I remember from a young age the various nativity scenes that were among our Christmas decorations. Picture your generic nativity scene. There’s Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in a wooden manger with some hay. They’re in a wooden stable. There’s a couple shepherds with a couple sheep. There’s the three wisemen with their gifts and perhaps camels. Maybe there’s also the star overhead. Perhaps an angel is present, too. Finally, there’s a donkey and an ox in the stable, too. Sound familiar? There are the usual errors like the wooden manger and stable (they would have been stone). But at least all the elements are connected to the narrative in some way, right? But what about that ox and donkey? Why are they there? There’s no mention of them. Is it simply the assumption that that animals would have been in the stable?
Actually, there is a Biblical reason for them. It comes from Isaiah 1:3:
The ox knows his master,
Isaiah 1:3
the donkey his owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.
Here were have an ox, a donkey, and a manger. The sixth century apocryphal Gospel known as Pseudo-Matthew connects this verse to Jesus’ birth:
The most blessed Mary went forth out of the cave, and entering a stable, placed the child in the stall, and the ox and the ass adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.” The very animals, therefore, the ox and the ass, having Him in their midst, incessantly adored Him.
Pseudo-Matthew 14, from Torah Club Volume 3: Voice of the Prophets
This is apparently the first known time the ox, donkey, and the nativity are connected together,
There’s a lesson to be learned here, regardless of whether an ox and donkey were by the manger or not. While animals know their master, depending on him for everything, God criticized the people of his day for not knowing him. May we be like the ox and donkey, seeking our Master, the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
