Bible Questions #2846-2854
Luke 2: 1-18
2846. Vs. 1 Who is the Roman ruler at this time? ____________________ ______ ______________.
2847. What was the ruler planning to do? _____________________
2848. Vs. 3 Everyone had to go back to the city or town where his ancestors (father, grandfather way back was from). Joseph had to go to what city? ________________________________
2849. What city was Joseph living in now? _________________________
2850. Vs. 5 Mary was Joseph’s _______________________ wife. (This meant they had a binding contract to marry.) Matthew 1: 18 says that “before they came together” meaning before Mary and Joseph came together sexually,
Mary was already pregnant with Jesus.) Vs. 24, 25 Joseph “knew” her not until the babe was born. Joseph was not sexually intimate with Mary until after Jesus was born.
The Bible does not explain all the details of the “engagement” and “marriage”.
We know in such countries and at that time marriage arrangements were made by the parents and they were legal and binding. To break the contract, you had to have a good reason, and it had to be broken “legally”.
An angel warned Joseph in a dream that Mary was pregnant with a child created by the Holy Spirit and he was to continue with his plan to marry Mary.
It would seem that Joseph did marry Mary but they had not come together intimately in a sexual union.
It does not seem reasonable that they would have traveled to Bethlehem together as a couple had they not been married.
The Bible does not explain in detail just how all of it was Bible teachers have different opinions about it.
2851. Vs. 7 While they were in Bethlehem waiting to pay their taxes it came time for the baby to be born. They were not able to get a room in the inn because it was already full of people, so they were staying in a stable. After the baby was born, Mary use the
_______________________ (feeding box) for a bed for the baby.
2852. Vs. 8- 16 Who were the first visitors to see the baby Jesus? _____________________________
2853. How did they come to know about the baby and where to find him?
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A rabbi (Jewish teacher) Jonathan Cahn explains about Bethlehem, lambs, shepherds, etc.
We see that the shepherds were watching the flock at night. Shepherds do not usually stay up all night to watch the sheep.
But in the spring, around March, sheep give birth to lambs. Shepherds would be watching over the sheep because of wanting to watch for new lambs being born and helping the mothers if there was a problem.
This means that it was probably spring time.
We celebrate Christmas and Jesus’ birth in the winter. That is because of the Catholic church trying to match the old Roman pagan holidays with a new religion of Christianity. They wanted the people to give up their old pagan holidays and worship as Christians. The people did not like the idea. So the Catholic church decided to use the old days of celebration but give it a new meaning.
So Jesus birth was celebrated on an old pagan holiday where they honored Saturn. This Saturn holiday was a feast day of eating, drinking, dancing, and doing others things not so nice.
So to give the people a “new” celebration on the old pagan holiday the Roman church decided to make it a day to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
But the truth birth of Jesus was most likely in the spring.
It would not make a lot of sense, for the Roman ruler to make everyone travel to pay taxes when it was winter.
Jonathan Cahn says there is another reason that Jesus was born in the spring. Just as the lambs were born then Jesus was the Lamb of God.
Bethlehem was famous for sending their lambs to Jerusalem for the spring Passover time when the lambs were used in sacrifice. So also, was Jesus born in Bethlehem, went to Jerusalem 33 years later and was the “sacrifice” for sin.
God often uses patterns and symbols.
2854. Vs. 17, 18 Did the shepherds keep it a secret? ____________ What did they do? ____________________________________________________________________