Joseph's Terrible Planning: The Christmas Story Revisited

By William Colin Marris

Imagine a man who takes his pregnant wife, who is ready to give birth at any moment, to a strange, crowded town on a cold winter's night, who is vainly knocking on doors seeking lodging without a reservation...

Deck the Hall[mark]s!

The traditional Christmas story is a narrative that is vividly recognizable

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 28, 2025
• ISBN: 9798895979655

Book preview

Dedication

This book is lovingly dedicated to my ninety-four-year-old mother, who always made Christmas wonderful!

And to my two Jewish cardiologists, Steven Port, MD, and Jesus of Nazareth. Together, they have managed to keep me alive these past thirty-seven years…even bringing me back from a fatal heart attack late one night on a Christmas Eve!

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dan David D’Amore, my valued friend and associate in Circuit Rider Ministries, without whom the publication of this book would not have been possible.

Also, with all my love and heartfelt thanks to Lynne, my bride of fifty years, who has encouraged and supported me throughout this long process!

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

Deck the Hall[mark]s—The Traditional Greeting Card Christmas Story

Chapter Two

Anno Domini (The Year of Our Lord)

Chapter Three

History’s Greatest Birthday

Chapter Four

Hanukkah—Christ and the Festival of Lights

Chapter Five

Call Her Blessed—Mary’s Marvelous Example

Chapter Six

A Betrothed Couple from Nazareth—Ancient Jewish Marriage Customs

Chapter Seven

No Room in the Inn—Joseph’s Terrible Planning

Chapter Eight

The House of Bread and the Tower of the Flock

Chapter Nine

We Twelve Kings of Orient Are?!?!

Chapter Ten

The Star of Wonder

Chapter Eleven

Better to Be Herod’s Pig!

Chapter Twelve

Out of Egypt

Chapter Thirteen

Deck the Hall[mark]s Revisited—Joseph’s Wonderful Planning!

Epilogue

Index

Bibliography

About the Author

Introduction

What Was God Thinking?

There is something about the traditional Christmas story that has always puzzled me and has prompted me to reverently ask such a seemingly irreverent question.

At the risk of having sounded sacrilegious, please permit me to exclaim emphatically that I mean no disrespect for the Lord High God! He is my sovereign king and my only way to life eternal. I am fully aware that the apostle Paul wrote, But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? (Romans 9:20, NIV).

In humility, however, I am forced to offer such a rhetorical question when carefully considering our traditional Christmas story. In my opinion, it is so important a query that our very understanding of Christ’s birth may be seriously flawed!

Have you ever considered why God would select a man to raise and protect His only Son, who would begin His sacred mission by apparently planning so terribly? What competent individual would take his pregnant wife, who is due to deliver at any moment, into a strange and crowded town in the middle of winter, late at night, anxiously knocking on doors and urgently seeking lodging without a reservation? To make matters worse, the very best that the husband can ultimately do is find provision in a lowly stable reserved for domestic animals.

On the surface, that was not very impressive.

Not surprisingly, however, upon closely examining the original Greek text of Luke’s Christmas Gospel, the man entrusted by God actually performed his duties splendidly!

In short, the traditional story of Joseph frantically appealing to the obstinate and unsympathetic innkeeper, only to be turned away because there was no room in the inn, quite likely never happened.

What has emerged over the past twenty centuries is a traditional Christmas story that is seemingly riddled with inaccuracies and well-intentioned misinterpretations of Scripture. My belief is that this is, in part, the result of a modern departure from a full understanding and appreciation of Christianity’s Jewish roots!

That problem becomes particularly apparent when we begin to look at the Gospels through Jewish eyes.

Looking through Jewish eyes?

Let me also say at the outset that I am not Jewish and that when I make the suggestion that we examine the Bible, the roots of Christianity, and the story of Christmas through Jewish eyes, it is as an outsider and not as one born to it naturally. My belief is that we Gentiles would be infinitely better served if we learned to look into the Scriptures (as much as possible) through the lens of first-century Judaism.

Although God is the divine author of Scripture, it is my belief that the various Jewish writers of the New Testament conveyed God’s word to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and then revealed it to us by their own individual Jewish frames of reference.

It should be remembered that each of the writers of the New Testament was a first-century Jew, with the possible exception of Dr. Luke, who many scholars believe was born a Greek. In reality, however, even Luke, who was one of the companions of the apostle Paul, apparently became a Jew by religion as an initiate or proselyte into the Hebrew culture and faith.

The early Christian church was comprised almost exclusively of Jews. All of Christ’s apostles were Jews. Even the Lord Jesus Himself was a practicing Jew! As a result, it is my strong contention that we need to examine Scripture through Jewish eyes in order to fully recognize and appreciate various subtle inferences and to help amplify our understanding of the text.

What perhaps is necessary is a prayerful reexamination of the nativity…the Christmas story revisited.

In that belief, this book will humbly seek to demonstrate and convey a biblically sound and historically plausible retelling of Christ’s birth. In the following pages, we will consider the story of the first Christmas as supported by known first-century Jewish, Greek, and Roman historical evidence, as well as their cultural and religious practices.

Above all else, we will rely fully upon the biblical account! Everything that is presented must be backed scripturally, or it is of absolutely no value or consequence. Be assured that as a Christian and follower of Jesus, I believe that the Bible is fully inerrant in its original writings and is the ultimate final answer to all theological questions.

In the words of the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, Sola Scriptura! (By Scripture Alone!)

It is my solid conviction that what will finally emerge is no less beautiful, inspiring, or imperative than that familiar Christmas story that has traditionally been presented and so widely accepted.

—W. Colin Marris

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin

Christmas Eve, 2024

Chapter One:

Deck the Hall[mark]s—The Traditional Greeting Card Christmas Story

As a Wisconsin boy who grew up in the 1950s, my adult memories of Christmas Past are stereotypically filled with an array of very traditional holiday images. Now, in my mature recollections of those long-ago celebrations, I distinctly remember that the December temperatures were invariably frigid and that our mid-west family Christmas was always white with snow. I also recall that the snow drifts were banked immeasurably high and that the physical surroundings of our suburban Milwaukee neighborhood fully conformed to those wintry scenes that were ubiquitously portrayed in holiday magazines, shopping ads, roadside billboards, television commercials, and upon the myriad of Christmas greeting cards that annually heralded the season.

Ironically, the past almanac records suggest that my subjective memory is somewhat flawed and that we actually enjoyed a subarctic Wisconsin White Christmas during little more than half of the holiday seasons that I lived through.

In either case, something quite magical occurred at the same time each year. Beginning on the very day that our leftover Thanksgiving turkey had furnished its final repast, our mailbox would slowly fill to crescendo from an initial trickle into an eventual avalanche of holiday greeting cards. The illustrations they bore were instrumental in forming my childhood beliefs and understanding of Christmas. Images of mangers, shepherds, angels, and wise men proclaimed the blessed birth. As I grew in my faith, what I never questioned was the accuracy of the traditional Christmas story.

Unfortunately, many of the pictures that I gleaned from our Christmas card basket were less than biblically accurate, and many of the lessons they portrayed stayed with me into adulthood.

Ceramic Countdown

My own youthful understanding of the nativity was molded in great part by a combination of Hollywood films, annual Sunday school Christmas pageants, traditional carols (in those days, actually practiced and performed in my public school!), and by hearing Linus annually present his flawless recitation of Luke’s Gospel before a continually dismal and morose Charlie Brown.

Of course, childhood expectations of a visit from Santa Claus and eagerness for the unequaled promise of the following morning contended mightily with the sacred story in competing for mastery over my Christmas Eve thoughts.

The story of that first Noel is remarkably familiar to the devout, the skeptical, and the merely festive alike. Even the most cynical descendant of Ebenezer Scrooge is aware of the traditional details.

For me, it was earliest demonstrated by marveling at my parents’ ceramic nativity set. My brothers and I excitedly understood that the Christmas countdown had commenced once my mother unwrapped our crèche and placed it ceremoniously atop the cabinet that housed our black and white television set. The same Italian-made decoration has since adorned my mother’s home for more than sixty years and consists of a simple wooden stable from which an angel is suspended. In addition to the mandatory Holy Family, the other figures include two shepherds, three wise men, one cow, a donkey, and a solitary lamb.

Many possess more complex and expensive nativity sets that hearken back to early Renaissance times, but whether elaborate or simple, all crèches include the often kneeling Virgin Mary and a standing but deferential Joseph; both figures reverently huddled around a manger that contains the newborn babe.

Ironically, our manger scene included a curiously blonde, blue-eyed, seemingly two-year-old toddler masquerading as the infant Christ child. Many contemporary sets have expanded upon the previously limited choice of a white Jesus, preferring to show Him as black, brown, yellow, or red. Oddly enough, I have rarely seen a Semitic-looking, Jewish depiction of the blessed infant!

The Greeting Card Christmas

Just as so often happens with the maturing of so many of our childhood memories, our grown-up beliefs regarding Christmas have also become, for many, a synthesis of Scripture, history, legend, and myth. In our present time, there is no greater amalgamation of the fanciful and the real than in what I would respectfully call the Greeting Card or Hallmark¹ Christmas Story.

With sincere deference to the Christmas card manufacturers, who brighten our holiday season with beautiful pictures and inspiring verses, the plain reality is that the portraits portrayed upon them are often inaccurate and even contrary to the Gospel account.

Every month of December, faithful believers and secular merrymakers alike are virtually inundated with a host of familiar images. Each year, we are presented with a multitude of similar religious illustrations from numerous different sources, all depicting…the traditional Christmas story.

The senses become visually and aurally saturated with countless movies, carols, hymns, paintings, and illustrations. There are Christmas parades, pageants, and yard decorations, each depicting the Savior’s lowly birth in a stable. As was the case in my family, many celebrants prominently set up family Christmas crèches, whereas others venture outdoors to view similar live animal reenactments of the nativity. There are innumerable manger scenes that are prominently displayed in front yards, shopping malls, church lots, and even (the law permitting) on public squares throughout the nation. A myriad of actors, both old and young alike, become shepherds, wise men, angels, as well as members of the Holy Family in church programs and services the world over.

In the days leading up to the high celebration, countless Christmas Eve programs are anxiously well-rehearsed by millions of well-scrubbed children each year. The earnest preparations continue until Christmas Eve, when churches all over the planet reenact this same story in much the same way. Children everywhere reprise the roles of the Holy Family and the other previously mentioned players. (As a first-grader, I myself once played a shepherd!)

In the prologue to the 1959 epic film Ben-Hur,² a very familiar scene slowly unfolds before the eyes of the viewing audience. What we witness, through Hollywood’s subjective lens, is a very typical reenactment of the birth of the Christ child. The action transpires during a traditionally cold, clear, brightly starlit Christmas night as the three Magi, a host of shepherds, and a collection of domesticated animals gather in a rustic stable surrounding Mary, Joseph, and the newly-born infant Jesus.

The three Magi (aka the three wise men or three kings) prostrate themselves in homage before the newborn child as the humble shepherds look on in quiet reverence and awe. It even appears that the silent animals consciously huddle around the sacred scene in mute adoration.

A nearly identical scenario has been portrayed in countless other films, dramas, and paintings, but perhaps the greatest number of Christmas illustrations are found on the millions of holiday greeting cards sent out or emailed each year…and even depicted on the postage stamps that are used to mail them.

The traditional Christmas narrative is a story that is vividly recognizable to billions, both Christians and non-believers alike. It is my contention, however, that virtually all of our combined traditional Christmas images and portrayals convey a beautiful but flawed rendition of Christ’s nativity.

To help illustrate this, I wish to afford the reader a chance to test one’s own biblical accuracy when looking at the traditional Greeting Card Christmas Story. The following is a brief synopsis of the nativity story, as is typically understood by many. The text is accompanied by a sampling of correlating Christmas card images as gathered from the millions that are posted each December.

As you peruse the short recitation, cite the number of biblical inaccuracies (if any) that are listed. Some are seemingly obvious, whereas others might be less defined. It should also be noted that the only barometer for accuracy is a fair reading of the two Gospel narratives (Matthew and Luke) and that some of the dubious references might still, in fact, be fairly correct even if they are not clearly stated in the biblical text.

Invariably, every individual detail of the following has been considered authentic by at least a reasonable number of my previous respondents and students and, therefore, is, in my opinion, a fair recitation of the traditionally accepted account.

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1 Please note: This in no way is meant by the author as a criticism of Hallmark Cards, Inc., which has enriched America and the world with its wonderful images and sentiments. Rather, it is something of a left handed compliment recognizing that the name Hallmark has become culturally synonymous with quality greeting cards!

2 Ben-Hur, directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist (Beverly Hills, California: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1959).

So, with deference to the late, great Charlton Heston, to the wonderfully creative people at Hallmark (along with the other makers of Christmas cards), and to my kindly first-grade Sunday school teacher, I respectfully present…

The Traditional Greeting Card Christmas Story

It is a cold winter’s night…

on December 24, in what would later be known

as the year 1 AD…

The Christ family, Joseph and his wife, Mary, have just completed the long and arduous journey from Nazareth in Galilee down to Bethlehem of Judea…

in order to comply with the census decree of Caesar Augustus.

Mary, riding upon a donkey, had been led by Joseph in the urgent hope that they would find lodging as Mary was about to deliver a baby at any moment!

The little town is quite crowded, and the inn is without any vacancies. Joseph pleads for a room, but the innkeeper cannot help and turns them away.

Mary and Joseph are in near desperation when a

kindly woman overhears their prayers…

and offers them shelter in a nearby stable.

The sheep and cows willingly give up their warm straw,

and soon, a suitable space is cleared.

At the stroke of midnight,

on this first Christmas Day…

Mary gave birth to a Son…

She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes…

and laid Him in a manger (or an eating trough) for a crib.

The new baby is named Jesus…

and it is remarkable that no crying or fussing comes from Him.

Within a short while, Mary and Joseph are surprised by visitors,

shepherds from the countryside…

who had been abiding with their flocks.

They told of an amazing experience.

While tending their sheep, an angel appeared to them…

and told them of the birth of the Messiah.

They were then surrounded by numerous angelic visitors…

Singing Joy to the World.

And all were bathed in the bright glow of a magnificent star.

Told to go to Bethlehem in search of the child…

they now arrived in breathless expectation.

No sooner had they conveyed their amazing story…

than three more visitors arrived on camels:

three kings, one white-skinned, one black, and one yellow…

had come from afar…

to pay homage…

and give gifts to the newborn king.

Melchior, the first, offered a gift of gold

from his Persian homeland;

Gaspar of India presented incense;

While Balthazar provided myrrh from the land of Ethiopia.

They told how a beautiful star…

had directed them to this very spot…

and they seemed a bit surprised that their

journey led to a stable.

What’s the verdict?

Is there anything wrong with this picture? Are there any discrepancies in our traditional rendition of the Christmas narrative when compared with the actual scriptural account?

How about the obvious ones?

Of course, the Christ family was in error! The title Christ (from the Greek Christos) is the same as Messiah (from the Hebrew Mashiach), both words meaning the Anointed One of God.

The angels didn’t sing Isaac Watts’ eighteenth-century Joy to the World, but rather peace on earth was their biblical refrain. Other than these two clear fabrications, however, are there any other possible embellishments?

By my humble estimation, this short narrative contained at least forty likely errors!

For example, the Lord Jesus Christ was not born on December 25, in the year 1 AD. Similarly, the Gospel narrative clearly suggests that Mary and Joseph did not first arrive in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and that they were not callously turned away in their urgent quest for lodging by an unsympathetic innkeeper.

We may also reasonably ascertain and prove biblically that on that holy night, the Christ child was not visited by three wise men and that the Star of Bethlehem was likely not a star at all!

The amazing fact, however, is that when one carefully reads the Holy Bible, these sentences are found to be entirely true!

Invariably, much of what is traditionally believed regarding the birth of Christ is, in my opinion, founded upon a number of well-intentioned inaccuracies, misinterpretations, and outright falsehoods.

In that belief, this book will seek to demonstrate and convey a biblically sound and historically plausible retelling of the Christmas story. As such, it will strive to present a scripturally accurate rendition of the nativity and then attempt to overlay it upon our contemporary understanding of first-century Jewish history, culture, and tradition. Above all else, we will rely fully upon the biblical account! Everything that is presented in the succeeding chapters will be backed scripturally, based on a fair reading of the text.

As I am certain that this might cause some dismay at the outset, I just ask that you will hear me out before you figuratively throw me out (along with this book)! I promise that if you read to the end, there will be nothing found that is objectionable, heretical, or in any way unsettling.

Rather, I trust that what ultimately emerges will be no less beautiful or miraculous, but, in truth, shall be a much more plausible and biblically accurate account of the nativity.

As we proceed with our analysis of the true Christmas story, let’s begin by focusing our investigation…looking through Jewish eyes.

I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.

Psalm 77:5, NIV

Chapter Two:

Anno Domini

(The Year of Our Lord)

It is quite certain that the Lord Jesus was not born in the year 1 AD (Anno Domini). Similarly, the infant Lord Jesus was most likely not born on December 25. In fact, Christ’s birth on that date is only one chance in three hundred sixty-five (even allowing for an additional day if the baby was born during a leap year)!

We professed at the outset an adherence to Sola Scriptura! We must rely on Scripture Alone as the single source of authority. The Gospels do not identify a specific date for the nativity. Neither a day nor a year is given. That is not to say, however, that the actual birthday cannot be ascertained biblically. Clues begin to appear when we look through Jewish eyes.

Before we attempt to discern the answer, let us first examine how the traditional Christmas Day of December 25, AD 1, was originally arrived at.

A Tyrant’s Demise

The Gospels do not give us a precise date for the nativity, but it may be confidently ascertained that it did not take place in 1 Anno Domini (the year of the Lord).

We know from Matthew’s Gospel that Herod the Great was alive and still reigning at the time of Christ’s birth. The writer makes a great effort to report the lengths to which Herod labored in his attempt to slay the infant Jesus. The fact that the king ordered the slaying of the male children in and around Bethlehem, who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi, indicates that Herod survived the birth of Jesus by at least two years and possibly more.

Flavius Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, tells us how King Herod died on an eclipse of the moon just prior to the Passover.³ Such a lunar event took place on March 13, 4 BC, and many scholars place this as the probable time of Herod’s death. In recent years, questions have arisen regarding another lunar eclipse that occurred on December 1 BC, as the one that heralded the tyrant’s death. A number of popular and well-researched books have been written arguing in favor of the later date for reasons that range from circumstantial, numismatic, astronomical, and even astrological evidence.⁴ Some cite difficulty in accounting for the number of events that were reported by Flavius Josephus to have happened within the short length of time afforded between the lunar event of 4 BC and the subsequent Passover death of Herod. Although many of these theories have merit, they fail to conclusively alter the conclusion that the king died in 4 BC.⁵

A number of salient points confirm the year of Herod’s death. First, Josephus states that the eclipse occurred just prior to Passover. This would appear to nullify the candidacy of the lunar event in 1 BC, as the month of December is hardly close to the observance of the spring festival.

In addition, Josephus reported that Herod’s reign lasted for forty years. Some have challenged this as the tyrant apparently ascended the throne in 37 BC after his capture of Jerusalem and final overthrow of the Hasmonean Kingdom during the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus. That would certainly seem to preclude his death in 4 BC. An earlier date is suggested, however, when one reckons the start of Herod’s rule from 41 BC, the year that he was named Tetrarch of Judea by Mark Antony and confirmed the following year as the king of the Jews by the Roman Senate. Josephus apparently considered that to be the start, as he gives a clue that the thirty-seven-year reign of Herod began three years prior to his conquest of Jerusalem.⁶

The record is seemingly clear as to the time that Herod’s successors began their reigns. In Judea, his son Archelaus was later deposed by the Romans in the ninth year of his government. We know historically that the crown was taken from Archelaus in 6 AD, the same year that he was replaced by the appointment of the first Roman procurator. Consequently, Archelaus ascended the throne of the Tetrarchy of Judea some nine years earlier, at his father’s death in 4 BC.⁷ We also know that Archelaus traveled to Rome in 4 BC to make his claim to the Judean throne before Augustus, as evidenced by the fact that Caesar’s son Gaius was in attendance. Gaius was dispatched to fight the Parthians in 2 BC and could hardly have been at the meeting if it had been held in 1 BC.⁸

Similarly, Josephus relates that Herod’s other son, Philip, Tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonitas, also began his tenure the same year. It is recorded that he died after a thirty-seven-year reign in the twentieth year of Tiberius Caesar (34 AD); hence, it began in 4 BC. It should also be noted that Philip renamed a city Julias after Julia, the only daughter of Augustus in 2 BC, so he must have succeeded his father prior to that year. She was subsequently banished for treason by the emperor later that same year, making it highly unlikely that Philip would have so honored her afterward.⁹ It should be noted that recently, some scholars have attributed the name change of the town of Bethsaida to Augustus’