[932] Micah v. 2.
[933] The advocates of the mythical theory have not answered, not even faced or understood, what to us seems, on their hypothesis, an insuperable difficulty. Granting, that Jewish expectancy would suggest the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, why invent such circumstances to bring Mary to Bethlehem? Keim may be right in saying: The belief in the birth at Bethlehem originated very simply' (Leben Jesu i. 2, p. 393); but all the more complicated and inexplicable is the origination of the legend, which accounts for the journey thither of Mary and Joseph.
[934] In evidence of these feelings, we have the account of Josephus of the consequences of the taxation of Cyrenius (Ant. xviii. 1. 1. Comp. Acts v. 37).
[935] The arguments on what may be called the orthodox side have, from different points of view, been so often and well stated - latterly by Wieseler, Huschke, Zumpt, and Steinmeyer - and on the other side almost ad nauseam by negative critics of every school, that it seems unnecessary to go again over them. The reader will find the whole subject stated by Canon Cook, whose views we substantially adopt, in the Speaker's Commentary' (N.T. i. pp. 326-329). The reasoning of Mommsen (Res gestae D. Aug. pp. 175, 176) does not seem to me to affect the view taken in the text.
[936] Comp. Acts v. 37.
[937] For the textual explanation we again refer to Canon Cook, only we would mark, with Steinmeyer, that the meaning of the expression geneto, in St. Luke ii. 2, is determined by the similar use of it in Acts xi. 28, where what was predicted is said to have actually taken place (gneto) at the time of Claudius Cæsar.
[938] Comp. Huschke. Ueber d. z. Zeit d. Geb. J. C. gehalt. Census pp. 119, 120. Most critics have written very confusedly on this point.
[939] The reader will now be able to appreciate the value of Keim's objections against such a Census, as involving a wahre Volkswanderung' (!), and being eine Sache der Unmöglichkeit.'
[940] St. Matt ii. 22.
[941] St. Luke ii. 5.
[942] This, of course, is only a conjecture; but I call it probable,' partly because one would naturally so arrange a journey of several days, to make its stages as slow and easy as possible, and partly from the circumstance, that, on their arrival, they found the khan full, which would scarcely have been the case had they reached Bethlehem early in the day.
[943] Comp. the account of the roads, inns, &c. in the History of the Jewish Nation,' p. 275; and the chapter on Travelling in Palestine,' in Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ.'
[944] The almond is called, in Hebrew, {hebrew}, the waker,' from the word to be awake.' It is quite possible, that many of the earliest spring flowers already made the landscape bright.
[945] Jos. Ant. xiv. 13. 9; xv. 9. 4; War. i. 13. 8:21, 10.
[946] Dr. Geikie indeed feels sure' that the katluma was not an inn, but a guest-chamber, because the word is used in that sense in St. Mark xiv. 14, Luke xxii. 11. But this inference is critically untenable. The Greek word is of very wide application, and means (as Schleusner puts it) omnis locus quieti aptus.' In the LXX. katluma is the equivalent of not less than five Hebrew words, which have widely different meanings. In the LXX. rendering of Ex. iv. 24 it is used for the Hebrew {hebrew} which certainly cannot mean a guest-chamber, but an inn. No one could imagine that. If private hospitality had been extended to the Virgin-Mother, she would have been left in such circumstances in a stable. The same term occurs in Aramaic form, in Rabbinic writings, as {hebrew} or {hebrew}={hebrew} katluma, an inn. Delitzsch, in his Hebrew N.T., uses the more common {hebrew}. Bazaars and markets were also held in those hostelries; animals killed, and meat sold there; also wine and cider; so that they were a much more public place of resort than might at first be imagined. Comp. Herzfeld. Handelsgesch. p. 325.