Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

Not an argument, just a quick lexical note:

The New Testament neither claims nor denies that Jesus had relatives in
Bethlehem of Ephrata (not Galilee), so we can’t argue that point.

The word for “inn” is πανδοχειον.

Where there was no room was in the καταλυμα which was a guestroom in a
private residence. This implies, but neither proves nor disproves, that they
were in a house connected with Joseph’s family.

But because there are so little data, we can’t argue.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> wrote:

> Galilean Bethlehem is mentioned only once in the Bible, in Josh. 19:15,
>
> The very idea of more than one place having the same name is not rare. In
> the Bible, there are also more than one Aphek, Hazor, Geba, Ophrah,
> Beth-shemesh, Gath and many others.
>
> David was definitely from Bethlehem of Judah.
>


> Now I'm not trying to convince anyone of this theory, just to explain the
> idea behind it. For those who believe that the Gospels (or any part of the
> Bible) are literally true, this might seem problematic. It is not my
> intention to argue against anybody's beliefs. Debates on faith, and
> certainly on the Gospels, are off limits for this list.
>
>
> Yigal Levin
>
>