The Upper Room

The Christmas story of Luke 2:7 says Joseph and Mary found no room in the inn. The word for "inn" in Greek is kataluma. It is a rare word used in only 2 other places in the New Testament [Luke 22:11 and its parallel passge in Mark 14:14] and is translated as "guest room" or "upper room."

So Jesus' life literally begins and ends at the upper room. One in Bethlehem that was not ready for Him. One in Jerusalem that was.

But the coolest thing is this word kataluma not only links the Christmas story with the Last Supper and Communion, the beginning and end of Jesus' life on earth, it also reconciles why Matthew 2:11 says the Magi came to a house not a barn or stable.

Why? Because archaeologists confirm that both caravansary inns and houses such as those in Luke 2 and Luke 22 had upper rooms where people stayed. But they also had stables and mangers underneath but still inside the house where animals stayed.

So Luke 2:7 could be describing how there was no room for them in the upper room, but there was downstairs in the stables. And Matthew 2:11 "On coming to the house..." could be describing how the Magi arrived months later [maybe even up to 2 years later cf. Matthew 2:16] at the inn or house with an upper room because by that time, the census was over, many people had left Bethlehem, and there was now room upstairs. Above the animals and the manger. In the upper room.