No donkeys, no angels singing
In other words, as Ebenezer Scrooge, a character in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol put it: “bah... humbug.”
So, if you are about to dust down the crib, you may want to consider that the animals you thought were meant to keep baby Jesus warm might be a sixth century PR invention and have nothing to do with the birth of the Christ child.
In fact, they may be as Pagan as the Christmas tree.
That means the words of many carols are in doubt, including the Irish carol, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ when it speaks of “the oxen standing by”.
Pope Benedict has also thrown a bum note in the direction of Christmas choirs and carollers who celebrate the festive season in song.
He sounds a note of caution over the popular belief that angels sang to the shepherds to proclaim Christ’s birth, as recalled in the carol ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
In a new book celebrating the early years of Christ on Earth, he says the birth of Jesus was not announced with song but with speech.
He writes that when the gospels refer to the “heavenly host” of angels “praising God” and saying, “Glory to God in the highest,” they spoke the words rather than sang them.
The misunderstanding spawned the tradition of carol singing, the Pope writes. “To this day... simple believers join in their carolling on the Holy Night, proclaiming in song the great joy that, from then until the end of time, is bestowed on all people.”
Central to the Pope’s book is the assertion that, contrary to popular belief, Jesus’s birth was not presided over by oxen, asses, camels or any other beasts.
“There is no mention of animals in the Gospels,” he writes in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ, which like the previous two books is expected to become an international best-seller.
Pope Benedict insists the inclusion of animals in the Nativity scene may have been inspired by Jewish writings, including the Book of Habakkuk, a part of Hebrew teaching written 700 years before Christ’s birth.
However, the pontiff is careful not to disappoint Christian children around the world who are looking forward to Christmas. “No one will give up the oxen and the donkey in their Nativity scenes,” he writes in the book, which goes on sale today.
And the news is ... no donkey, no ox... no animals in Jesus's nativity scene... awwww it can't be... The Pope... http://t.co/aH6rjqn1
— EvaUlian (@EvaUlian) November 21, 2012
