Animals of the Nativity — The Ox

The ox is commonly placed alongside the donkey in the Nativity as they both represent different elements of Jesus’s life. A book from the medieval period called French Hours, illustrates the manger displayed in a domestic setting showing how these two animals are opposites. The donkey is playful as the baby is touching it whereas, the ox is serious as some believe that an ox is there to show Christ’s sacrifice.

The origins of the ox Bos primigenius- aurochs an extinct cow species which inhabited Africa, Europe, and Asia an early wild ancestor of domestic cattle. The earliest remains of Bos primigenius aurochs are from two million years ago and were discovered in India. The aurochs were larger than their later domestic descents with males weighing up to a thousand kilos, making them desirable to Neanderthals and men. Aurochs were subsequently hunted from Ancient Egypt to Rome where they were used for fighting and by the thirteenth century, there was only a small number left in eastern Europe and the last individual aurochs went extinct in 1627 in Jaktorów, Poland. This one ancestor has led to five wild species of cows which have been domesticated.

It has been widely debated by scholars if there was an ox and donkey even present at the birth of Jesus and in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, no animals feature. In the seventh to eighth century AD the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Chapter 14 states that:

And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most blessed Mary went forth out of the cave, and entering a stable, placed the child in the stall, and the ox and the ass adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, saying: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib. [2] The very animals, therefore, the ox and the ass, having Him in their midst, incessantly adored Him.

Originally published at http://theuntamedbeast.uk on December 24, 2022.