ESV Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
BGT Luke 2:7 καὶ ἔτεκεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τὸν πρωτότοκον, καὶ ἐσπαργάνωσεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἀνέκλινεν αὐτὸν ἐν φάτνῃ, διότι οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς τόπος ἐν τῷ καταλύματι.
- but a more basic question: is the inn really an inn as nowadays? is the manger so portrayed as in the paintings? this could change his direction of interpretation/ application completely! (check the lexicons and the cultural background at the very least...)
- for those who attended my class on Bible architecture and exegesis, I opined that κατάλυμα (inn) should properly be a guest room of a typical ancient Palestinian household! The manger (φάτνη) is actually a stall inside the household! (If so, the shepherds can find the baby anyway! The high class inn vs. poor shepherd dichotomy no longer works then.)
- Jesus, though travelling in the world as a stranger, was nevertheless born in a warm family, possibly bringing much joy to his relatives, esp. when they heard of the experience of Mary and Joseph... (well, the joy motif here is more noteworthy)
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For a typical/ poor family, the manger is a part of the family inside the small house (Sidetracking: for poor families, animals live with the family and are almost a family member. that's the power of Nathan's parable in 2Sam 12). This actually facilitates the houshold's help, who should be a relative of Joseph, for Mary's delivery. According to Kenneth Bailey, guest rooms are separate rooms but still part of the structure of a typical house. With one familiar to ancient household setting, this reading would yield an implied situation that Jesus was born in a warm poor/average family like an average ancient person. The real tension at play in the text is NOT the mean/ rich host family vs. Jesus' family (with despised shepherds on their side...) then. The real undercurrent is the king of a poor and warm family (with Jesus' relatives and shepherds; and the heavenly host in 2:13) vs. Augustus in the cold and glorious (claimed) background of the secular history (2:1). Luke was writing in a manner of historiography with respect to salvation history.
