Jeff Chadwick on the realities of the Nativity Story, part 2 (week of Jan. 9, second to listen to)
The Scriptures Are Real
Kerry Muhlestein
4.8 • 540 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2023
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Dr. Chadwick and Kerry discuss the Nativity Story and all the little details that make it real. From real reasons for the move to Bethlehem (not taxes), to what kind of housing Joseph and Mary had, to stone mangers, to where they would live in Egypt, and a hundred other little things, these two make the story become very real. It is guaranteed you will learn something new here. Listen to both parts to make sure you get the whole story.
We are grateful for our sponsor, Lisa Spice, and for Alexia Muhlestein, who edited the video, and for Rich Nicholls, who composed and plays the music for the podcast.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the second part of this interview with Jeff Chadwick, and we're just going to jump right back in, and we think that there are more great things ahead. So thanks for joining us again. Okay, sorry, back to the end. |
| 0:22.6 | Well, first of all, it says there was no room for them in the end. The Joseph Smith translation, |
| 0:32.2 | I think, adds a plural to that, which is fine. In Greek, it's singular. |
| 0:39.5 | And either way, it doesn't matter. The word there is Cataluma or Catalumati. |
| 0:47.4 | And the meaning is a guest chamber. |
| 0:52.2 | A guest room. |
| 0:55.0 | You didn't have hotels or motels or ins in little towns like Bethlehem. |
| 1:02.4 | That great big notion of a caravancery, right? |
| 1:06.3 | A caravan hotel. |
| 1:10.4 | Those actually may have existed in some very large areas, but there wouldn't have been one at Bethleh. |
| 1:16.7 | It wasn't a caravan stop. |
| 1:19.7 | And you and I have visited that big caravan, sorry, from the medieval period in Akko, right? |
| 1:28.4 | Yeah, oh, yeah. |
| 1:29.0 | It's a lower room for the animals and an upper room for the patrons, |
| 1:33.6 | and there's a big central courtyard. |
| 1:35.9 | When 19th century New Testament writers would go to, |
| 1:42.8 | they like Frederick Barrar, for example, would go to Palestine and would see |
| 1:47.2 | those things. They'd imagine that that's what was in Bethlehem, you know, with an upper and lower |
| 1:52.6 | room and a place for the animals out of the courtyard, and that there was no room in an upper |
| 1:57.6 | kataluma for Joseph and Mary, so they had to be down when the animals were. |
| 2:02.1 | That's why a nature was there. |
| 2:03.8 | That's all actually to be very kind of fun. |
... |
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