IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, when you read Scripture, you want to fill in the gaps in the story. This is, after all, what dramatizations like The Chosen have to do; the writers have to imagine how various events played out, adding educated guesses to the few precious details we have. Most of the time, how one fills in the gaps doesn’t really matter all that much. But still, I want to know.

Take, for example, one of best-known stories of the New Testament: the birth of Jesus, as narrated in the gospel of Luke:

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. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:4-7, NIV)

As we’ve seen, Octavian, now the emperor Augustus, had ordered a census that required people to travel to their ancestral homes to be registered. That meant that Joseph and Mary, despite Mary’s pregnancy, had to make the long journey to Bethlehem. As Luke tells us, Joseph was of “the house and line of David”; Bethlehem was “the town of David,” where David grew up and tended sheep (see 1 Sam 16 and 17).

Thus, Joseph had to go, by imperial decree; but was Mary required to go with him? We don’t know; Luke only tells us that she went. If it was already late in Mary’s pregnancy, say, her third trimester, it would not have been good for Joseph to leave her behind. Not only did he risk missing the birth, but Mary may have been subject to the withering stares of nosy neighbors who wondered how she could already be pregnant.

Moreover, Luke describes Mary not as married to Joseph, but “pledged to be married.” For Mary to be pregnant and yet not married would have been scandalous in the eyes of their neighbors. Did they not yet know that she was pregnant? Was she not yet showing? And if she was, how were she and Joseph being treated by their neighbors? Did even their families know the secret? Luke doesn’t say.

We know from the gospel of Matthew, though, that when Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant, he thought to quietly divorce her, until an angel told him what was happening. He therefore “took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son” (Matt 1:24-25). That may be what Luke is describing. They were married in the eyes of their neighbors, but only Joseph and Mary would know that the marriage hadn’t yet been consummated. And by the time they returned to Nazareth, after their flight to Egypt, Jesus would no longer have been a baby, potentially averting a scandal.

The trip to Bethlehem would have been arduous. As the crow flies, the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have been about 70 miles; but on foot, the journey would have been much longer, especially if they had to cross the Jordan River and back again to avoid traveling through Samaria. It would have been the norm for people of that day to make the journey on foot; it was possible for a robust adult to do it in about four days.

But what about a pregnant woman? And again, we don’t know when she conceived nor how far along she was in the pregnancy when she made the journey. Matthew paints Joseph as a kind and considerate man, so it’s hardly likely that he would have forced Mary to walk at a brisk pace, if they made the trip on foot. Surely, there would have been other people on the road, so perhaps they joined a caravan and benefited from the compassion of a stranger with a cart or wagon. It’s also possible that Joseph, as a carpenter, would have owned his own donkey and cart, and used one or both for the trip.

And here’s something else we don’t know: Luke doesn’t tell us how long Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem before Jesus was born. Most likely, it wouldn’t have been long. The way Luke tells the story, Bethlehem was overcrowded because of the census, suggesting that they got there a bit late. That would make sense if Mary was in her third trimester and they had to make the trip slowly, so that the baby was born soon after their arrival. But again, nothing is certain. All Luke says is, “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.”

He does, however, seem to make a point of saying that the baby was both her firstborn and a son, which both fulfills the promise made by Gabriel and gives Jesus the privileges of a firstborn son. As we’ll see shortly, that also meant that Jesus, as the firstborn son, was required to be consecrated at the temple (Luke 2:23), setting up another experience of divine prophecy.

Much of the story is left to the imagination, and some of what I’ve said may have revealed just how much we take for granted in the way we’ve heard and understood the story. Indeed, you may have been surprised at how the New International Version translates the passage, ending with the phrase, “there was no guest room available for them.” Guest room? you might wonder. Don’t you mean there was “no room for them in the inn”?

Well, no, actually. But we’ll see why in the next post.