Nativity

This print contains a scene of the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. Beside a stable the newborn child in swaddling clothes is cradled in a manger, a feeding trough for livestock. He is attended by his mother, Mary, and his foster father, Joseph of Nazareth, who holds out a blanket.

The Bible recounts that the Virgin Mary had been told by the archangel Gabriel that she would conceive and bear a child of God and would call him Jesus. Not until Joseph had married Mary did he discover she was already with child, but Gabriel then explained that the child was the son of God. So Joseph, who was descended from the Hebrew king David, became the protector of the mother and child. The time of Jesus' birth grew near. Because Caesar Augustus had ordered a census of the Roman Empire, Mary and Joseph had traveled to Bethlehem. There they could not get a room at the inn, so Mary gave birth in a stable.

Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity, is now thought to have been born between about 6 and 4 BCE and to have died by crucifixion about 39 CE. Few other details of his life are known. He himself did not leave a single written word. Therefore, most accounts of him are based on the New Testament gospels, which were written by his disciples. While Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah (Hebrew for "anointed one"; Greek: Christ) foretold in the Old Testament and that he was the word of God in human form, Muslims number him among their prophets.