The Christmas Story: The Annunciation and Nativity
- Jane Orton
- 5 hours ago
- 9 min read
The Christmas story is one of the most important and influential narratives in world history. It has inspired philosophers, artists, dramatists and theologians throughout the ages and has enormous significance for Christians today. Dr. Orton investigates…
A Level students will find this useful background for some of the topics you will need for your exams. For university-level scholars or independent researchers, we’ve included clickable links to useful literature and canonical scholarship you need to be acquainted with to get started. For everyone else, enjoy this introduction to the cultural and intellectual history of Christmas!
Often, retellings of the Christmas story begin in Bethlehem, but this means that we miss out on Mary’s experience when she hears the news, and her important journey into the hill country.
The Annunciation
Jesus’ birth is announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel in Nazareth, a city in Galilee in the Middle East. Mary was a virgin, engaged to a man named Joseph. She is troubled when she sees the angel, but he tells her not be afraid: she has been blessed by God and will conceive a son.
When Mary objects that she is a virgin, the angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will impregnate her, and the baby will be the Son of God. The angel points out that Mary’s relative, Elizabeth, conceived a son in her old age, even though she was supposed to be barren: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Mary replies, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” Mary’s response echoes Abraham’s when he is called to sacrifice his son Isaac (click the link to read about the story of Abraham and Isaac).
Mary sets out to the hill country of Judea, where she stays with her relative for three months. Elizabeth’s baby (John the Baptist, who later baptised Jesus) leaps in her womb and she is filled with the Holy Spirit. The passage that follows is the Song of Mary:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers
To Abraham and to his seed forever.
It’s significant that Mary mentions Abraham here, and scholars have picked up on the comparison between two biblical figures who are asked to show such faith. Both receive a son from God in spite of their unlikely circumstances; both then face the loss of their child.
Søren Kierkegaard, writing under the name Johannes de silentio, points out that we often overlook the special kind of courage required of Mary at this time: “Who was as great in the world as that favoured woman, the mother of God, the Virgin Mary? And yet how do we speak of her?.... We leave out the distress, the anxiety, the paradox....Has any women been as infringed upon as was Mary, and is it not true here also that the one whom God blesses he curses in the same breath?”
Philosopher Clare Carlisle argues, “For Kierkegaard, the achievement of both figures lies in their extraordinary receptivity.” Carlisle highlights the “humble courage” that Kierkegaard identifies in Mary: a form of courage that involves receptivity, listening and silence.
“From a woman, therefore,” says Kierkegaard in Without Authority. “You also learn the humble faith in relation to the extraordinary, the humble faith that does not incredulously, doubtingly ask ‘Why? What for? How is this possible?’—but as Mary humbly believes and says, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.’ She says this, but note that to say this is actually to be silent.”
The Annunciation has also inspired artists over the centuries. For instance, Sandro Botticelli’s The Annunciation (c. 1485) shows the moment when the Virgin Mary received the news about Jesus from the Angel Gabriel. Donatello’s Annunciation is a relief sculpture in the church of Santa Croce in Florence. The Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on the 25th of March.
Jesus’ Birth
Mary and Joseph could not stay in Nazareth for the birth of their baby. The Ancient Middle East was colonised by the Roman Empire at the time and Caesar Augustus, its ruler, ordered that a census should be taken. This meant that everyone had to return to their home city, so Joseph took his family to Bethlehem.
Fr. Hugh Barbour argues that it is significant that Jesus was born under the Roman Empire: “…they were under servitude to the Romans and at the same time, that he was also going to restore them to their dignity, but through a new function, a new priestly and kingly function as our saviour…during the reign of Caesar Augustus at that time, the world was at peace. There were no wars going on at all. There was free travel. There was no discord or disharmony. That’s why he chose to have the census then. And of course, the coming of the saviour during the time of the Roman Empire, it’s greatest, almost greatest extent, and it’s time of peace, is also a providential arrangement for the proclamation of Christ to the world. Because the system of the Roman Empire allowed for the faith to be promoted in a way, which you could never have been promoted before…There was an empire that reached all the way from the Atlantic Coast of Portugal, to the Indus River, and as far north as England, and as far south as the Sedan. That was the world at the time. And it was able to spread everywhere there, and that was on account of our Lord being born, when the government and the social order and communications, transportation, economy, everything was in place to allow that to happen.”
When the family arrived in Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the inn, so they had to seek refuge in a stable. That’s where Jesus was born, and Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger.
Shepherds Watching Their Flocks
Meanwhile, shepherds were watching over their flocks by night. An angel visited them, shining with the glory of the Lord, and said, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
Then a multitude of angels appeared, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest,And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Professor of Sacred Scripture and theology Dr. Michael Patrick Barber points out that the humble stature of the shepherds is important to the Christmas message. Dr. Barber references early Church Father St. Ambrose of Milan, who says that the shepherds’ testimony is to be prized because the more testimony comes from the lowly “the more precious it is to the eyes of faith.”
The shepherds agreed go to Bethlehem and see Jesus. When she heard what had happened to the shepherds, Mary “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
Wise Men from the East
Jesus was circumcised, presented in the temple and introduced to a devout man named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna. Jesus was also visited by wise men from the East who came to Jerusalem saying that they had heard of the birth of the King of the Jews. They had seen His star in the East and had come to worship Him.
King Herod (the client-king of Judea) was troubled when he heard this and began to make inquiries, planning to kill Jesus so he could not be undermined by him. He told the wise men to return and tell him where Jesus was “so that I may come and worship Him also.”
The wise men follow the star to Bethlehem. When they found Jesus, they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The wise men had a dream that they should not return to King Herod, so Herod did not succeed.
There are three influential theories about the origin of the Wise Men. Some Church Fathers like Clement of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem) thought they came from Persia in modern Iran, because was associated with wisdom and astronomy. Others, like Jerome and Augustine, thought they came from Babylon, which was also known for astronomical scholarship. Yet others, like Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Epiphanius, thought they came from Arabia. Dr. Brant Pitre (Research Professor of Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology) argues that the Arabian interpretation is the most convincing because it accords with Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah and Psalm 72. This makes it credible that the wise men were from Sheba in Arabia.
Dr. Pitre also argues that the theological significance of the wise men is that they represent gentiles (non-Jewish people), so the Christian message is for everyone, not just Jews.
After the Nativity
After the wise men departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel warned him to escape King Herod by fleeing to Egypt with Mary and Jesus. This fulfilled a prophesy from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament.
Herod was angry and put to death all the male children in Bethlehem its districts, fulfilling a prophesy from the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.
Finally, an angel appeared to Joseph after Herod’s death, telling him in a dream that the family could return to Israel. Joseph knew that Herod’s son, Archelaus had inherited his father’s throne, returned to Nazareth. This fulfilled a prophesy from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.
Modern nativity plays often end with the wise men, missing out the Murder of the Innocents, but this part of the story does find its way into the sixteenth century “Coventry Carol.” This was traditionally performed during Coventry Mystery Plays, which told New Testament Stories.
Medieval scholar Daisy Black points out, “Medieval drama was in the business of staging what was considered the entire history of the world represented in scripture, from Creation to Doomsday, unlike our modern nativity plays, which tend to safely end with the visit of the Magi, they carried on to the massacre, showing the very human cost of Christ’s birth.”
The nativity story has often been re-told in a way that makes sense to the people of the time and this can be confusing to people who are used to their own version of the story. For example, the Heliand, a ninth-century epic poem, re-tells the story in a Germanic setting, with details like hillforts, secret runes, warriors, and a Great Chieftain to make it accessible for Anglo Saxon people.
Likewise, Botticelli’s (1475-6) painting, Adoration of the Magi includes Roman architecture in the background. Of course, this is not historically accurate, but it is a nod to the ancient world that was being rediscovered in Botticelli’s time—as well as a hint that Christianity had surpassed the religion of that time.
Some of my favourite Christmas cards have an illustrated snowy scene with British woodland animals gathered around the nativity stable—also historically inaccurate, but part of a long tradition of re-telling the Christmas story in a way that makes sense to our time.
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