Tag: Nazareth

• 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 […]

  calgacus83

  25th Dec 2022

  Christmas, Current Affairs, History, Scottish

  Bethlehem, Christmas, Dundee, Edinburgh, Ferry boat, Nazareth, Train, Travelling

• ‘O little town of Bethlehem’

  This is my favourite Christmas carol, though I’m no longer ‘traditionally’ religious, and believe Jesus was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem. Why, some might ask, do I find this carol moving and meaningful? The reason is that its words and music symbolise and energise deep-seated archetypal contents in my psyche, which have profound meaning irrespective […]

  calgacus83

  14th Dec 2022

  Christianity, Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth, Literature, New Testament, Old Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Bethlehem, Carol, Census, Gospels, Jesus, Luke, Matthew, Nativity, Nazareth, Rome

• 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 […]

  calgacus83

  5th Dec 2022

  Christianity, Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth, Literature, Mythology, New Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Bethelhem, Christmas, Gospels, Jesus, King Herod, Nativity, Nazareth, Shepherds, Wise Men

• 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 […]

  calgacus83

  14th Dec 2021

  Christmas, Jesus of Nazareth, Mythology, New Testament, Poetry, Religion

  Bethlehem, Christmas, Gospels, Herod, Luke, Matthew, Nativity, Nazareth

• When and where was Jesus born?

  What I aim to do is to jettison the last 2000 years of dogmas and creeds and to try to take an ‘unbaggaged’ look at Jesus. If we do this, it must immediately strike us that Jesus wasn’t a Christian – there weren’t any until around 45 CE. He was a 1st century Palestinian Jew, […]

  calgacus83

  13th Dec 2020

  Jesus of Nazareth, New Testament, Religion

  Bethlehem, Nazareth