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Thoughts on the manger

D

De Otro Lado

New Member
I am curious as to what others think about the concept of the manger and it's use and meaning in Scripture.
A manger is defined as a trough or a stone/wooden box used to hold food for animals, Manger is the French verb for "to eat" as defined on Wikipedia.
In the N.T. Luke 2:7 "and she wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger".
My questions are:
1. For those who believe in divinity, why would the divine be placed in an obviously unclean place (meaning I doubt they found a Mangers "R" Us and used a brand spanking new one)?
2.For parents, if you had to spend the night in a stable, out of choice would you place your child in a trough? I asked my wife this question and she said probably not as there are other options.
3. Is there some hidden message or lesson here I am not perceiving?
Please enlighten me, Thanks.
 
Valjean

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Why would a manger of hay be an unclean place? I doubt if they brought a cradle with them. The only alternative would be the floor, which was covered with you-know-what and had livestock milling about on it.
 
sojourner

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
De Otro Lado said:
I am curious as to what others think about the concept of the manger and it's use and meaning in Scripture.
A manger is defined as a trough or a stone/wooden box used to hold food for animals, Manger is the French verb for "to eat" as defined on Wikipedia.
In the N.T. Luke 2:7 "and she wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger".
My questions are:
1. For those who believe in divinity, why would the divine be placed in an obviously unclean place (meaning I doubt they found a Mangers "R" Us and used a brand spanking new one)?
2.For parents, if you had to spend the night in a stable, out of choice would you place your child in a trough? I asked my wife this question and she said probably not as there are other options.
3. Is there some hidden message or lesson here I am not perceiving?
Please enlighten me, Thanks.
Click to expand...
Not particularly "hidden," but theological.

Re-read the parable about the leaven. Jesus said that the kingdom was like leaven that a woman hid in a ball of dough. She kneaded the dough until the whole ball was leavened.

We don't understand leaven in the same way the Jews did. Leaven was poison. Leaven was dirty. What Jesus is saying here is that God became "dirty" in order to spread throughout the dough of humanity.

The whole stable thing brings the same concept of "God getting dirty" to mind. It's part of the theological understanding of what God did in the Christ event. God "got dirty" -- God forsook divinity and became human.
 
M

may

Well-Known Member
interesting , it seems that things are not always revealed through the high and mighty ones , but through the lowly ones instead.
 
M

may

Well-Known Member
De Otro Lado said:
Thanks for the input, Does anybody know this passage in Hebrew\Aramaic\Greek?
Click to expand...

The Greek word for "manger" in this case is phat´ne, meaning "feeding place.

Phat´ne may also possibly apply to the stall in which animals are kept. The Hebrew term ’e·vus´ is generally understood to mean "manger" and was rendered phat´ne in the Greek Septuagint, as were three other Hebrew words that have been translated "stalls" (2Ch 32:28), "enclosures" (Hab 3:17), and "fodder" (Job 6:5

 
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