Did Mary ride on a donkey and have no room in the inn?

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications.

This is a ministry of striving for eternity. This time of year we always think about Mary riding on a donkey into Bethlehem as she can't find any room in the hotel and goes to the stables to be able to give birth.

Is that accurate? Well, let's take a look. When we actually look at the account in Luke chapter 2, the first six verses, we don't see any reference to Mary being on a donkey.

Now, could she have been on a donkey on that 65 mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem? That could be, but that is assumed.

We don't see that in the scriptures. And then we have the question, was it really a stable or could it have been something else?

Well, the reality is that what we have for the word stable and what we call an inn wouldn't be what we think.

There were two different Greek words, one for what we would think of a hotel, but the word that was used in Luke 2 is actually one that would be more like an upper room, part of a house.

So, this was probably more a relative of hers that she would have been staying with and there was no more room in the relative's house in the upper room, which was where most people would end up sleeping.

So the idea would be is that they had to be more in the downstairs part, probably not a hotel like we think of.

So it's more likely that she was going to stay with family, probably Joseph's family, and that there was no more room in the family house with everybody in town.

And it wouldn't be the hotel that we think of. Now, was it a stable? Hmm. Let's get to that next.

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