I was asked to preach in our church on a Sunday morning just before Christmas. All ages would be present, so I didn’t preach. Instead I created a multiple choice style Christmas Quiz, and asked people to vote for right answers, including a few questions especially for children. Some possible answers were deliberately funny or odd, but giving out the right answers allowed truth to be communicated. Thankfully, everyone got involved. No-one fell asleep. And the feedback afterwards was positive.

I hope the quiz will also be a positive experience for readers here. What follows is the first part of the quiz presented in three parts. First, the questions. Second, the answers including extra details. Third, a reflection related to the main subject in that quiz. I don’t usually get ‘preachy’ in my posts, but the reflections were a core part of how I presented the quiz in church and they belong here too.

Here goes. Don’t cheat by looking ahead to the answers before you commit to your own answers to the questions. Above all, learn and enjoy!

Part 1  Questions related to the birth of Jesus

Q1 Matthew chapter 1 lists ancestors of Jesus. One of the following would not normally be wanted in an Israelite’s family line. Which one?

1. Rahab
2. Ruth
3. Zerubbabel

Q2 Joseph and Mary travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem just before Jesus was born. Why go there?

1. Because there were better maternity services in Bethlehem
2. Because Bethlehem was nearer to the holy city of Jerusalem
3. Because the Romans required everyone to be counted in their own city

Q3 It was about 80 miles (129 km) from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Did Mary:

1. Walk?
2. Ride on a donkey?
3. Ride on a camel?
4. Ride on Joseph’s shoulders?

Q4 There was no accommodation available for Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. So where was Jesus born?

1. In the basement of a house
2. In a stable
3. In a cow shed
4. In a cave

Q5 A manger is where food was put for animals to eat. In Jesus’ time, what was a manger made from?

1. Masonry (such as bricks)
2. Stone
3. Wood

Q6 An angel told Joseph that, when Mary gave birth to a son, he was to give him the name Jesus. Why that name?

1. Because it was the most popular boys’ name at the time
2. Because the angels in heaven had voted for that name
3. Because the name Jesus had special meaning

Part 2  Answers to Quiz 1 questions

Question 1 asked which ancestor an Israelite would not want in their family line. The answer is Ruth. Why not the others? Rahab, after all,had an unsavoury occupation in Jericho, but she hid the Israeli spies so was accepted after Jericho fell. Zerubbabel would have been a popular ancestor – he was the descendant of David who was appointed to be leader of the first group of Jews who returned to Jerusalem after captivity in Babylon.

Why not want Ruth as your ancestor? The answer lies in Ruth’s background. Ruth came from Moab, a nation regarded as immoral, idolatrous, and so great an enemy of Israel that Deuteronomy contains a ban on Moabites entering the assembly of the Lord (23:3). But Ruth was excused because of her marriage to Boaz and her loyalty to her mother-in-law, Naomi, which included this remarkable declaration: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1: 16-17).

Question 2 was about why Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem. There weren’t better maternity services – Bethlehem was a village, with, at most, one woman who delivered babies. Yes, it was closer to Jerusalem, just 6 miles (9 km) south of the city. But the reason Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem is that the Roman authorities had given them no choice because their census required everyone to go to their home city, which, for Joseph, meant taking his family to Bethlehem. Luke described that this way in his gospel: “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child (Luke 2: 1-5).”

Question 3 asked how Mary travelled during the 80 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.Being nearly full-term pregnant, she would not have ridden on Joseph’s shoulders (though I did tell the church the experience Alison and I had like that – check this footnote for details.[1])Nor, since it’s very likely Joseph and Mary were poor, could they have afforded a camel for her to ride. So, the only realistic options were for her to walk or ride on a donkey. Though no donkey is mentioned in the Bible’s birth story, the most likely answer is that she sat on a donkey for 80 gruelling miles.

Question 4 raises the issue of where they stayed in Bethlehem. This can seem complicated. If it’s not interesting for you, skip to the end of this explanation.

The traditional story is that the inn was full because so many were in the village for the census count. That may be right, but not necessarily. Much depends on how the Greek word kataluma (κατάλυμα) is translated, because it can mean ‘inn’ or ‘guest room’. Kataluma is the word used in Luke 2:7 where most translations (but not the New International Version) say there was no place for the family in the inn. But Luke also uses the word kataluma in 22:11 when Jesus sends his disciples ahead to enquire about the ‘guest room’ where they can observe the Passover. So, using the same word, did Luke mean ‘inn’ or ‘guest room’ when he was explaining where there was no accommodation for Mary and Joseph?

A clue to the answer might lie in the fact that Luke uses a completely different word pandocheion (πανδοχεῖον) when he describes how the Good Samaritan left the wounded traveller to be cared for at an inn (Luke 10:34). That may suggest that in chapter 2 Luke was not referring to an inn being full, but that the guest room in a house was already full, hence Joseph and Mary had to settle in a place where animals were fed. Where would that have been for them? When I travelled in rural parts of Asia, I saw families keep animals below their living area. Preparing one lunch involved choosing a hen from those scuttling around below the floor where we sat. Similarly, in a Judean village in ancient times, the lowest area of the house often provided overnight shelter for animals. If not there, they might get night-time shelter in a cave near the main house.

Since we don’t have precise information, the best answers for question 4 are either ‘a basement area’ or ‘a cave’.

There could be one more answer, not listed in the question, if we are thinking only of where Jesus was born. People of those times were very hospitable, and especially so with a young woman close to giving birth. Therefore, when Mary went into labour, it’s likely she was brought into the main area of the house and helped to give birth there, and only after Mary and Jesus were safe and settled was the newborn laid in a manger downstairs.

Question 5 asks what a manger[2] was made from. The traditional image of the manger is of a wooden construction raised up above the ground. That is near-certainly wrong. Wood was necessary for many things, but not to contain animal feed. Nor were shaped bricks required. A manger was no more than a box-shaped area capable of containing animal food and accessible for the animals eating it. So – with stones plentiful all over the countryside – building a manger involved no more than creating a shape, perhaps rectangular, with stones laid on the ground. Therefore the right answer is that a manger was made from stone, and that’s where the baby Jesus was laid.[3]

Question 6 says Joseph was told by an angel that the baby to be born should be named ‘Jesus’ and asks why that name. Apart from one or two rebels, no-one in the church voted that the reason was because Jesus was the most popular boys’ name at the time, or that the angels had chosen it by a vote. So that left only the right answer: the name Jesus had special meaning. According to Matthew (in his gospel, chapter 1:21), long before Jesus was born, an angel told Joseph he must take Mary to be his wife, then added these significant words: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Why did the name Jesus carry that that meaning? The answer is because Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, and Joshua means ‘the Lord saves’. In other words, the baby carried by Mary should be called Jesus because the Son of God would be born on earth in order to save people from their sins. His name described his mission.

Part 3  Reflection

In modern times, we’ve wrapped up Christmas in tinsel, lights, winter scenes, heart-tugging romantic films, family gatherings, plentiful food, and the happy story of a new baby being visited by shepherds and brought gifts by wise men.[4] But what happened 2000 plus years ago is rugged, raw and very different from our homely stories. The reality was a tortuous 80 mile journey, a woman suffering all the usual pains of labour, probably giving birth in a basement or cave, and laying her new-born in an animal feeding trough. That woman was, in fact, a girl in her mid teens, a baby born into poverty, then hunted by a jealous monarch’s kill squad, and becoming a refugee with his parents as they fled to safety in another land.

There was nothing ‘tinsely’ about all that. But this was God coming into the world as a human being. In his gospel, describing Jesus as ‘the Word’, the apostle John wrote: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). God came to where we are. He had to; there was no other way to save us.

In the early hours of 7^th September, 1838, the paddle steamer Forfarshire was shipwrecked on rocks near the Farne Islands, off the NE coast of England. The larger part of the vessel sank quickly taking more than 50 people to their death. From a nearby island, 22-year-old Grace Darling saw the wreck from her upstairs bedroom in the lighthouse where her father, William, was keeper. She spotted survivors clinging to rocks, but certain to die soon as waves pounded the area. The weather was too rough for a lifeboat to launch, but Grace and her father pushed a 21 foot (6.5 metre) rowing boat into the water. Normally that boat required four oarsmen, but Grace and William together rowed their boat through treacherous seas for over a mile to reach the stranded survivors. Nine people were saved. Grace became famous once the rescue story became known, and she and her father were awarded medals for bravery. Sadly Grace died from tuberculosis just four years later.

But Grace’s courage, strength and determination meant lives were saved. She could not merely watch from the comfort and safety of her lighthouse bedroom. Nor could she wait on the shore, hoping that somehow these people would save themselves. She, and her father, did the only thing that could rescue them – they left the safety of the shore, went into the raging sea, rowed to where the eight sailors and one passenger were, and by going to them saved them.

And that is what Christmas is about. God did not lament a lost world from a distance. He loved the world so much that that he came down from heaven’s glory to be alongside us and save us. It was hard, cruel and painful. But had Jesus not come we would be lost.

Look out for the second part of the Christmas Quiz – coming soon!

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[1] The imminent arrival of a new baby often motivates parents to decorate or rearrange the home. For Alison and me, that meant we rushed to finish painting our very small shower room. It was so small, no ladder would fit inside, so we could not reach the very top of the shower space. So – with baby due any day – Alison sat on top of my shoulders, paint pot in one hand and brush in the other, and painted the previously unreachable area. Our son was born the same week.  

[2] The word ‘manger’ comes from the Old French word mangier (now manger) = to eat.

[3] In an article I read recently, the writer said Jesus was born in a manger. I shudder to picture that. He should have said Jesus was laid in a manger.

[4] The next quiz will be about the visit of the wise men.