Shawn Ryan

They go off into a stable.

And they give birth among the animals in the stable.

And then she lays the baby in the clean hay of a manger or a feeding trough.

That's the typical story you hear.

It all depends on one word.

And the Greek word is katalima.

And how is that?

Because here's what Luke says, and this is how all this comes about.

Luke says, when the baby was born, he was put into a manger because there was no room for them in the catalima.

King James Version translated that word as inn.

Some other early writings translate it as inn, but that's probably not the correct translation.

Luke only uses the word katalima one other time in his gospel.

When he does, it's referring to a room in a residence.

When he was referring to an inn or a lodge, he used another word, pandohaion.

He doesn't use that here.

He uses katalima.

Well, what was a katalima?

Well, you have to understand what a house looked like in the first century Jewish culture in Bethlehem.

A house was one big room divided into two parts.

There was the bigger part, and that was the living area where the family would live and sleep and cook and so forth.