What is the name of donkey to traveled Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem?

Answer 1

A:The Bible does not give the donkey a name. Bishop John Shelby Spong goes as far as to say that the story, of Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem as a crowds waved leafy branches and shouted hosanna, was simply a literary creation, meaning there was no donkey. In Jesus for the NonReligious, he says:

The Jewish eight day celebration of the harvest, known as Sukkoth, and also called the Festival of the Tabernacles or Booths, was probably the most popular holiday among the Jews in the first century. In the observance of Sukkoth, worshippers processed through Jerusalem and in the Temple, waving a bunch of leafy branches. As they waved these branches in that procession, the worshippers recited words from Psalm 118, the psalm normally used at Sukkoth. Among these words were "Save us, we beseech you, O Lord." Save us in Hebrew is hosianna or 'hosanna'. This is typically followed by "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. (Psalm 118:25-6)."

He says that the original gospel author (Mark) simply took the facts about the Jewish Sukkoth, which was always celebrated later in the year, and created a story about Jesus at the time of the Jewish Passover. "Hosanna" and the words from the psalm are written in Mark 11:9.

Answer 2

The gospels talk of Mary and Joseph going on two long journeys around the time Jesus was born.
In Luke's Gospel, they travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem just before Jesus was born, and then returned the same way to Nazareth forty days after his birth. On the other hand, Matthew's Gospel tells us that Bethlehem was already their home town, but that they fled from Bethlehem to Egypt shortly after the birth of Jesus.
Because neither of these journeys seems possible for Mary without some form of transport, it has long been assumed that there must have been a donkey for Mary to ride on. Neither gospel mentions a donkey and therefore we can not know the donkey's name.

We are told that Joseph was a poor village carpenter, so he certainly could not afford to own a donkey or even to hire one for a long and dangerous journey. The alternative is that neither Luke's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and back, nor Matthew's journey from Bethlehem to Egypt really took place. That is the view of most New Testament scholars.

Answer 3

It was probably one of their family donkeys.

Answer 4

Sadly the poor little donkey didn't have a name. I don't think anybody named their pets back then.

Answer 5

There are no authoritative sources that state that the donkey had a name, and if it did, what that name was.