IMAGINE the MANGER

Spoiler Alert: Not Your Parents' Manger Scene.

I've been wondering what seems to be missing from the manger scenes that I see everywhere this season, and I've finally put my finger on it: there's no children! Or if there is, it will be one child who happens to be part of a group of adoring shepherds.

I went searching for a depiction of children at the manger and found only this one above. It's not great, but it's still touching. The manger, ox, Mary & Joseph, and baby Jesus are all credible first century depictions. But the child-angels at crib-side?

If Mary had seen angels and told Luke about it, he surely would have included that in his Gospel. My theory on this picture is that the three center children are from 1950's USA and are being given a tour of the manger scene. The angels are holding them by the hand because they will soon conduct them back to 1950 where their clothes will fit the era. Mary and Joseph do not see them.

So you ask, "Why should there be children in a manger scene?"

What Should Be in a Manger Scene?

While I was searching and wondering, out of the blue my new fb friend Jeab posted this one. It's incomplete, of course, but it's a very good start. First of all, it starts with a cave as a backdrop. I quote from the 1999 Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Manners & Customs (p.421):

In the second century a tradition existed that Jesus' birth had occurred in a certain cave that had been behind the inn. ... The argument that the traditional cave [seen today by tourists] is too small to be used as a stable is not very strong because its present divisions into sections is misleading.  ...  [Emperor Constantine] ordered construction in AD 326 of a church over the revered cave. ... The present Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem stands over [the] cave which has been revered since the second century as the birthplace of Jesus. It may indeed be the place where Jesus was born.

Now as to the sheep: It is unthinkable that the shepherds who heard from the band of angels would drive their flock into the cave where Mary was sheltering her new-born son. Plus, the hosting town-dwellers (or innkeepers) were not shepherds themselves and would not have had sheep except perhaps a male lamb which had been purchased to sacrifice at the annual Passover observance. But if the visiting shepherds had a very young lamb which had been orphaned, they might have carried it in with them to protect it. On the other hand, the presence of one or more goats is a distinct possibility, to provide milk for the town-dwellers (or for the guests at the inn).

A single donkey is often seen in manger scenes. It is presumably the donkey that Mary rode from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It has been argued that the donkey was unnecessary because a healthy young pregnant women of the day could have walked the distance with little problem. Never having been nine months pregnant, I cannot venture an opinion on whether walking or riding a donkey would be more uncomfortable in that condition. I do know that my oldest son was born ten weeks premature because his mother insisted on driving alone from Phoenix to Miami. She made it as far as San Antonio. So I can attest that travelling great distances when very pregnant is fraught with danger.

The ox so often seen implies that Mary and family have not arrived on the premises of an innkeeper, but rather that of a townsperson who owns a plot of farmland outside town, and needs the ox to pull the plow. I suppose there were other uses for oxen, such as pulling a merchant's cart.

Sometimes I see dogs and cats in manger scenes. The dog I can vouch for, because surely shepherds had sheep dogs in use to control their flocks. Cats I'm not so sure of. When Mary and family get to Egypt they will find cats commonly domesticated. But in Palestine, I don't know if any traces of domesticated cats have been found by archaeologists.

Of course, the biggest no-no is to show both shepherds and Magi ("wise men)" in a manger scene. The Magi did not arrive until well after the birth, perhaps as long as two years later, while the shepherds were there within a day of Jesus' birth.

And now to children.

Christmas is about children, starting with the child Jesus. In our days, that is even more true. The exchange of gifts among adults can hardly lay a candle beside the wondrous eyes of children as they arise on Christmas. Just like Passover, children belong in the Christmas scene. Like Passover, it gives us an opportunity to teach them about what God has done in their lives, and who Jesus really is.

We started out at the top by affirming a second-century tradition that Jesus was born in a cave. Another well-attested second century tradition is that the four brothers and two or three sisters of Jesus were the children of a previous marriage by Joseph. Three apocryphal documents of the second century refer to Joseph's elder children as if everyone already knew that as fact. 

Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph at the time of the angel's appearance to her. I believe that the two were married shortly after Joseph became aware of Mary's pregnancy. Small-town residents know how to count nine months very well, and even an immediate marriage would spark whispered rumors.

With up to seven children, there is a very good chance that the youngest was an infant or toddler. In fact childbirth was a not uncommon cause of death among women of the first century, and the combination of a new baby without a mother would have pushed Joseph inexorably toward a second marriage. While he would have had to employ a wet-nurse at first, Mary's first tasks as a new bride would have included mothering infants and toddlers.

The oldest child of Jesus was probably James, who later became known as James the Just and was the leader of the church in Jerusalem after Jesus's crucifixion. If his siblings were spaced two years apart, as was common, James would be over 14 years old at the birth of Jesus. His new stepmother Mary would have been barely a year or two older that he. Imagine the issues that may have arisen in this  blended family!

In any case, it's likely that Jesus' older stepbrothers and stepsisters were present at the manger scene. If James were 14, he would have been considered an adult, required to register for the poll tax just as Joseph was. The youngest may have been barely one year old.

And think of Mary. We admire Mary for her submission to the call of God on her life, to birth the savior of the world and brave the scandal of conceiving a child without having been married. I admire her also for her acceptance of this challenging new job of managing a large family of children while Joseph earned his living as a construction worker.

Perhaps Mary came from a large family as well. In any case, the Christmas story is as much about Mary as about Jesus, for this young woman stepped in and did what was needed in obedience to a loving God.

I love this picture of Mary's family in a cave. The children are attentive in case there is anything that needs to be done to help. And Mary is blessed not only by God, but also by her husband and step-children.

Hail, Mary, full of grace.