The First Christmas

A Story of New Beginnings

By: Stephen Mitchell

Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell

Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

“I love The First Christmas. What a charming way Stephen Mitchell has found to tell my favorite story of all, the nativity, character by character (I love the donkey and the ox), with wise and thrilling interludes about God, reality, truth.” (Anne Lamott)

In The First Christmas, Stephen Mitchell brings the Nativity story to vivid life as never before. A narrative that is only sketched out in two Gospels becomes fully realized here with nuanced characters and a setting that reflects the culture of the time. Mitchell has suffused the birth of Jesus with a sense of beauty that will delight and astonish listeners.

In this version, we see the world through the eyes of a Whitmanesque ox and a visionary donkey, starry-eyed shepherds and Zen-like wise men, each of them providing a unique perspective on a scene that is, in Western culture, the central symbol for good tidings of great joy. Rather than superimposing later Christian concepts onto the Annunciation and Nativity scenes, he imagines Mary and Joseph experiencing the angelic message as a young Jewish woman and man living in the year 4 BCE might have experienced it, with terror, dismay, and ultimate acceptance. In this context, their yes becomes an act of great moral courage.

Listeners of every background will be enchanted by this startlingly beautiful reimagining of the Christmas tale.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Essentials

“The First Christmas is a wonderful book, tender and rich with bursts of humor, filled with curious contrivances and surprises. Reading it felt like opening a brightly-wrapped Christmas present and finding a second box (also brightly wrapped) inside, and inside that box a third, and then another, and another, and another. Until, at the very center, in a tiny box, there is a diamond: the wisdom contained within this telling.” (Elizabeth Gilbert)

"As is often said about an important and riveting and life-changing event: you had to be there. In The First Christmas, Mitchell puts us there, and the bird and rebirth happen in the reader as well - no matter how well we know the story. Mitchell's illumined text is a star that leads us to a new understanding of the Bethlehem moments in our lives." (Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies)

©2021 Stephen Mitchell (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Beautiful story!

This is such an interesting take on the nativity! I was especially intrigued by the tale of the two "Wise Men." What a great way to put this event into the context of Jesus' life on earth! I'm going back to listen again ...

A Living Nativity

Stephen Mitchell brings the Christmas Story alive and personalizes it by developing the characters through what imaginary could have been their thoughts as they lived through this very holy experience. It enhanced for me the essence of the annunciation with Gabriel as a messenger of Light through birth of Jesus by personalizing it with Meister Eckhart’s probing question, “What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God…and I do not also give birth, how can it help me?”
This provided a meditative experience for me and I will read it every Christmas.

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Verify as soon as possible please and thank you for your patience and understanding and I will be in touch with you soon as possible thank you for your patience and understanding and I will keep you posted on the progress of the project and I will continue to work on it and I will get back to you with the details of the project thank you for your patience and understanding and I will look forward to seeing you soon and I will be in touch with you soon thank you for your patience and I will keep you updated on the progress of the project and I

Merry Christmas

Listened to this book over the Christmas holiday and found it so interesting and pleasant. Stephen Mitchells offers wisdom to the story.

The development of each characters depth of introspection

The absence of Christian projection onto the story of the first Christmas, making the story more historically correct

Not good and Not Christian

I found this title under the "Christian" category in audible. It is not.

The author states in the beginning he hopes that this book will appeal to everyone (Muslims, etc.). Making me feel that believes an "all paths lead up the mountain" type of fallacy. One chapter later, the author states that any mature person wouldn't WANT the prophecy to come true to see a lion laying down next to a lamb. (It may be that these verses of Scripture are being metaphoric, *maybe* but saying it wouldn't be desirable is nearing blasphemous). When the author stated that the Good Shephard's rod & staff aren't comforting "even if divinely wielded" I turned it off. The author obviously doesn't know the Good Shephard and I don't care to listen to a book about Christmas that is written by someone who is still, unfortunately, lost.

I am even more perturbed by the fact that I cannot return this title because of Audible's irritating policy change that started in October.