Inns, Mangers, and the Nativity

The Nativity of Jesus Christ

Luke 2:7. "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."

At Christmas, thoughts of a starry night and a snowy stable scene come to mind. Joseph and Mary, along with a variety of animals, all huddled cozily in the straw. Shepherds and wise men all gathered around to worship a swaddled baby Jesus sleeping peacefully in a warm, hay-filled, wooden box. While not exactly the Bible's  account of the birth of Christ, nor historically accurate in detail, it is still a beautiful tradition.

However, for those interested in the story of Christ's birth that scripture tells, here are some historical insights into that event.

The Inn.

The Greek word for Inn is "kataluma" and means "the dissolution or breaking up of a journey"; by implication a lodging place, guesthouse or guest chamber - as inside a dwelling. What is being described in Luke 2 is a common traveler's hostel. But in Bible times, Inns were much different from what we now expect them to be.

An ancient inn was also called caravanserai. This comes from a Persian word that translates to mean a caravan's palace.  While these inns were nothing as elegant as the word "palace" evokes, they were considered good and adequate shelters that provided a night's rest out of the elements and in safety from wild beasts.

For centuries, Inns could be found both above ground and underground. They might be a man-made structure built of rocks, sticks or bricks. Or, they might be a cave containing several chambers that could separate travelers from their animals.

All inns contained a water supply. Some provided a few amenities; such as firewood, mats, and animal fodder. Some sold flour and oil. And some even afforded the weary traveler a little personal privacy from other travelers. 

As early as the seventeenth century, scholars were undertaking expeditions into the Holy Land to help them discover the Bible's past, and to better understand the history and culture described within its pages. During their travels, they encountered a variety of inns and found them little changed since ancient times.

From Rev. George Bush:  "It will be proper here to give a full and explicit account of the inns or caravansaries of the East, in which travelers are accommodated. They are not all alike, some being simply places of rest, by the side of a fountain if possible, and at a proper distance on the road. Many of these places are nothing more than naked walls; others are more considerable establishments. ("Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures Philadelphia", p. 600. Published in Philadelphia, 1850.)

From Alfred Campbell *:  "At night they lodged in a caravanseraum, which is a large open building erected at the public expense and providing shelter and refreshment; in that respect differing from a khan, which is likewise a kind of inn, but provides only a place of rest." ("Alfred Campbell, The Young Pilgrim...Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land," by Barbara Hofland, p. 26-27. Published in London, 1825.)

From Comte Constantin de Volney: "Commonly the villages have a large building called a kan (khan) or kervanserai (caravanserais) which serves as an asylum for all travelers. These houses...consist of four wings around a square court, which serves by way of enclosure for the beasts of burden. The lodgings are cells where you find nothing but bare walls. Others (inns) are more considerable establishments where families reside and take care of them (the travelers) and furnish the necessary provisions.  ("Travels Through Egypt and Syria in 1783-1785", Vol. 1, p. 250. Published in New York, 1798.)

From Edward Robinson: "Close by on the left of the path…stands a quadrangular building… that has more the appearance of a castle…having towers at the corners; and were erected for the accommodation and protection of caravans, passing upon this great high road between Damascus and Egypt. In the Khan is a spring of water." ("Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Peterea…1836", Vol. 3, p. 236. Published in Boston, 1841.)

From James Morier:  "At Kpnar-a-Tackta (a village near Khist in southwest Persia) … there is a caravanserai…(with) an arched gate (that) introduces the traveler into a square yard, around which are rooms, and behind which are stables. There is also a small suite of rooms over the gateway. In the center of the court, is an elevated platform, the roof of a subterraneous chamber called a zeera zemeon whither travelers retire during the great heats of the summer, and…is a very refreshing habitation. Behind the building is a tank or reservoir for rain-water. ("A Journey Through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor and Constantinople in the years 1808-1809", p. 90. Published in Philadelphia, 1816.)

From Abraham Parsons: "At eleven…being excessively hot, and seeing a village with many low houses or rather huts, we struck out of our path and arrived there about noon, when, instead of houses, we found them to be caverns dug in the earth, and vaulted, with only the upper part appearing above ground. The people received us kindly: (allowing us,) both men and horses to descend into one of the largest of them, (caverns) and immediately felt such a comfortable coolness as was extremely delightful. The cavern which we were now in was more than one hundred feet in length, and near forty wide…divided into apartments on each side, in some of which were grain…in others cows were kept, in some goats and sheep, and some served as places to sleep in; the middle part was kept clear as a passage to each room or division." (Travels in Asia and Africa"**, p. 38. Published in London,1811.)

From James Buckingham: "We came to a sort of caravanserai, built before a fine cave… We entered, and found it to be a well-hewn chamber, cut entirely out of the rock, and squared with great care; being twenty paces long, twelve broad, and from fifteen to eighteen feet high. It has a cell on the left…roughly hewn; and around the south end, and west side, runs a low bench of stone. A kind of altar, in a high recess, stands at its further end, immediately opposite to the door of entrance, before which (was) a curtain and a lamp. Beneath were mats and carpets, for the accommodation of visitors. It thus forms a comfortable halt for travelers, as it affords shelter and shade, and has a cistern of excellent water, a place for horses, and a coffee-house adjoining. It (the inn) is called the " School of Elias," from a notion that the prophet taught his disciples there. ("Travels in Palestine", p. 120. Published in London, 1821.)

Entrance to an inhabited cave. Either a private residence or an inn.
Photo from FreeStockPhotos.com - Holy Land.

The Manger.

Whether Mary and Joseph spent the night in a constructed stable or a cave, scholars might not ever know for certain. But one particular detail that scripture makes clear is that the baby Jesus was placed in a manger after his birth.

From Sir John Chardin***: "Mangers like those in England, the Eastern people have not, for they have no hay; but in their stables, they have stone troughs in which they lay the fodder. When they tie down their horses in the Court yard or campagnia, they use sacks." (Dr. Adam Clark. "Hamer's Observations on the Scriptures", Vol. 2, p. 202. Published in London, 1816.)

From John MacGregor: "Stone is everything here. The walls of the houses are four or five feet thick, sometimes six feet, of roughly hewn basalt. Many are of two stories high, and a few three stories. The joists and rafters of the great rooms are all of stone. The doors are large slabs of stone, the stables have stone mangers, and the spouts on the roofs are stone. (p.149) In most houses in Syria, whether of stone or mud, the very same plan is adopted at the present day. In the stable below the mangers are recesses of this kind, and the oxen eat their fodder from this sort of recessed shelf, the lower ones being open to allow the sheep and goats to pass. (p. 154) ("Rob Roy on the Jordan", pp.149,154.  Published in London, 1876.)

From Sir Robert Porter: "General custom (is to) feed and waters them (horses) only at sun-rise and at sun-set, when they are cleaned. Their usual provender is barley, and chopped straw, which, if the animals are picqueted, (picketed) is put into a nose-bag and hung from their heads; but if stabled, it is thrown into a small lozenge-shaped hole left in the thickness of the mud wall for that purpose, but much higher up than the line of our mangers, and there the animal eats at his leisure." ("Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia -1817-1820", Vol. 2, p. 536.  Published in London, 1822.)

From William Loftus: "Entering (the tomb of Daniel in Shushan), beneath a low doorway, the visitor is ushered into the great court, the opposite side of which is supplied with mangers and rings for the reception of horses and beasts of burden, for it is unsafe to leave them outside, on account of lions and other wild animals, which abound in the neighbourhood." ("Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Susiana -1849-1852", pp. 321-322. Published in New York, 1857.)

Eighteenth Century woodcut of the Cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The Nativity.

The early church fathers had their opinions as to the details of Jesus' birth. And since they lived within one to two hundred years of His birth, their opinions must be given considerable weight.

From Justin Martyr****; "He, Joseph, was likewise commanded to take Mary and go into Egypt, and to continue there with the young child, until it should be again revealed to him that he might return into Judea. The child was born at Bethlehem; and Joseph, because he could find no place in the town where to lodge, went into a certain 'cave near the town. And while they were there, Mary brought forth Christ, and laid him in a manger.'" ("Dialogue with Trypho the Jew", Vol 2, Section LXXVIII, p. 20-21.  Written between 155-167 AD.)

From Origen: "With respect to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, if any one desires after the prophecy of Micah and after the history recorded in the Gospels by the disciples of Jesus, to have additional evidence from other sources, let him know that, in conformity with the narrative in the Gospel regarding HIs birth, there is shown at Bethlehem the cave where He was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling-clothes.)("Against Celsus"; Written about 248 AD.)

 The opinion of the Holy Land Travelers.

From William Thomson: "It is not impossible, to say the least, but that the apartment in which our Saviour was born was in fact a cave. I have seen many such, consisting of one or more rooms, in front of, and including a cavern, where the cattle were kept. ("The land and the Book", Vol 2, p. 503-504. Published in New York, 1860.)

From Rev. John Kitto: "Many of these caravanserais have no stables, the cattle of the travelers being accommodated in the open (central court or common) area. But in the more complete establishments of the kind, there are very excellent and spacious stables...on the same level with the court…and below the level of the tenements (open cubicles) which stand on the raised platform.

This platform is allowed to project behind into the stable, so as to form a bench (overhanging shelf) to which the heads of the cattle are turned, and on which they can, if they like, rest the nosebags of hair-cloth in which their food is given to them, to enable them to reach the bottom (of the bag) when the contents get low. Though small and shallow, these convenient retreats (beneath the overhanging shelves) are for servants and muleteers. "

Such a recess we conceive that Joseph and Mary occupied, with their ass or mule —if they had one. The recess at the upper end would not be passed by any one, and it might be rendered quite private by a cloth being stretched across the lower part. This the explanation with which our own mind has been satisfied since the opportunity of actual observation in Eastern travel has been presented to us." ("The Cyclopedia of Bible Literature", Vol.1, p.397. Published in New York, 1880.)

The action taking place in the introductory text is the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. To most, it seems a humble and unsatisfactory way for Jesus to begin HIs human life.  But for the time and age in which this event took place, the sleeping accommodations offered to Joseph and Mary were not uncommon and considered acceptable under the circumstances.

​*Alfred Campbell is a fictional character based on the actual Holy Land travel journals of William Rae Wilson and Capt. James Mangles, R.N.

** Full title of Parsons' book: "Travels in Asia And Africa; Including A Journey from Scanderoon to Aleppo, and over the Desert to Bagdad and Bussora; A Voyage from Bussora to Bombay, and along the Western Coast of India; Voyage from Bombay to Mocha and Suez in the Red Sea; and A Journey from Suez to Cairo and Rosetta in Egypt."

​***Footnote cites Dr. Alex Russell's translation from French to English of Sir John Chardin's "Travels in Persia – 1673-1677".

****Translated from Greek to English by Henry Brown, Vicar of Nether Swell, in Gloucestershire and published in Oxford, 1755.
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