Okay so just a totally random wee post here since it’s getting close to Christmas! Here are some common myths surrounding the Nativity story. How many did you think were true?

1. The wise men worshipped Jesus at the manger

Matthew 2:11 says,

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him

Notice the verse says ‘house’, not ‘stable’. It is likely that Jesus could have been as old as two when the wise men came and presented him with the gifts gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

2. Mary travelled to Bethlehem on a donkey

This may or may not be true, but there is no Biblical evidence that Mary rode a donkey to Bethlehem.

3. Jesus was born in a stable

Luke 2:7 says,

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

We know for sure that the Lord was born in a manger, but we cannot say for sure that the manger was in a stable. Historians suggest that most animals were sheltered in caves, so this is a possible location for the birth of Jesus.

4. There were three wise men

The ‘wise men’ (often translated ‘Magi’ in modern editions of the Bible) from the East appear in Matthew’s account of the birth of Christ. The three traditional names for the wise men are Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar. The Bible tells us that they presented three gifts to the baby, which has caused many to assume that there were three wise men. The Bible itself does not indicate how many wise men there were.

5. The term ‘Xmas’ was created to remove Christ from Christmas

Though many modern advertisers may use the term ‘Xmas’ for this exact purpose, it was not originally coined in order to do so. The ‘X’ comes from the Greek letter ‘chi’, which is the first letter of the word Χριστός, which we translate as ‘Christ’ in English. The Oxford English Dictionary have cited usages of ‘X-’ or ‘Xp-’ for ‘Christ-’ as early as 1485. The dictionary further cites usage of ‘Xtianity’ for ‘Christianity’ from 1634. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from ‘educated Englishmen who knew their Greek’.