WERE YOU EVER in a Christmas pageant or nativity play as a kid? The baby Jesus may have been someone’s doll, wrapped in a blanket. But what role did you play? There were probably plenty of shepherd costumes to go around. Maybe you got to wear wings and a halo to play the angel Gabriel, or be part of an angelic choir. Even better: you may have had the coveted role of either Joseph or Mary.

Or you may just have been in the background as a two-legged sheep.

Still, that at least was better than having to be the surly innkeeper that turned Mary and Joseph away into the night, forcing them to have their baby in a stable, cold and alone.

But… is that how it happened?

All we know of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus come from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and the stories are told from very different angles. On the one hand, Matthew tells us of King Herod, the magi, and the flight to Egypt. Luke, on the other hand, gives us the trip to Bethlehem, the situation surrounding the birth, the announcement to the shepherds and their visit to see the baby. In Matthew, the angel appears to Joseph; in Luke, to Mary.

Our Christmas pageants, cards, and nativity scenes often try to picture and combine these scenes, sometimes in ways that don’t fit a careful reading of the stories. Tradition, for example, gives us three wise men. But Matthew doesn’t actually say this; he names three gifts. It’s reasonable to suppose that there were therefore three men, but we simply don’t know.

Or we might picture quite the crowd around Joseph, Mary, and the baby: on one side, the shepherds and a sheep or two; on the other side, the wise men bearing their gifts; and all around them, an assortment of barnyard animals. But Luke’s story (as we’ll see shortly) has the shepherds visiting a baby, while Matthew’s story has the magi presenting their gifts to a child. Most likely, the shepherds and the wise men were not there at the same time; the magi came later, having taken some time to travel to Bethlehem after seeing the star.

But let’s have another look at some of the basic assumptions many of us have learned to associate with the story of Jesus’ birth: Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem, tried to find a room at the local inn and couldn’t, and were therefore forced to spend the night in a stable, where Jesus was born, then swaddled and laid down in a manger, that is, in an animal’s feeding trough. Here’s how it reads in the King James Version:

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7)

That’s not a lot to work with. Note that Luke says nothing about a stable (or as some would have it, a cave). He only mentions a manger, and it’s been therefore assumed that the birth took place in a stable, just as it’s been assumed that there were three wise men.

But what if a stable wasn’t the only place you could find a manger in the first century?

Moreover, many modern scholars have questioned whether Luke was referring to an inn. Our mental image might be that of a budget motel just off the freeway or near the airport. But Bethlehem was not a tourist spot, nor were there major roads running through it.

Thus, contrary to the King James, contemporary translations like the New International Version prefer to render Luke’s words this way:

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:6-7, NIV)

Not “inn,” but “guest room.” The word in question only appears three times in the New Testament. One of them is here, associated with the birth of Jesus. Luke uses the word a second time in 22:11, where it refers to the so-called “Upper Room” where Jesus and his disciples had their final Passover meal together. The third use is in Mark 14:14, where it also refers to the Upper Room.

Add to that the fact that Luke has another passage in which he mentions an inn: the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story has the Samaritan showing compassion to a wounded man by caring for his wounds then putting him up at an inn, vowing to cover all the innkeeper’s expenses. The word translated as “inn” in that passage (Luke 10:34), is an entirely different word than the one used in chapter 2.

As talented a writer as Luke was, it’s hard to imagine that he would have got his linguistic wires crossed. The better solution, I think, is to accept the translation of the NIV as well as the Common English Bible and the updated New Revised Standard: Luke was referring to a guest room, not an inn. You can eliminate the surly innkeeper from your Christmas pageant.

But what “guest room” was this? And what about the manger?

First, let’s assume that Bethlehem was crowded with visitors—including Roman officials!—because of the imperial census. Second, given the norms of that culture, I think it’s also fair to assume that even if an inn were available, visitors would first choose to stay with family; indeed, they’d get an earful if they didn’t.

Imagine, then, Joseph still having relatives in Bethlehem. All the other relatives are in town as well, and they’re stuffed into every available corner of the house, including whatever spare rooms they may have had. Joseph and Mary, having arrived a little later, are relegated to sleeping with the animals, as suggested by the manger. That doesn’t mean, however, that they had to sleep out of doors or in a stable. Some first century homes had two floors, with the ground floors being used to shelter the family’s animals, especially in inclement weather.

All of this can flip the narrative of Jesus’ birth. Instead of the baby being born in a potentially harsh environment, he was born in a home, albeit in the presence of animals. Joseph and Mary were not alone; they were surrounded by family, and I imagine someone called for the midwives.

It’s true that Luke’s story portrays a king paradoxically being born in humble circumstances. But that doesn’t have to mean that the family was left to fend for themselves. God still provided a warm place of care and hospitality. And as we’ll see as we go through Luke’s gospel, the baby would grow up to be someone who was caring and hospitable in turn.