home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!watsci.UWaterloo.ca!msmorris
- From: msmorris@watsci.UWaterloo.ca (Mike Morris)
- Subject: Re: Born in Bethlehem?
- Message-ID: <BzvrBu.5vu@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca>
- Sender: news@watserv2.uwaterloo.ca
- Organization: University of Waterloo
- References: <1992Dec26.132402.7206@sophia.smith.edu>
- Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 18:57:30 GMT
- Lines: 26
-
- Saturday, the 26th of December, 1992
-
- Joseph O'Rourke writes:
- A. N. Wilson says in "Jesus: A Life" that it is extremely unlikely
- that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Even if one takes everything in
- the Bible as literally true, the birth in a stable remains pure
- myth. It is not mentioned in any of the Gospels.
-
- Huh?
- ``And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in
- swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was
- no room for them in the inn.'' [Luke 2.7, King James Version]
-
- The word for ``manger'', or _phatne_, according to Liddell and Scott,
- comes probably from _pateomai_, ``to eat''. I.e., a feeding trough.
-
- In Matthew the wise men come to an _oikia_, a house.
-
- Now, I personally buy the probably mythical part---it being too good
- a story, too consciously linked to (some of) the messianic prophecies
- to be true---but the story is certainly to be found in the gospels.
-
- Mike Morris
- (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)
-
-
-