“There was no room in the inn so they had to stay in the stable…3 wise men talked to king Herod, Herod wanted Jesus dead, wise men found out so they never returned to him. The followed the star to the stable. There were shepherds who were visited by an angel so the went to see the baby Jesus.”

Sound familiar? Probably because it’s the basic story we hear every Christmas, but have u ever looked closely at the Bible’s version? You may find a difference for our story isn’t as true as we thought.

You can find the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew 1-2:1-12 and Luke 2:1-20. You’ll have to read both to get the full story. Matthew talks of his birth and the Magi (wise men) and Luke talks about the shepherds. So don’t just read what I write and say it is true because I may forget something…and once again, we’ll have only an 80% correct story and not 100%.

Now, on to the story time:

Mary and Joseph were both told separately by an angel of Mary soon to give birth to Jesus. Joseph originally was going to divorce her quietly but the angel told him not to. So they went to Bethlehem because a census was decreed. There was no room in any of the inns when it came time for Jesus to be born so they had to stay in a stable.

When this happened, an angel of the Lord appeared to some near by shepherds and told them of this. They were first afraid but soon realized who it was that was speaking to them. They quickly headed to see baby Jesus.

So far, both stories agree, but what happens now, is where things go different. In “our” version 3 magi visit Jesus at the stable but Matthew 2:1 says, “AFTER Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea…Magi from the east came to Jerusalem…” So they weren’t there at his birth and no where in the Bible does it say there were 3 of them. Next we see in Matthew 2:11, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary…” Therefore, by the time the Magi got to them, Jesus was a child (near 2 yrs old) and was in a house. Shortly after the Magi left, and angel once again visited Joseph and told that King Herod was planning on searching to kill Jesus so they escaped to Egypt. That is the true story…unless I accidentally left something out, my apologies if I did.