It was not an especially pretty world…. The Palestine of Jesus’ day was a world of grinding poverty for the masses, hard labor for a daily pittance, wealthy tax collectors who made their fortunes by extorting money from the impoverished, and brutal military occupiers whose preferred method of crowd control was crucifixion… Nor was the town of Jesus’ birth an especially peaceful place, and hardly the idyllic Bethlehem of our beloved Christmas carol, lying “still” under the “silent stars” in “deep and dreamless sleep”.

Dorothy Jean Weaver (American NT Scholar)