Unwrapping the Nativity

An excellent and valuable resource, with some reservations

This year we are distributing copies of this booklet with our Christmas cards. It is excellent and just what has been needed for some time to counteract the fanciful and highly inaccurate depictions of the Nativity scene on so many Christmas cards (even from Christian publishers.) The booklet answers effectively the notion that 'there was no room at the inn' and that Jesus was born in a "stable". No, there wasn't an "inn" at all, nor was His birthplace correctly described as a "stable". Rather Mary and Joseph would have received a welcome into a ordinary Jewish home and accommodated in the area at the front where animals were brought in at night, as the guest room was already occupied. Given this careful attention to Biblical and historical accuracy later in the booklet, it was disappointing to find in the preceding chapter a reference, without Biblical warrant, to "first century Palestine", though five lines later, the same geographical area is correctly termed "ancient Israel". Rather than returning the booklets and forgoing the use of a valuable resource, we have had to cover over the error with printed labels as best we can, substituting "Israel" for "Palestine". It is hoped that future printings will correct this. We also felt that the chapter on the Star of Bethlehem relied too exclusively on the explanation of the star as a comet, though other plausible explanations are available. As the booklet is addressed to sceptics, it might have been better to allow the possibility of an entirely supernatural phenomenon along the lines of the explanation for the Virgin Birth provided in the final chapter. In summary, this is an important and useful publication which could be made even better.