Walk through the Christmas story
13 scenes from Luke and Matthew, in order. Each one shows its verse from the Lumin Translation.
1 of 13Long before
The promise
For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, and authority will rest on his shoulder. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 · Lumin Translation The story starts long before Bethlehem. About 700 years earlier, Isaiah wrote of a child who would be born to rule on David’s throne.
In the picture: Dark hills under a night sky full of stars, with a faint light rising on the horizon.
2 of 13Nazareth
Gabriel visits Mary
The angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found favor in God’s eyes. Listen: you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus.
Luke 1:30-31 · Lumin Translation In Nazareth, the angel Gabriel tells Mary she will have a son and name him Jesus. She asks how, and then says yes.
In the picture: A small fieldstone house in Nazareth at night, with a loom, a hand mill, and a clay lamp. Inside, Mary kneels before a tall figure of light.
Luke does not say what Gabriel looked like. The picture shows a figure of light.
3 of 13The hill country of Judah
Mary’s song
Then Mary said, “My soul declares the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit is overjoyed in God my Savior,
Luke 1:46-47 · Lumin Translation Mary visits her relative Elizabeth, who is expecting John the Baptist. Mary answers her greeting with a song of praise, often called the Magnificat.
In the picture: A stone house with a vine over the door, among terraced hills in warm late afternoon light. Two women reach out to greet each other while an old man sits silent on the bench by the door. Red anemones and yellow daisies grow in the spring grass.
Luke gives no season or town. The spring flowers are a guess from the timing in Luke 1:26 and 1:36. Zechariah could not speak until John was named (Luke 1:20, 64).
4 of 13Nazareth
Joseph’s dream
But while he was turning this over in his mind, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Mary as your wife, because it is by the Holy Spirit that the child has been conceived in her. She will give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus, for he is the one who will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:20-21 · Lumin Translation Joseph plans to end the engagement quietly. An angel tells him in a dream to take Mary home as his wife and to name the child Jesus.
In the picture: A village workshop at night, with planks, a yoke, a plough, and a block of stone. Joseph sleeps on a mat while a soft light gathers above him.
Matthew calls Joseph a carpenter later on (Matthew 13:55). The Greek word covers a builder in wood or stone. The workshop is our setting, not his.
5 of 13The road to Bethlehem
The road to Bethlehem
Joseph too went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, since he came from the house and clan of David,
Luke 2:4 · Lumin Translation Caesar Augustus orders a registration, and everyone goes to his own town. Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the town of David.
In the picture: Dusk on a road through terraced hills and olive trees. Joseph and Mary walk toward a town with lit windows on a far ridge.
Luke does not say how they travelled, so the picture shows them on foot. No donkey is mentioned.
6 of 13Bethlehem
The birth
and she bore a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him down in a manger, since the guest room had no space for them.
Luke 2:7 · Lumin Translation Luke tells the birth in one sentence. Mary wraps her son in cloth and lays him in a manger, a feeding trough for animals.
In the picture: The lower end of a village house in Bethlehem at night. Mary kneels and Joseph stands beside a stone manger where the baby lies wrapped in cloth, lit by one lamp. The upper room is lit and full.
Luke names the manger and the full guest room. He names no stable, no innkeeper, and no animals. Village houses kept a manger at the lower end of the one family room, so the picture puts it there.
7 of 13The fields near Bethlehem
The angel and the shepherds
The angel told them, “Do not be afraid, for look, I am proclaiming to you good news of great joy that will belong to all the people: this very day in David’s city a Savior has been born for you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11 · Lumin Translation The first people told are shepherds, out in the fields at night. An angel gives them the news and a sign to look for.
In the picture: Shepherds and their sheep by a fire in a stony field at night, near a stone fold and a watchtower. A figure of light stands over them and they shield their eyes.
8 of 13The fields near Bethlehem
Glory to God in the highest
All at once there was with the angel a vast crowd of heaven’s army, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people in whom he delights!”
Luke 2:13-14 · Lumin Translation A crowd of angels appears with the first one, praising God.
In the picture: The night sky over the field fills with ring on ring of figures of light above the shepherds.
Luke says the angels were “saying” their praise. He does not say they sang.
9 of 13Bethlehem
The shepherds find him
They went quickly and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and to the baby lying in the manger. … But Mary held on to all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
Luke 2:16, 19 · Lumin Translation The shepherds hurry to Bethlehem, find the baby in the manger, and tell everyone what they were told. Mary keeps all of it in her heart.
In the picture: The same room in Bethlehem. Shepherds have come in from the field and kneel near the manger.
10 of 13Jerusalem
Simeon and Anna in the temple
for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have made ready before the face of all peoples, a light that brings revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.”
Luke 2:30-32 · Lumin Translation Mary and Joseph bring the baby to the temple in Jerusalem. Simeon, an old man who was promised he would see the Messiah, takes him in his arms and blesses God. Anna, a prophet of great age, tells everyone about the child.
In the picture: Early morning in the Court of the Women in the temple in Jerusalem. The low sun lights the gold on the sanctuary beyond a bronze gate, where a woven curtain hangs in the doorway under a golden vine. Simeon holds the baby in his arms while Mary, Joseph, and Anna stand near him, below curved steps, with people and golden lampstands round the court.
Joseph carries the two birds for the offering (Luke 2:24). Luke says only “the temple”. The court, the 15 steps, the bronze gate, the lampstands, the curtain, and the golden vine follow Josephus and the Mishnah.
11 of 13Bethlehem
The star and the magi
At the sight of the star, they rejoiced with very great joy. They went into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling down, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and brought him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:10-11 · Lumin Translation Magi from the east see a star rise and come to Jerusalem asking for the newborn king. The star leads them on to Bethlehem. They find the child with Mary in a house, worship him, and give 3 gifts.
In the picture: A house in Bethlehem under a bright star. Travellers from the east in pointed caps kneel, one with his face to the ground, before a young child who stands beside Mary at the door. Three gifts lie on the ground.
Matthew gives no number of magi, so the picture shows five. He says they came to a house and saw a child, not a newborn in a manger. Their clothes are those of the Parthian east, as the oldest pictures of them show.
12 of 13The road to Egypt
The escape to Egypt
Once they had left, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I give you word, because Herod is about to hunt for the child to destroy him.”
Matthew 2:13 · Lumin Translation King Herod wants the child dead. Warned in a dream, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt by night. After Herod dies, they settle in Nazareth.
In the picture: Night at the edge of the Nile Delta under a full moon. Joseph and Mary, carrying the child, come through date palms to a canal lined with papyrus, the moon shining on the water. Beyond are dunes, a village of mud brick, and the gate towers of an Egyptian temple.
Matthew says they left by night. He names no road and no town in Egypt. The canal and village show the Delta, the first part of Egypt a traveller from Judea would reach.
13 of 13What it means
What it means
The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. We looked on his glory, glory like that of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 · Lumin Translation John has no manger and no shepherds. He begins before creation and says in one line who the child is.
In the picture: Sunrise over Bethlehem, seen from the west. Flat-roofed stone houses line a ridge across a valley of olive groves and morning mist, with smoke rising from bread ovens. The sun comes up over the far mountains of Moab, beside the cone-shaped hill of the Herodium. A shepherd leads his flock out along a path, and a woman carries a water jar.
The sunrise is a picture, not part of John’s text. Zechariah’s song speaks of the Messiah as a sunrise from heaven (Luke 1:78). In December the sun rises a little south of east from Bethlehem, near the Herodium.
13 scenes
Go to a scene
- The promiseIsaiah 9:2-7
- Gabriel visits MaryLuke 1:26-38
- Mary’s songLuke 1:39-56
- Joseph’s dreamMatthew 1:18-25
- The road to BethlehemLuke 2:1-5
- The birthLuke 2:6-7
- The angel and the shepherdsLuke 2:8-12
- Glory to God in the highestLuke 2:13-14
- The shepherds find himLuke 2:15-20
- Simeon and Anna in the templeLuke 2:22-38
- The star and the magiMatthew 2:1-12
- The escape to EgyptMatthew 2:13-23
- What it meansJohn 1:1-18
More for Christmas
Read it, then test what you know
About these pictures
Is this how the Christmas story really looked?
No one knows how it looked. The pictures are simple models, like a carved nativity set, and no face is drawn. The words beside each scene are from the Bible, and a note says where a picture shows something the text does not.
What are the houses, clothes, and places based on?
On what is known of Judea and Galilee at the time. Houses are fieldstone with flat earth roofs. The manger is a limestone trough in the lower end of a house. Tunics are wool with 2 woven stripes, like cloth found in the Judean desert caves. The temple scene follows the Court of the Women as Josephus and the Mishnah describe it. The hill on the skyline near Bethlehem is the Herodium, Herod’s fortress.
Why does Mary wear blue?
So you can find her in each scene. Painters have dressed her in blue for centuries. The Bible does not say what she wore, and a village woman’s clothes were more likely undyed wool. Her tunic here is undyed, and only her mantle is a muted blue.
Why is there no star over the manger?
Luke, who tells of the manger and the shepherds, mentions no star. The star is in Matthew, and it leads the magi to a house where they see a child. So the star appears only in that scene.
Why are there five magi and not three?
Matthew says “magi from the east” and gives no number. People count three because he names three gifts. The picture shows five so that it does not teach a number the Bible never gives.
Where does the Bible tell the Christmas story?
In Matthew 1:18 to 2:23 and Luke 1:26 to 2:40. Luke has Mary, the manger, the shepherds, and the temple. Matthew has Joseph, the star, the magi, and the escape to Egypt.