Every year Christians across the world make a symbolic journey to Bethlehem as they imagine the events of the first Christmas.
Donna B. Nielsen is no exception. Nielsen is the author of "Beloved Bridegroom: Finding Christ in Ancient Jewish Marriage and Family Customs" and is a candidate for a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies. She also loves the Nativity.
"It's just beautiful whenever any culture talks about the Nativity … you see Mary portrayed in every nationality. I think that is the beauty of the story. Every culture has families. Every culture has babies," Nielsen said.
According to Nielsen, St. Francis of Assisi created the first live Nativity scene on a mountainside in 1223 A.D. in Greccio, Italy. The scene was simple: A family. An ox. A donkey. A sheep.
As years went by the Nativity scene added shepherds and wise men. Its popularity also grew, and similar scenes spread across Europe and eventually led to the creation of Nativity sets.
"The people were for the most part illiterate and St. Francis had this idea to make the scriptures come alive for the people," Nielsen said.
Nielsen loves many of the commonly accepted traditions but also finds value in looking at cultural, traditional and other clues to find new things in the Nativity story that make the scriptures come alive for her.
MARY
The Book of Mormon describes Mary as "A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins" (1 Nephi 11:15). Nielsen said one connotation of the word "beautiful" in the scriptures is of someone who preaches the gospel. Mary's familiarity with the scriptures is clear from her "Magnificat," the inspired song-response she gives to Elizabeth in Luke 1:46-55.
"All in all, in this emotional outpouring, Mary alludes to 14 different Old Testament references, just sort of off-the-cuff," Nielsen said. "… She was brilliant. She was a scripture scholar in the best and most important sense of the word."
Nielsen referred to old traditions she has found in her research that say Mary was raised in the temple. She said the traditions held that Mary was, like John the Baptist, born to older parents. Her parents dedicated her to the Lord and she served in the temple in Jerusalem until she was 12 years old.
"When you read (Mary's) song of praise that she gives to Elizabeth, it's like it is in her blood — these scriptures have come so deep into her that every word is an outpouring … that it is so much a part of her that she can't even talk without using those things," Nielsen said.
JOSEPH
Joseph's status in Nazareth would have been high because of his profession. "The carpenters in Israel were held in extremely high esteem. It was more like a master builder or a civil engineer today," Nielsen said.
A carpenter would have to work in all materials for construction including timber, stone and iron. Nielsen said that the rabbis even had a saying they would invoke whenever they had a difficult question: "Is there a carpenter among us or the son of a carpenter who can solve the problem?"
"He literally would have been, probably, the best qualified person in Nazareth for answering questions and solving civil disputes," Nielsen said.
RUMORS
"I'm sure that (Mary and Joseph) were admired and respected," Nielsen said. But that would have ended for both of them when it became obvious that Mary was pregnant. Townspeople would have extra reason to be indignant if Mary had been raised in the temple and they would also have been quick to accuse Joseph of acting improperly.
"I'm just so astounded by how Mary and Joseph were willing to suffer for doing good," Nielsen said.
JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
Nielsen believes that part of the reason Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the taxing or census was that he held property there. He may have taken Mary along to protect her — not wanting to leave her alone in a hostile environment in Nazareth.
The journey would not have been taken alone. Mary and Joseph would have traveled in a group. "There were robbers along the road, there was all kinds of danger and they would have needed other kinds of support … it was a long journey," Nielsen said.
Nielsen said they most likely did have a donkey for the journey. Donkeys were low to the ground and would have had a comfortable padded seat for Mary.
THE INN
The word normally used to describe inns in the scriptures is not the same word that is translated as "inn" in Luke 2, according to Nielsen. It can also be translated as "house" or "guest room."
"I believe that they would have stayed, probably, in a one-room peasant home," she said. The large room would have a lower level closer to the door and another level a foot or two higher. The lower area was used to keep animals at night.
Nielsen was quick, however, to point out that this is just one possibility or interpretation and that the traditional concept of an inn is not impossible.
THE MANGER
When St. Francis created the first Nativity display, he used an Italian wooden manger because that was familiar to him. The type of manger or feeding trough familiar to Joseph and Mary would have been carved out of soft limestone rock.
"Wood was so expensive they never would have used it to make something as pedestrian as a manger," Nielsen said.
The manger has a deeper symbolism for Nielsen. She paraphrased Isaiah 1:2-3 as implying that animals know which manger is theirs, but the people of Israel do not. She tied this together with how the name Bethlehem means "house of bread" or "house of food" (bread also being a generic word for food).
"You have this child from heaven who comes down to be the bread of life and he is put in a feeding trough to make him accessible. I think that is really quite beautiful," Nielsen said. She believes that the angels announced the sign that the baby would be found in a manger and "that's the manger symbolically that the people of Israel were to be fed from."
SWADDLING
According to Nielsen, Jesus would have been wrapped tightly in a swaddling cloth and then the cloth would be held in place using a swaddling band — a ribbon-like embroidered cloth.
She said that under normal circumstances this swaddling band would have been used at Mary and Joseph's wedding to symbolically tie their right hands together. Because of Mary's pregnancy, however, this and other parts of the ceremony may have been denied, she said.
Swaddling was comforting to the baby and was thought to help the child's limbs grow straight. It was also seen as a promise that the parents would raise the child to live a righteous life.
"If you were accused of not being … swaddled at your birth, those were fighting words," Nielsen said.
SHEPHERDS
"(Shepherds) were considered ritually impure because they couldn't follow all the rules that the rabbis had set up," Nielsen said.
Shepherds, by necessity, had to stay in the fields and could not go to religious festivals as often and were unable to perform ritualistic washings. Nielsen said they were considered to be dishonest and were not allowed to testify even if they were eyewitnesses to a crime.
According to Nielsen, several scholars, including Elder Bruce R. McConkie, thought that the sheep these shepherds were watching were a special flock destined for sacrifice at the temple. This means that they would have had to keep very close watch over the flocks and keep track of those sheep that were the firstborn and those which were without blemish.
"We are all trying to connect to the Nativity at increasingly deeper levels," Nielsen said. "I think the Nativity sets we surround ourselves with all represent an aspect. It's like a beautiful diamond. And all these ways we portray the Nativity based on our culture and our background and our understanding make our heart sing. Those are all ways we connect with the story."
E-mail: mdegroote@desnews.com