Editor’s Note: As we reflect on Christmas this year, let’s consider how the Incarnation of our Lord was set in real places, in what we call today the Middle East.
Middle Eastern Jesus
You know, Jesus didn’t have white skin, he’s our Jesus. Most of the Muslim world thinks Christianity is of Western invention, but Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose again right here in the Middle East. Continue reading.
The Christmas Story: In Real Life
“I think it is cool that all these places this book is talking about…we’ve been to them and have seen them with our own eyes!” Continue reading.
The Star of Bethlehem
If interest in stars is a factor, Arabs were most famous for their fascination with the galaxy. Four of their tribes were named after stars and Transjordan archaeology revealed the astral basis for the Nabataean belief. Continue reading.
The Gifts of the Magi
The Magi are likely to have come from the ‘People of the East’, the Abrahamic line of Ishmael who settled there. From ancient times the Arabian Peninsula was known for its supremacy in the spice trade. Continue reading.
The Feast of Epiphany
“Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying ‘Where is he that has been born king of the Jews?’” To the Jewish reader, ‘the East’ nearly always meant the descendants of Ishmael who spread out to the East of the land of Israel into the Arabian desert. Continue reading.
