Tag: Christmas
-
The Frustrations of Travelling – What’s New?
If you think the 70 mile Christmas trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, by donkey and foot, couldn’t have been much fun, compare it with the 50 mile trip from Edinburgh to Dundee in 1848 ….. You took train no.1, from Edinburgh Waverley down to Granton harbour on the south bank of the river Forth. You…
-
Matthew’s Debatable Verse
There are just two ‘nativity’ accounts, at the beginning of the Gospels called Matthew and Luke. Neither is referred to again in the New Testament, which nowhere else says anything about Jesus’ birth. The word “virgin” occurs only in Matthew, in a quote from Isaiah 7:14. Here’s a literal rendering of that verse from the…
-
The Three Nativity Stories
Have you realised that there are actually three Nativity Stories? The first is in Matthew’s Gospel, which includes a guiding star in the sky; an arrival of “wise men” from the east; King Herod’s slaughter of babies and toddlers; the escape of the ‘holy family’ to Egypt; their eventual attempted return to their “house” in…
-
The Nativity Stories (v) Unconditional Love
I’ve been suggesting that the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke are two different stories that invite us, while enjoying what’s on the surface, to think a little more deeply. Some people might imagine that because I don’t regard these stories as historical, their meaningfulness for me must be sadly impoverished, but not so !…
-
The Nativity Stories (iv) More Thoughts
I’ve been suggesting that the nativity stories in the gospels of Matthew and Luke are two different stories, and that we do them a disservice if we try to prove, with far-fetched and ingenious rationalisations, that they’re historical accounts. They invite us, while enjoying what’s on the surface, to look a little bit more deeply. …
-
The Nativity Stories (iii) Some Thoughts
I’ve been suggesting that the Bible’s nativity ‘stories’ are just that – two different stories. We do them a disservice by trying to prove, with far-fetched and ingenious rationalisations, that they’re entirely historical accounts. In other contexts, stories present us with no such problem, even so-called ‘historical dramas’ (like Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’) and we rightly focus…
-
The Nativity Stories (ii) More Questions
The chief supporting actors in Matthew’s story are the “wise men from the east”. “Magi” weren’t kings, but practitioners of oriental magical arts, which would have included astrology. In Acts 8:9 there is a ‘Magus’ called Simon who “astounded the Samaritans with his magic”. Predictably, he gets a bad press in Acts, but this is…
-
The Nativity Stories (i) Asking Questions
Now that December has come, it’s time to revisit the endlessly enchanting nativity stories found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. I use the word “stories”, firstly because these are not historical accounts and, secondly, because there are two of them, even though the yearly ‘nativity plays’ join them up, and present them as…
RAY'S VIEWS ONLINE 