preferable. >> but doesn't luke give the more detailed account? >> more detailed, more vivid, more dramatic, but the linchpin of his account is the census, which forces the man and his very pregnant wife to move the length of the country. see, and i don't accept that census, because this was not part of the roman empire, and the census was for the empire. >> well, the new testament talks about a stable. that's not to say that it couldn't have been a cave, right? >> many stables are, in fact, caves, and i think the representation of the cave is much more accurate. >> now, jesus was born here because, the bible says, there was no room for them in the inn. >> what you should imagine is a small, humble house, a one-room house. >> the question of where the birth occurs centers around the greek word "kataluma," originally translated as "inn." some scholars also translate it as "family home," holding a large extended family where space was tight. either way, mary would have gone out to the cave or stable.