For Paul, the significance of his reinterpretation of the story is that it undercuts the idea that what made Jesus remarkable was that he was born to humble, outcast parents. Paul says that what is extraordinary about the birth of Jesus is that it shows God shifting from the divine to the human. If that happened in a crowded family home, the message is preserved. This article is more than 6 years old. Rev Ian Paul writes on his blog that birth of Christ story is based on a misreading of the New Testament.
A 15th century nativity scene by Paolo Schiavo. If we go with tradition and assume that Jesus was born in winter, any animals in the vicinity would have been crawling with lice.
Cows would surely have been infested with cattle-biting lice , which chew on their hair and skin. Animals shed their winter coats in spring, along with most of their lice, so a summer birth would have been less itchy. Anyone hanging around a stable would have been irritated by the bazaar fly , the Middle East equivalent of the common housefly. As well as buzzing around infuriatingly, the fly can also spread the eye disease trachoma. Plenty of insects bite humans, and some are willing to venture indoors.
Stable flies mostly feed on the blood of livestock , particularly cattle, but they do sometimes bite humans as well. It is often infested with straw itch mites , one of the most aptly named organisms around.
They do not feed off humans, preferring to eat other insects , but if they get on your skin they can cause dermatitis. Annoying and potentially harmful as these species are, their unpleasantness pales in comparison with that of the sheep bot fly. Adult females squirt live maggots up the noses of sheep, where they crawl up into the sinuses and head cavity.
In spring they crawl back down into the nostril and get sneezed out. Unlucky humans can wind up with maggots living in their throats or up their noses , which can cause fever. They went in haste and found the child in the feeding trough and they feasted their eyes on him Lk Jesus was not laid in a manger by accident. It is a major spiritual symbol.
Animals go to the manger for physical food, but with Jesus lying on the hay, we can go to the manger for spiritual food. Jesus has an infinite storehouse of nourishment available, and we can approach him any time and never go hungry. Jesus feeds us with Word and Sacrament, his gospel and the Eucharist.
Jesus wants us to devour his word Jer ; Ez ; Rev , chew on it, slowly ruminate on its meaning, swallow and digest it, and make it part of the fabric of our being.
Not only that, the infant in the feeding trough is the Bread of Life Jn , the true bread come down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever Jn If a person wants to be spiritually well-fed, it is important to read Scripture and receive the Eucharist often. The manger is a momentous sign that Jesus is sustenance for us.
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