Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the Palestinian West Bank comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago. Yet the ...

The Bethlehem-born shepherd-king harkens back to earlier figures ... Ancient Christians both appropriated and critically modified the good shepherd paradigm. Jesus names himself as the “good shepherd” ...

“He saw Jesus in people’s faces ... “we would like him to be remembered as the ‘shepherd king,’ for his simplicity and humility. And for him to be an example for all heads of government ...

Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus ... They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus’ genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city.

The shepherds quickly made haste to ... they did not know exactly where the child Jesus was. They had to ask. Herod the Great, King of Judea, felt threatened when the Magi—wise men from the ...

world coming to worship this new king. Also, compared to the humble shepherds, they represent people with a different status in society worshipping Jesus. The Magi are warned in a dream not to ...