Margaret Barker is an independent scholar, a Methodist local preacher and a former President of the Society for Old Testament Study. She has developed ‘Temple Theology’ as a new approach to biblical studies, and was given a DD for her work on the temple and the ori- gins of Christian liturgy. For many years, she has been a member of the Ecumenical Patriarch’s Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, and has made Temple Theology the basis for her work on the environment. This is her fourteenth book, reading the Christmas stories as Temple Theology. Her recent books include: Temple Themes in Christian Worship (2008), The Hidden Tradition of the Kingdom of God (2007), Temple Theology (2004), An Extraordinary Gathering of Angels (2004), The Great High Priest (2003) and The Revelation of Jesus Christ (2000). CHRISTMAS The Original Story MARGARET BARKER First published in Great Britain in 2008 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 36 Causton Street London SW1P 4ST www.spckpublishing.co.uk Copyright © Margaret Barker 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications. The publisher and author acknowledge with thanks that the Abdullah Yusuf Ali Translation of The Holy Quran is used by kind permission of Islamic Vision, Birmingham. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952 and 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Extracts from the Authorized Version (AV) of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press. Scriptures quoted from the Good News Bible (GNB) published by The Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK, © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992, 1994, are used by permission. Extracts from The Book of Common Prayer, the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press. Every effort has been made to acknowledge fully the sources of material reproduced in this book. The publisher apologizes for any omissions that may remain and, if notified, will ensure that full acknowledgements are made in a subsequent edition. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978–0–281–06050–4 3579108642 Typeset by Graphicraft Ltd, Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Subsequent digital printing in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Produced on paper from sustainable forests In memory of David Melling who died in September 2004 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Isaiah 9.2 Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Collect for Aid against all Perils Book of Common Prayer Contents Preface ix Introduction xi 1 The setting 1 The world of the temple 2 Telling the stories 16 The politics 23 2 Other voices 31 Adam 36 The Lady 39 The hidden descent 44 3Luke 50 The first annunciation: the birth of John 53 The second annunciation: the birth of Jesus 59 The meeting of Elizabeth and Mary 65 The birth of John 70 The birth of Jesus 74 The annunciation to the shepherds 78 The Lord in his temple 82 4 Matthew 93 The genealogy 97 The Virgin birth 100 The star 108 The magi 115 The flight into Egypt 123 vii Contents 5 The Infancy Gospel of James and translation of the text 128 The story 133 Mary 136 The veil 142 The resting-place 144 The cave 145 The Infancy Gospel of James 151 6 The Qur’an and translation of selected passages 162 Primary sources 175 Index of primary sources 177 Index of persons, places and subjects 187 viii Preface For many years I have been leading pre-Christmas study days: ‘Exploring the Christmas Stories’.These looked at the well-known texts in the New Testament, and then at the less well-known, such as the Infancy Gospel of James, the Arabic Infancy Gospel, and the Qur’an. Eventually they became this book. The great festivals of the Church have been almost taken over by supermarkets and sporting events. Easter is a time for bonnets and bunnies and chocolate eggs; Christmas, which starts at the end of October, is for reindeer and mistletoe and mince pies. Nativity plays have come a long way since St Francis first set up his crib. Either they are banned to satisfy the politically correct, or they are modern and have the birth in a bus shelter, or they are sentimental and have squir- rels and even sea creatures at the crib. The original story is so much better. It has suffered from over- familiarity, and the words are sometimes lost in a flurry of domestic distraction. Reread and repondered, the original story of the incar- nation is one of the greatest treasures in the Bible. I dedicate this book to the memory of a dear friend, who shared my love for the ancient traditions of the Church. Margaret Barker Easter 2008 ix Introduction The Christmas stories are not only beautiful; their meaning is at the heart of the Christian faith, and they show how the first generations expressed their understanding of Jesus as both God and man. The creeds are later statements of Christian belief, summarizing the essentials. The first to be set out formally was the Apostles’ Creed, the declaration made before baptism in the Western churches which was in use in Rome at the beginning of the third century.1 It says noth- ing about the life of Jesus as depicted in the four Gospels, nothing about his parables and miracles, about debates with the Jews of his time, or about his disciples. It records his birth, and then his death and resurrection: Christmas and Easter. The events in Bethlehem and Jerusalem were recognized as the essentials of the faith. Of Christmas the Apostles’ Creed says: ‘Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary’.2 The other creed most familiar to Christians is the Nicene Creed, recited3 at the Eucharist in churches of both Eastern and Western traditions. It was probably developed from a baptismal creed used in Palestine, was adopted by the Council of Nicaea in 325 ce, and expanded by the Council of Constantinople in 381 ce. The precise history of its development is complex. Like the Apostles’ Creed, it lists as essentials of the faith only the teachings about the birth and death of Jesus. Of Christmas it says: ‘One Lord Jesus Christ, the only- begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made: Who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man...’.This is the theology of the Christmas story, but it is in two stages. There is the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of 1 Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition 21. 2 The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed are quoted in the form in the Book of Common Prayer. 3 The important difference in the statement about the Holy Spirit does not concern us here. xi Introduction his Father before all worlds, and there is the Son of God who became incarnate of the Virgin Mary. Christians have always been careful to remember and distinguish the ‘two births’. The Orthodox Church calls Christmas ‘the Nativity according to the flesh’, a constant reminder of the ‘other’ birth. Augustine, who died in 430 ce, summarized this in a Christmas sermon: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man as well as the Son of God, born of the Father without a Mother, created all days. By his birth from a Mother without a Father, he consecrated this day. In his divine birth he was invisible; in his human birth, visible; in both births, awe-inspiring.4 Both births are found in the New Testament: the Son of God was born in eternity, beyond our understanding, as John wrote in the pro- logue to his Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word . .’ (John 1.1). The Son of God became incarnate with the Bethlehem birth – the Virgin birth, and of this birth John wrote: ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1.14). The Christmas story does not describe the birth of the Son of God; it describes the incarnation of the Son of God who was ‘born’ in eternity. Throughout any exploration of the Christmas story there is the problem of words with a special meaning that dif- fers from their normal use. If this mystical element is not recognized, the result can be a literalism that, far from being faithful to the fun- damentals of the story, in fact distorts it. At the heart of Jerusalem today is the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock, erected on what is popularly believed to be the site of the ancient temple of Solomon.