*Sacred Scripture* St. Joseph Seeks Lodging in Bethlehem – Tissot

This watercolor artwork by James Tissot shows Saint Joseph, with the Virgin Mary, diligently asking for a place to stay in Bethlehem, while people look at the couple with curiosity and refuse lodging.

Saint Joseph Seeks a Lodging in Bethlehem-James Tissot

In the biblical narrative, Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth but must journey to Bethlehem, the ancestral home of Joseph’s family, to be counted in a census imposed by the Romans. On their arrival in the town, Joseph searches for lodgings without success. Tissot contrasts Joseph’s anxious plea—calling up to townspeople in hopes of finding accommodation—with the Virgin Mary’s quiet resignation.

Tissot’s expeditions to the Middle East in the 1880s provided rich source material for his watercolor compositions. The thick masonry walls and labyrinthine alleys of Jaffa, an ancient port city near modern Tel Aviv in Israel, serve here, with minor revisions, as the backdrop of Bethlehem.

Lk 2:1-7

The Birth of Jesus.

1^* In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus^* that the whole world should be enrolled.

2This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

3So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.

4And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,^a

5to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.^b

6While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,

7and she gave birth to her firstborn son.^* She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.^c

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/2