Nativity with Ox and Donkey

About this drawing

It may come as a surprise that the animals in a nativity with ox and donkey are never mentioned in the Gospels. Luke tells us only that Mary laid her newborn in a manger because there was no room at the inn. A manger is a feeding trough, so livestock are implied, but that is as far as the text goes.

The pair came from elsewhere in scripture. Early Christians connected the scene with a verse from Isaiah saying that the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib. Later on, a non-biblical work known as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew stated outright that the two animals worshipped the child. After that, artists rarely left them out.

Medieval writers sometimes added symbolism, seeing the ox as the Jewish people and the donkey as the Gentiles, both gathered around Jesus. Saint Francis included both in his famous living nativity in 1223, which helped fix them in the popular imagination. Pope Benedict XVI drew headlines in 2012 by noting in a book that the Gospels don't name them, though he also said nobody would give them up in a manger scene. American churches and families have followed his advice. A pageant without a kid in a donkey costume would hardly feel complete.

• nativity
• ox
• donkey
• lantern