What does Luke 2:7 mean?
Mary has travelled (Luke 2:1–5) with her soon-to-be husband, a man named Joseph (Luke 1:26–27). In that era, a betrothed couple was not fully married, so contact would have been limited. Travelling together would have been almost unheard of. Yet Mary was near giving birth, to a child conceived miraculously by God (Luke 1:30–33). Apparently, family members thought it best she be with Joseph when she delivered (Luke 2:6). Here, in the place predicted by prophecy (Micah 5:2), she bears the Messiah in the ancestral hometown of David.A common misconception about Jesus' birth is that Mary and Joseph looked for a place to sleep that night and were repeatedly turned away. Or, at least, that an innkeeper grudgingly let them stay in a stable rather than his overfilled place of business. In truth, this area of Judea probably did not have commercial "inns," as we would think of them today. In addition, ancient middle eastern hospitality would have made the stereotypical scenario incredibly unlikely. The idea that a pregnant Mary was ignored to the point of giving birth in a barn is deeply ingrained in popular culture, but not described in the Bible.
The term translated "inn" in some English translations is the Greek kataluma, literally translated as a "guest room" (Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11). The most likely scenario is that Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, at whatever home or lodging they had arranged. There would have been other travelling families there, as well. But a place suitable for sleeping is not necessarily suited to delivering a baby. Mary may have had Jesus in a covered courtyard, or even an attached stable. Or, she might have given birth to Jesus inside, then taken him away from the other people to recover with a more privacy. Even by the standards of common people, Jesus' birth was unquestionably humble. Still, it's popular culture, not Scripture, which suggests Jesus was birthed on a hay bale surrounded by livestock.
A "manger" is a feeding trough. Despite the wooden cradle-like boxes seen in traditional artwork, and church plays, mangers were usually made of stone. Under the circumstances, a manger filled with hay or straw would have been a safe, convenient place to rest a newborn while the mother recovered from childbirth. To "swaddle" is to wrap tightly, something mothers often do to make newborns comfortable. That Mary immediately wraps Jesus and places Him in this manger factors into the reaction of later visitors: shepherds, sent by an angel to see Jesus (Luke 2:12).
Luke's choice of the phrase "firstborn son" here is important. He has clearly established that Mary is a virgin (Luke 1:34), so there is no need to repeat the fact that she had no children prior to the birth of Christ. The Greek word prōtotokia, when not referring to literal birth order, implies a preeminence. In and of itself, it implies the most prominent example from a group. Were it Luke's intent to imply that Jesus was the only child Mary ever bore, he could have done so. The choice to refer to Jesus as Mary's "firstborn," in this passage, strongly implies something like "the first of her children." Combined with other context from the Gospels (Matthew 1:24–25; 12:46; 13:55; Luke 8:19; John 7:3) and the New Testament (Galatians 1:19), it's clear that Mary went on to have other children.
