a very grisly thing to report about Herod in his last months. He was so paranoid that he … Of course, he did have some grasp of reality, for instance he was worried that nobody would mourn his own death in the Holy Land, which shows how deadly accurate he was. [Laughter]  They were preparing general celebrations. And nobody likes to die knowing that they’re going to dance in their grave. And so he was going to give the people something to cry about.

It’s in 4 BC, he’s down in his winter palace in Jericho—it’s the only place in the Holy Land that doesn’t snow or get cold in the winter, it’s 1200 feet below sea level. Herod is dying and he tries every remedy in the world to stop the gang of diseases that were creeping up on him. He went to the hot springs at [unclear name] at the north-eastern corner of the Dead Sea—by the way they’re still springing hot water 2,000 years later—and that didn’t cure him. And so now he goes back to his winter palace and he invites his sister Salome in and he says, “I want you to arrest all the Jewish leaders in the land and imprison them in the hippodrome just below the palace here.” And that hippodrome has been discovered archaeologically, by the way. And so she does and then she says, “Brother, why am I doing this?” And Herod says, “Well, I know that when I die the Jews are going to rejoice, so let me give them something to cry about.” And so he wants them all executed in that hippodrome so that there will be thousands of households weeping at the time Herod the Great dies.

So is that the kind of a sweet guy who could have killed the babies in Bethlehem? Yeah, I think so.

Reinke: Speaking of Matthew 2, the Bible records a scene from Herod’s paranoia late in his life. The wise men, of course, alert him to the birth of the new king in Bethlehem. They don’t then return to him and Herod eventually slaughters all the boys that are two years old and under in Bethlehem and in all the region.

For all that Josephus wrote about Herod, he doesn’t mention this. In fact there’s no extra-biblical evidence that this event even happened. How do you respond to that claim? Is the slaughter of the innocents historically reliable?

Maier: It’s interesting. Josephus does not mention it, and therefore a lot of biblical critics will pounce on that aspect of the nativity account and say therefore it didn’t happen. Now please understand this is an argument from silence, and that’s the weakest form of argumentation you could use. As we say in the profession, “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

And in this case, one or two things could have happened. Josephus may have heard about it and not used it. Because you don’t have hundreds of babies killed; you only have about 12, as a matter of fact—12 or 15. The infant mortality in the ancient world was so huge anyway, that this is really not going to impress a reader too much, believe it or not. And I think Josephus is choosing between the two stories about how Herod dies and right before his death. I think I would take the one where he’s going to slaughter hundreds of Jewish leaders. Or he may not have heard about it. Again, simply because little Bethlehem didn’t amount to much. A little village of 1500 or so. We did an actuarial study of Bethlehem at the time. You wouldn’t have more than about 2 dozen babies two years old and under, half of them the wrong sex. And so this is not a big deal, and I think that’s why Josephus either never heard about it or didn’t feel it important enough to record. So this does not militate against Matthew’s version by any means.

In fact I was arguing once, years ago, on the infant massacre with a professor in Wagner College in New York who claimed that this is all fiction, and that surely a massacre of hundreds of Jewish boy babies would have come to the attention…  I agree it would have if there had been hundreds. It couldn’t possibly be the case.

And ‘all the coasts thereof’…  Well, look, Jerusalem is 5 miles away. So therefore this would include Jerusalem as well if we’re going to take literally ‘all the coasts thereof’. We’re talking about Bethlehem and probably a half mile around when we’re talking about the surroundings of Bethlehem.

Reinke: As a historian, is there any doubt in your mind about the historicity of the slaughter of the innocents?

Maier: I see not one iota of evidence that it could not have happened. And therefore, again, there’s no reason to doubt the account as far as I’m concerned. To be sure, Luke hasn’t heard about it. Remember, Matthew and Luke don’t copy from one another when it comes to the nativity. And that’s good, because this way they can hit it from different angles.

I think it really happened, and let’s remember again that the first martyr of Christianity was not Stephen, it was Jesus, but not even Jesus… For my money the first martyr in Christian church was the first baby that was killed in Bethlehem, and we always overlook that.

The first Christmas: The inn

We know the story of the birth of Christ: Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem after dark. She is riding a donkey and is just about ready to deliver, but they can’t find any lodging. A rude innkeeper turns them away and out of desperation, they resort to shelter in a stable filled with animals where Mary gives birth alone and unattended.

A few years ago, I posted a Christmas quiz that had helped me see that much of what I “knew” wasn’t supported by scripture. Here I go again:

Did they arrive after dark with little time to spare before the birth?

On a purely human level, what does that say about Joseph? What kind of husband was he, travelling such a long distance with his heavily pregnant wife? Remember that he was considerate enough to want to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:19). Couldn’t that consideration for Mary’s welfare have extended to other areas as well?

Thankfully for Joseph’s reputation, Luke 2:6 informs us that “while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered” (KJV). Thus, they’d been in Bethlehem for a while when the time came for the baby Jesus to be born.

What about not finding accommodations?

Luke gives us some historical context: that a census was underway when Christ was born (Luke 2:1-3). Bethlehem was likely teeming with people who, like Joseph, lived elsewhere but had come to register. So that explains the crowds. But was Joseph incompetent at finding a place to stay? And were the people of Bethlehem so hard-hearted as to turn away a pregnant woman?

Bethlehem was Joseph’s ancestral town, so he must have had relatives—however distant—living there. In that family-oriented (not individualistic) culture he could simply turn up and recite his genealogy and be welcomed. Even if he were a total stranger, he would have found hospitality, if only for the sake of his pregnant wife.

Further, if Bethlehem proved so unfriendly, Elizabeth and Zechariah lived nearby “in the hill-country of Judea”—Joseph and Mary could have gone there, though admittedly that would mess up the prophecy of Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem.

So we can safely conclude that Joseph and Mary stayed with relatives, or other well-wishers. But wait, what’s all this about inns then?

What about there being “no room in the inn”?

The Greek word translated ‘inn’ in Luke 2:7 (kataluma) is used in Luke 22:11 and its parallel in Mark 14:14 to describe the upper room where the Last Supper took place. Why is the word translated as ‘guest room’ at the end of Christ’s life and ‘inn’ at the beginning? Besides, Luke uses the common word for inn (pandocheion) in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34), so he could have chosen to use it earlier in his gospel.

Additionally, it is uncertain whether Bethlehem would have a commercial inn. Inns were normally found on major roads. No major Roman road passed through Bethlehem, and small villages on minor roads had no inns.

So that leaves us with Mary and Joseph finding the guest room occupied, likely by older people who would have had precedence. Which leads us to the manger.

Was the manger in a stable?

To answer this, we return to archaeology. Homes in that part of the world at the time featured two sections: near the door, a place where the family animal was tied up at night (Luke 13:15) and a raised section that was the main family living quarters. So it would seem that Mary and Joseph were staying in this main section, and because no crib was available, the manger was put into service as a cradle.

Luke also reports the visit of the shepherds. Had the family been in unsuitable housing, the shepherds in their peasant simplicity would have helped to make other arrangements (or at least their wives would have!).

Who was present at the birth?

There is no conclusive proof that oxen, donkeys, camels and the like were present, despite what one Christmas song I really like affirms. But what of other humans?

I once heard an American pastor tell a story of watching a nativity play while he was a missionary in Ethiopia. When the time came for Mary to deliver, the village women attended her, singing loudly all the while. The pastor at first thought it very odd as he’d never considered that she would have had help. I’m convinced that the Ethiopians with their strong traditional society had it right.

So what?

Hopefully your understanding and appreciation of the Christmas story has been heightened and not diminished. Christ, in whom the fullness of deity dwells, was born among the people of the city of David, surrounded by family and helping hands. Or, as the hymn puts it He was “pleased as man with men to dwell; Jesus our Immanuel”.

This post is based on Kenneth Bailey’s article The Manger and the Inn, which is totally worth the half hour it takes to read it.
If you prefer video, here’s close to 1 hour covering the same ground. Too long? Skip right to the Q&A.
See also The first Christmas: Myths and realities by Paul Copan.

Acts: Body language

I think Dr Luke and I would get along very well: we both share an attention to detail. (Though in my case it sometimes leads to me forgetting about the big picture.) In reading through Acts recently, I took note of brief, incidental descriptions of body language.

Intense looks

Who’s looking?	At what?	Reference
Disciples	The sky	Acts 1:10
Peter	The cripple at Beautiful Gate	Acts 3:4
Sanhedrin	Stephen	Acts 6:15
Stephen	Heaven	Acts 7:55
Cornelius	An angel of God	Acts 10:4
Peter	The vision of a sheet	Acts 11:6
Paul	Elymas the sorcerer	Acts 13:9
Paul	The cripple at Lystra	Acts 14:9
Paul	Sanhedrin	Acts 23:1

It would seem that cripples about to be healed received their fair share of fixated gazes 🙂

Hand motions

Who’s motioning?	To whom?	Reference
Peter	Those gathered at Mary’s home	Acts 12:17
Paul	Those gathered in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch	Acts 13:16
Alexander	Those gathered in the amphitheatre at Ephesus	Acts 19:33
Paul	Hostile crowd in Jerusalem	Acts 21:40

Hand motions to get the attention of a crowd: completely logical.

Others

• Governor Felix gestures for Paul to speak, likely a nod (Acts 24:10)
• When given permission by Agrippa to speak, Paul stretches out his hand before beginning (Acts 26:1)

So what?

In an age before fiction writing as we know it today was invented, these seemingly throwaway phrases bolster the credibility of the narrative. They’re just the kind of things an eyewitness would recall!

Fruit component no. 1

The seed for this post came from my former pastor in Rome, but I’m taking it further than he did in his sermons 🙂

As someone has said, The Acts of the Apostles should be titled The Acts of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity transformed a group of fearful Galileans into bold proclaimers of the message of Christ (Acts 4:13). He transformed a religious terrorist into the man who would suffer and die for the cause he once vigorously sought to stamp out (Acts 22:4-16). Yet the Spirit also works in quiet, easily-missed ways… Here are two examples:

Saul of Tarsus, who just days (or even hours) before had been breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord was sitting in a house on Straight Street in Damascus. The Lord speaks to a disciple named Ananias telling him to go lay hands on Saul. Ananias understandably objects before consenting. When he meets his former enemy, he addresses him as “Brother Saul” (Acts 9:17).

On his way to Jerusalem for the last time, Paul and his companions enjoyed the hospitality of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21:8). This is the same Philip who, years before, left Jerusalem after persecution broke out there. The catalyst for the persecution was the martyrdom of Stephen—whose death was approved of by Saul of Tarsus.

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul sends greetings to Andronicus and Junia, who “were in Christ before me” (16:7). I wonder, had they had some run-ins with the pre-conversion Saul? Maybe he’d imprisoned someone they knew. Maybe he’d imprisoned them. It’s all speculation, of course 🙂 Yet, just like Philip, Barnabas, the Jerusalem apostles, etc., they counted Paul as a friend.

The Holy Spirit was producing His fruit in the lives of believers (Galatians 5:22-23). People who, humanly, should have been antagonistic to each other (Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Samaritans, masters and slaves, etc.) went around calling each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ and exchanging holy kisses.

The early Christians took over the Roman empire not by political or social reform, but by their love for all (though it did take them a few centuries and cost countless lives). May we also let the Holy Spirit work in us to transform us into the likeness of our Saviour.

A different way of dealing with doubt

And have mercy on those who doubt (Jude 1:22)

When a person is having doubts about the Christian faith, the usual course of action is withdrawal accompanied by listening to critical and dissenting voices. That usually doesn’t end up affirming belief in Christ. What if instead of withdrawing the person got even more engaged?

Read the article Dealing with Doubt in a Fallen World to understand the reasoning behind this suggestion. (The article is long—around 8 pages when printed out.)

Evaluating spiritual experiences

This post is based on a talk titled ‘A Move of God or a Spiritual Fad?’ given by Jason Clarke of UCCF in the UK. The talk itself was based on Jonathan Edwards’ ‘Religious Affections’.

In the days of the early church, the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem had decided that what the apostles were doing wasn’t of God and actively opposed them. They were getting nowhere, and one of their number, Gamaliel, advised a let’s-wait-and-see approach. If the fledgling church’s actions were of human origin, they would come to nothing. But if they were moved by God, they would be unstoppable (Acts 5:34-40).

Unusual and perplexing spiritual experiences exist up to this day. How do we tell apart the genuine from the spurious?

For starters, we need to know that our culture, temperament and theological framework all influence the opinions we hold. For example, I have what I call ‘the gift of suspicion’: I always want to check out and verify everything, which no doubt drives people around me up the wall (sorry!). People like me need to be aware that cynicism can be a useful tool to the Enemy. Likewise, people unlike me need to know that openness can also be used to further Satan’s ends.

We also need to hold together reason and experience. The Holy Spirit uses both our intellect and our emotions to communicate God’s truth. When we’re born again, both our intellect and emotions are redeemed and consecrated to God. We don’t become more or less emotional, just as we don’t obtain a greater or lesser IQ.

As for spiritual experiences, Christians need to distinguish between what is promised in the Bible and what is possible. It is possible for God to appear to me in a bush that isn’t burning (He’s done it before!), but that isn’t promised in His Word as an experience every believer should seek after. God has appointed means of grace through which we can expect to deepen our spiritual experiences—prayer, praise, preaching and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. To neglect these and to expect to grow is unreasonable and presumptuous.

Test everything

Here are some guidelines for evaluating others’ spiritual experiences:

1. True religious experience recognises that divine things are good in themselves, and not only because of the benefits they bring. God is good, gracious and wonderful whether we benefit or not. Is the person taken with the glory of God or the beauty of the experience?
2. True religious experience delights in God’s holiness and in the beauty of His moral perfection.
3. True religious experience is based on the truth of the texts of scripture. The person is not without an understanding of the Bible and of the Gospel.
4. True religious experience results in sin not having dominion and in a longing for more of God and less of sin. This accompanying holiness is an outworking of point (2) above.
5. True religious experience results in consistency and integrity. The person acts the same whether in company or in private.

If we cannot find anything objectively unscriptural it is our Christian duty to accept, love and rejoice with those who experience spiritual realities that perplex us. Judge nothing before the appointed time (1 Corinthians 4:5), for the certainty of separating sheep and goats belongs to Christ alone.

In all these things, we can reach settled and provisional conclusions. We need to have courage to speak out as well as to be quick to encourage the good wherever we find it. Be patient with others as others (and God!) have been patient with you.