Each Christmas, the birth of Jesus is celebrated through carols, Bible readings, and nativity plays. The angelic announcements to Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus'' birth in a manger, and the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh are some of the best-known stories in the Bible. But did they really happen? And were they predicted by Israel''s prophets, as the Bible claims? Steve Moyise suggests that the clue to answering these questions is to understand how Israel''s Scriptures were being interpreted in Jesus'' day. Was Isaiah thinking of a virgin birth when he uttered his famous prophecy (Isa 7:14), or is that a later Christian interpretation? Was there a star that led the magi to Bethlehem or should the story be taken symbolically? These and other questions are fully explored and the results are sometimes surprising.

Each Christmas, the birth of Jesus is celebrated through carols, Bible readings, and nativity plays. The angelic announcements to Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus'' birth in a manger, and the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh are some of the best-known stories in the Bible. But did they really happen? And were they predicted by Israel''s prophets, as the Bible claims? Steve Moyise suggests that the clue to answering these questions is to understand how Israel''s Scriptures were being interpreted in Jesus'' day. Was Isaiah thinking of a virgin birth when he uttered his famous prophecy (Isa 7:14), or is that a later Christian interpretation? Was there a star that led the magi to Bethlehem or should the story be taken symbolically? These and other questions are fully explored and the results are sometimes surprising.