No Room in the … Guest Chambers?
December 24, 2007
When Luke says that Jesus was born in a manger because “there was no room for them in the inn” (2:7), he probably wasn’t speaking of an “inn” as we think of it. In fact, “inn” is probably a bad translation of the Greek word here, katalumati. In other places where the word is used, even in Luke, it is used with the sense of “guest room” (cf. e.g. Luke 22:11; Mark 14:14). This is probably what is meant here.
The typical ancient Israelite house consisted of three or four rooms, separated by four pillars which supported the roof. Many of these “four-pillared houses” had two floors. The main living quarters were usually on the second floor and the roof, and the guest chamber and animal stalls were on the ground floor. Below is an illustration.
The “inn” of which most English translations of Luke 1:7 speak was probably the guest chamber. Since it was already occupied, Mary and Joseph were offered to stay in the animal stalls. It would have been a warm place to stay, probably relatively clean since it was inside the house, the women of the house would have been nearby to help as midwives, and the animals may not even have been in the stalls at the time. Really, it was probably not such a bad place to stay—certainly no place for a King to be born, though!
No devotional insight here, just something to ponder. Maybe someone can offer some.
[...] of katalumati (which most English Bibles render “inn”) in Luke 2:7. I just wrote on this issue a couple of days [...]
Interesting graphic!
Thanks for the mention.
I just found this post while Googling for images of the Israelite four-room house. Without any hard evidence, your idea rings very true. Indeed, Israelites where shepherds; their herd was their fortune, and they kept the animals at the ground level of this typical house. Jesus is, therefore, born inside a house, not in a separate building.
Nevertheless, it remains that he had a very humble beginning, born on the ground floor where the animals and servants live, not the first floor where the house masters live. Not a place for a king, surely, but exactly the right place for the Messiah, who is no ordinary king.