Nativity donkeys and cattle are a myth, says Pope
With just over a month to go before Christmas, the Pope has declared that the presence of animals like cattle and donkeys in traditional Nativity scenes is based on little more than a myth.
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As churches and families around the world prepare to dust off their Nativity figures for the festive season, Benedict writes in a new book on Christ that contrary to popular belief, Jesus's birth was not presided over by oxen, asses, camels or indeed any other beasts.
"There is no mention of animals in the Gospels," he wrote in the third and last volume of his biography of Jesus Christ, which like the previous two books is expected to become an international best-seller, with an initial print run of a million copies.
The inclusion of domestic animals in the Nativity scene may have been inspired by pre-Christian traditions, for instance in the Book of Habakkuk, a part of the Hebrew Bible which was probably written by an early prophet in the seventh century BC, Benedict wrote.
But children around the world need not be too disappointed – the German pontiff said that the tradition of donkeys or oxen beside the manger was so deeply entrenched that it would doubtless survive his scepticism.
"No one will give up the oxen and the donkey in their Nativity scenes," he writes in the book, which goes on sale today/on Wednesday.
The belief that animals were in the stable where Christ was born has proved an enduring tradition even in the Vatican - the elaborate Nativity scene set up in St Peter's Square in the weeks before Christmas each year has featured livestock such as sheep.
The book, "Jesus of Nazareth - The Infancy Narratives", traces Christ's early life until the age of 12 and will be published around the world in nine languages.
Elsewhere in the book Benedict, a noted theologian who has continued his studies since becoming Pope in 2005, insists that the doctrine of the virgin birth be taken at face value and that it is an "unequivocal" pillar of Christian belief.
In a section of the book entitled "Virgin Birth - Myth or Historical Truth?", he reaffirms that Christ was not conceived through sexual intercourse but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
"The accounts of Matthew and Luke are not myths taken a stage further. They are firmly rooted, in terms of their basic conception, in the biblical tradition of God the Creator and Redeemer," he writes.
The virgin birth and the story of Christ's resurrection were "cornerstones of faith". The two previous volumes of the trilogy were published in 2007 and 2011.
The Pope also sounded a note of caution over the popular belief that angels sang to the shepherds to proclaim Christ's birth, as recalled in the Christmas carol "Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King."
He writes that when the gospels refer to the "heavenly host" of angels "praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest", they in fact spoke the words rather than sang them.
"According to the evangelist, the angels "said" this," Benedict writes. "But Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song, in which all the glory of the great joy that they proclaim becomes tangibly present."
The misunderstanding spawned the tradition of carol singing, the Pope said. "To this day...simple believers join in their caroling on the Holy Night, proclaiming in song the great joy that, from then until the end of time, is bestowed on all people."
