Pope Benedict XVI may have credited other parts of the Bible with influencing artists who included animals in the Nativity, but there was Christian writing that put a donkey and an ox on the scene of Jesus’ birth. The Book of Pseudeo-Matthew incorporates elements from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, though events are rearranged (via The Gnostic Society Library). As per Luke, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem after Caesar Augustus for a census, and an angel told the shepherds of the newborn Christ. Per Matthew, three wise men came to pay young Jesus homage, albeit several days after his birth, and King Herod sought the child’s death. But Pseudo-Matthew includes the donkey Mary rode on the way to Bethlehem and even has an angel command the animal to rise and deliver Mary unto the shelter of a cave. (Per Britannica, stables in caves were customary in Palestine, and early Nativity depictions were often set there).
In Pseudo-Matthew, Mary’s donkey and the oxen living in a stable loved Jesus on sight after visiting him. So too did animals rarely connected to the Nativity or Christmas. While hiding in another cave from Herod, Jesus and his family encountered dragons, which the young Jesus quickly tamed. When his family set out into the desert again, they were accompanied by panthers and lions, who loved Christ just as the ox and donkey had. They even managed to safely pass through packs of wolves.
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