Shawn Ryan

We don't know.

There was a book of fiction that was written in 200 AD, so that's like a couple hundred years later, that has no connection to the eyewitnesses.

And in that book of fiction, it was called the Protoevangelium of James.

It had no connection to James or anybody.

It was just fictional.

And in that account, it says that Mary and Joseph got within three miles of Bethlehem, and the baby was coming.

So they went into a cave.

and gave birth in a cave among the animals in the cave.

That's where this idea that some think about of giving birth in a cave, that's where that came from.

It's a book of fiction.

It has no historical validity.

So that didn't really happen.

But the biggest mistake in terms of historical understanding of Christmas boils down to one word.

One word in the Greek and how it gets translated or mistranslated.

Here's the typical story we hear at Christmas.

Mary and Joseph, because of the census, had to go to Bethlehem to be counted in the census because he was of the house of David.

So they go to Bethlehem, and Mary's pregnant, and she's getting close to giving birth.

They knock on the door of an inn or a lodge, and the innkeeper opens the door and says, hey, no room, sorry.

She closes the door.

What are they going to do?