A Child Is Born Leader Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Nativity Stories

by Amy-Jill Levine

See Jesus’s birth through the lens of ancient Nativity stories.

The Leader Guide contains discussion questions and session plans for a four-week study of A Child is Born. It includes opening and closing prayers, optional activities, and weekly session goals. It is designed to be used with the book and DVD.

Discover the fascinating connections between ancient birth stories and the Nativity of Jesus in this captivating four-week Advent study. The book discusses the births of Isaac and Ishmael, Samson, and Samuel to reveal how they foreshadow and enrich the timeless Christmas story in the final chapter. Author Amy-Jill Levine brings her expert knowledge of Scripture and careful consideration of the Christian story to show readers how Scripture's earlier birth stories anticipate the story of Jesus’s birth and how the birth resonates and gives new meaning to those earlier stories. Transform your Advent season with fresh insights and inspiration from A Child is Born.

64 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 19, 2025

About the author

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Department of Jewish Studies. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; four children's books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III); and The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Z. Brettler). Her most recent books are The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (co-authored with Marc Z. Brettler), Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven; and The Kingdom of Heaven: 40 Devotionals. In 2019 she became the first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute. Professor Levine, who has done over 300 programs for churches, clergy groups, and seminaries, has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Institutions granting her honorary degrees include Christian Theological Seminary and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.

Reviews

[C. Moschopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating peer into biblical history /stories of miraculous and annunciations and births. Information on how they are similar, dissimilar and how they predict certain each of subsequent outcomes. Written by a Jewish scholar steeped in her tradition while shining new light on the birth of Jesus. Well worth the read