No Room in the Inn

Today’s Reflection

SCHOLARS HAVE BEEN PUZZLED about why Joseph and Mary were supposedly turned away from all homes and even an inn in Bethlehem when hospitality was a nonnegotiable requirement in the Middle East at that time. Joseph would have had many relatives in Bethlehem to welcome them, and even nonrelatives would have welcomed him as Davidic royalty because he was a Bethlehmite.

Here’s an explanation: “For more than a hundred years scholars resident in the Middle East have understood Luke 2:7 as referring to a family room with mangers cut into the floor at one end.” Simple village homes in Palestine had two rooms. One was exclusively for guests (the upper room or “prophet’s chamber”). The other room was the main room where the entire family cooked, ate, slept, and lived.

At the end of that room by the door was a small area that was lower and cordoned off by timber. Into that area each night were brought the family cow, donkey, and a few sheep. (Animals kept the house warm and they were kept safe inside.) Every morning the animals were taken out and the stall cleaned. Scholars surmise the “inn” (katalyma) was probably that guest room. …

This would mean that Joseph and Mary were graciously accepted into the main room with the family because the “inn” or guest room was full. In that main room would have been a manger for the animals that stayed there at night.

– Jan Johnson