Question: What specific animals were present when Jesus was born?

            You may have immediately thought of the Nativity scenes that are displayed every Christmas. Almost without exception, these depictions include a few animals ― usually a donkey and cow, a lamb or two, and, when the Wise Men are included, often camels as well.

            But now another question: Which animals does the Bible tell us were present?

            Actually, the Bible mentions none at all. Neither of the biblical Christmas accounts we have, those from Matthew and Luke, refers any animals, except for sheep in Luke, and those apparently are left in the field when the shepherds set off to find Jesus.

            Even the traditional picture of Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem with Joseph walking beside her is our imaginative filling in of the details.

            The one thing the scripture does tell us, however, is that when Jesus was born, Mary laid him in a manger because there was no room in the inn. A manger is a feeding trough for animals, so it must have been in some sort of structure where animals were housed ― a stable or barn or even a cave. So it’s likely that some animals were there, and that they were witnesses to the birth of Christ.

            As best we know, however, it was Saint Francis of Assisi, that great lover of animals, who added the ox, donkey and sheep to the manger scene when, back in 1224, he created the first living Nativity.

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