Robin wrote: >From what I hear, the costume would be the least of the difficulty in >creating an accurate scene. There are also questions about what the >setting really was like, given the architecture and living arrangements of >the time. Our vision is based primarily on translations of words into >"stable" and "manger," and assumptions of later periods as to what those >would look like.
IIRC, a stable isn't mentioned, only the manger, which it was assumed must have been in the animals' quarters. >[snip]. The author noted that since Mary >had family in Bethlehem, it was unlikely that she would have no place to >stay and no one to take her in. He posited an alternative reading that was >consistent with the known terminology for the various parts of the >structure. "No room in the inn" became "no room in the guest room," so >Mary and family were placed not in a separate "stable," but rather in the >interior animal room (not sure whether he thought the animals would have >been indoors or not -- maybe not), and the "manger" became a convenient >place to lay a new baby given the lack of a cradle. I have no idea whether >this was shot down, but the idea of re-considering the translation made a >lot of sense to me. Sounds plausible to me, but I didn't think anything was known about Mary's family except from medieval legend? Was the author referring to them having to go to Bethlehem because Joseph's ancestors came from there? Kate Bunting Librarian and 17th century reenactor _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
