The original Christmas
It has spawned a multitude of powerful sermons and a few carols. It is there in our English translations of the Bible and yet it has been long known that it is not a correct representation of the text. It is an interpretation based on English culture in the days of King James! Middle Eastern experts have known the truth (and written on it); archaeologists have exposed it by excavation of buildings from the time of our Lord; even Jeremy Bowen (of the BBC!) has got it right (mind you, he’s another Middle Eastern expert).
John Peet
I refer to the clause, ‘because there was no room for them in the inn’ (Luke 2.7). We all know the imaginary scenario of them knocking on the door and ending up in a cave behind the inn. But this does not resemble the cultural and historical reality.
