Strange Story: The Birth of Jesus Part 1 Who Is Greater?

You can listen or you can read.

To listen to the audio of my rendition of the Christmas story, use the player below. The audio version is presented all at one time.

If you choose to read it, the text begins just below the audio player. My rendition of the story is divided into 18 sections. There is a link at the end of each section that will take you directly to the next section.

Audio

Tough Bible Stuff · The Christmas Story Old Yet New

Text

The old becomes new when you hear the story of Jesus’ birth told the way the people of that day would have understood it. This is true because they understood the cultural realities of what was going on and they knew the meaning of the names used in the narrative. What follows is my attempt to make a familiar story become new for you by going back to the old way of understanding it. Some of it is obviously my imaginative recreation of the story, but most of it is based on careful research.

At various steps along the way I will include links to the lessons in Troublesome Topics that provide the analysis and detailed information about something that is mentioned in this rendition of the story without any explanation.

During the days of the Roman empire, there were two men who had similar names. Their names did not sound the same, but the meaning of their names was similar.

One man’s name meant “the one who has Increased” or “Exalted One.” The long version of the name is “One who Has Increased so much as to be Exalted.” And it was true. He had risen to a level that few human beings ever achieve. He could have anything he wanted to have and do anything he wanted to do. He was called the emperor which is higher than a king. In fact he had kings ruling under him but only because he had granted them power to do so. He is described by some as “the Father of the Roman Empire.” This man had achieved what most kings only wish they could achieve. Yes, he had “increased” a great deal.

There was another man whose name meant “the one who Increases” or “the one who Is Increasing.” But this man had a long way to go. He was starting at the bottom of the barrel, or almost the bottom. He was of the peasant class, a day laborer. His occupation was a builder. Most of his building was done with stones because most of the structures in that part of the world in that day were made of stone.

So he was a stone cutter and stone mason. But he also made things from wood, such as the rafters for a house, doors and door jams, window openings, window latices, and crude furniture. He could build about anything someone wanted, for he was a builder.

The poor man had this in his favor, his father’s name was “the heal-grabber, the supplanter, the usurper.” Was it possible that this poor man would someday supplant, i.e. take the place of, that powerful man who always got what he wanted? We shall see.

Up till now his life had been difficult but okay. However, he was anticipating a big change. You see, he had recently gotten engaged to a special young lady in his hometown of “the Holy Sprout.” Yes, he was sure that the increase that his name referred to would soon begin. First, he had to build an apartment attached to his parent’s house. Many young men struggled to do this and needed the assistance of someone like himself. But he needed no assistance. The only thing he wished for was more time. After working all day long for others, he had only a few short hours in the evening to work on his own house, and most of that was by the light of the moon and stars. How he wished the progress would advance more quickly.

His betrothed was the daughter of “My God”

and her name meant “The Rebellious One.” Who would name their child “the rebellious one”? The answer is almost any Jew who lived under the oppressive rule of a foreign despot, any Jew in the Roman Empire or any Jew in Egypt during the days of “The Rescued One” (he was the baby pulled from a basket in the river). The sister of the one through whom God had given His people the Law was called “the rebellious one” and the girl in our story was named after her because the oppression they experienced was similar in many ways to the oppression of that former time.

Indeed things did change for him in a big way, but not in the direction he had hoped. Things did not get better; they got worse.

Any possible “increase” in his life would have to wait until after several decreases.

To navigate to Part 2 of this story click on The Birth of Jesus Part 2 A Messenger.

Footnotes

1

Here I am referring to Augustus, whose given name was Octavian. It is the comparison of the names Augustus and Joseph that I am building on here.

2

I learned this from Ray VanderLaan’s video series That the World May Know.

3

Her Father’s name was Eli which mean “my God”.