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It wasn’t a Holiday Inn
Pop culture and bad translation may have colored our interpretation of the Christmas story
Twice on Sunday — at church in the morning, and then while reading an Advent study book that night — I was reminded of a fascinating fact about the Christmas story that I don’t think gets nearly enough attention.
I already knew about some of this, but I wanted to give credit to the book “Advent — a Season of Surprises,” by Scott Chrostek, as my reference while I’m sitting here writing this. That’s the Advent study I mentioned as reminding me of the story last night.
Most of us have the idea in our heads that Mary and Joseph were turned away because “there was no room at the inn,” and that’s why they were out with the livestock, placing the baby Jesus in a manger.
That is not exactly the case.
Scholars tell us that the Greek word that some English Bibles translated as “inn,” kataluma, refers, or at least can refer, to the upstairs guest room in a house. It’s the same word that is used to describe the “upper room” in the story of Jesus and his disciples eating the Last Supper. Remember, Joseph and Mary were returning to Joseph’s home town, Bethlehem, under the mandate of the Roman taxation census. It’s natural that they would want to stay with someone…
