MEANING OF THE MANGER AND SWADDLING CLOTHES

Like most of what I write, this Wrights Lane offering will either be rejected out of hand or taken with a grain of salt. Be that as it may, however, I take the time and effort to continue exploring the birth of Jesus the Christ because so much of the story has been misrepresented through countless language interpretations and creative embellishment of history writers and artists, thousands of years after the fact and passed down over the centuries. I strongly believe that that it is important to really dig deep into scripture. People too often just read it out of some perceived duty to God but the fact is that it should not be a duty but a yearning to draw closer to Him. And what better way to draw closer to Him than to understand the depth and richness in which it is written. It is not by happenstance that scriptures are written the way they were. When you understand passages from the original Jewish perspective from that time period, the fullness of the Gospel comes out and presents itself in all of it's glory for us all to see.

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According to The Gospel of Luke, Mary lays her newborn child in a manger (2:7). While nativity scenes tend to represent this manger as a pristine, straw-filled crib, a manger was actually a feeding trough for animals like donkeys, sheep and oxen—a less-than-pristine place, indeed. Luke highlights the manger not only to underscore Jesus’ humble beginnings, but also to foreshadow the Last Supper, when the Messiah would perform a symbolic act in offering his own body as food for those who follow him. The manger serves as a prophetic object that presents Yeshua to the world and points to his salvific death for the salvation of that world.

Just after Jesus is born, Mary “wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)” (2:7). 

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Two things that are not common knowledge, yet need to be understood: 

1) Where did the swaddling clothes Jesus was wrapped in come from? The manger was a trough that was also used to sacrifice the most unblemished lambs. The shepherds would wrap the lambs in swaddling to protect them until such time of sacrifice. These were no doubt the only materials available to Mary and Joseph at the time of birth. Perhaps symbolic of Jesus' destiny.

2) The Greek term translated as "inn" (κατάλυμα; kataluma) does not mean a "hotel room." (There were no inns in those days.) Rather, it refers to a guest room or general living/dining space in a home, undoubtedly in this case a relative of Mary and Joseph. If you check biblical text closely, you will likewise find no mention of an inn-keeper, the figment of imaginative story tellers' minds in recent times. When the Gospel states that "there was no room for them in the inn," it means that there was not enough room for them to labor and give birth to a child in the living quarters of a home occupied by other visiting relatives, so they needed to go to the stable, generally located in the lower level of the structure where animals would be sheltered over night.

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I was particularly enlightened by the recent writings of Dr. Nickolas J. Schaser who pointed out that when the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds, God’s messenger says to them, ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)’” (2:12). In response to the angel, the shepherds declare, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger (φάτνη; phátne)” (2:15-16).

Thus, Jesus’ manger plays a major role in Luke’s birth narrative: it is the first earthly location that Jesus encounters after leaving his mother’s embrace and it serves as a “sign” (σημεῖον; semeion) from God that the shepherds use to identify their Messiah.

Later in the Gospel, Jesus’ reference to a manger reveals its function as an animal feeding trough. Jesus asks the head of a synagogue, “Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger (φάτνη; phátne) and lead it away to water it?” (Lk 13:15). 

That Jesus is laid in this kind of a food receptacle at his birth is fitting, since he is born in Bethlehem (בית לחם; Beit Lechem) which, in Hebrew, means “House of Bread/Food.” Yet, the function of the manger also anticipates Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “He took bread (ἄρτος; artos), and when he had given thanks, be broke it gave it to [the disciples], saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you” (Lk 22:19). The infant Jesus lays in a feeding trough, and this imagery comes full circle when he offers food that represents his own body. 

In this way, Luke bookends the Gospel with allusions to Jesus as “food” that symbolizes the good tidings of salvation for all who partake in him.

The imagery of Jesus being offered as food (unto eternal life) is powerful.

That's the way I see it anyway!

1st Century home in Israel.

When Luke 2:7 says “there was no room for them in the inn,” the Greek word is the word for this guest room, not for a hotel (there was a word for that, which is used in the Parable of the Good Samaritan). Because of the census, the upper room was already too full for them to give birth, so they stayed in the lower level where there was enough room for all that goes into birthing a child. This view also reflects the cultural priority of hospitality and the high unlikelihood that family would turn Mary and Joseph away while she was in her final day(s) of pregnancy, even despite the scandal of her being pregnant before their official marriage. This view is well-attested by reputable Bible Dictionaries.