Joseph and Mary and the Lonely Birth Narrative

It was a little different than the average Christmas lawn display

Of all the many excellent revelations I've derived from the fifth epochal revelation, one stands out glaringly for me, from The Birth of Jesus.

starI mean, I figured out as a little kid the physics of "following the star" were impossible.

And I knew that he wasn't really born in a medieval European style shed.

And I knew that Christ-mass was just the church's way of co-opting the Roman orgy of Saturnalia, and wasn't ever claimed or supposed to be the day Jesus was born.

And I knew that he likely wasn't born 1 AD.

And I had come to understand already that the innkeeper was historically inappropriately maligned — it was never his fault that Joseph didn't check with Travelocity beforehand — but the Urantia revelation added to my understanding of the innkeeper's exoneration. Now we can appreciate the innkeeper's business savvy, having the stables all cleaned up and converted to quarters for rent to the taxpaying crowds when they flooded into town, an event which, of course, had been well-advertised beforehand.

It was not that big a revelation to know there were no shepherds, wise men, Santa Claus, or Frosty the Snowman kneeling at the newborn's creche, as you see in lawn displays around Christmastime. (Even the Gospels make it clear the three wise guys didn't show up until some time later.)

Santa and angel kneeling by creche

No, the most impressive addition to my understanding was that simple line, "with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers."

It wasn't just the pair of them, all alone in some filthy barn in the middle of nowhere.

There were fellow travelers because they were right by a crowded inn! The inn was booked because the crowds came there to pay taxes for the same reason Joseph and Mary were there! People today might not realize how the stables would be "in town" like a parking garage would be nearby a hotel.

And it wasn't like some places today, people looking down their noses and ignoring the obviously quite-pregnant poor woman as she went into labor. Of course the women helped out, as women would! It was probably more likely they said, "Joseph! You go stand around with the menfolk. Fetch some water. Or towels. Just get out of the way!"

I've wondered whether this revelation of "women fellow travelers" was something that anyone had ever thought of. Has any Urantia revelation student, such as source-researcher Matthew Block, run across some such reference, I wonder? I mean, it's so glaringly obvious once you are told about it, did that idea really never occur to any mortal before the Urantia papers? We needed a super-human revelation to help us figure this out? Revelation? Mega-Duh with a V-8™ forehead slap!

Slap!