The Nativity story (or lack thereof) as found in the four Gospels

Matthew:

·         At the beginning of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus is given from Abraham through Joseph (The genealogy shows that Jesus is Joseph’s son—and, by extension, David’s son (i.e. descendent) , and Abraham’s son.)

·         Mary discovers that she is “with child” by the Holy Spirit (This part implies that Jesus is not Joseph’s son, but is the Holy Spirit’s son. This seems to contradict the afore mentioned genealogy. Unlike Luke’s account, there is no mention in Matthew that Mary is visited by an angel.)

·         When Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant, he decides to set aside the marriage contract. An angel convinces him to stick with it.  (His consideration of setting aside the marriage contract seems to indicate that Mary and Joseph are already married; compare this to Luke where they are only betrothed to be married.)

·         The author of Matthew makes a reference to a prophecy of virgin birth [from Isaiah]

·         Matthew reports that Jesus is born in Bethlehem (Matthew’s account contains minimal birth details. There is no mention of traveling to comply with a census, a manger, or shepherds.)

·         Astrologers from the east “see” a star that indicates the birth of the king of the Jews. They come to Bethlehem looking for the child. [It seems that the star does not point to the manger like an arrow in the sky that anyone could follow, but points only in a way that can be understood by astrologers. I say this because Herod didn’t simply follow the arrow to find the child. Instead, he consulted astrologers to find the child that the star indicated.]

·         King Herod consults either those same astrologers that came from the east or else consults his own astrologers and asks them to find the child, Herod’s astrologers find Jesus, but don’t go back to Herod

·         The astrologers offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the baby Jesus and warn Mary about Herod, then return home avoiding Herod

·         An angel tells Joseph to take the child to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod (Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt and they stay until Herod’s death) This also, according to Matthew, fulfills a prophecy about the Messiah coming out of Egypt.

·         Herod is angry that Jesus (said by the astrologists to be the king of the Jews) slipped through his fingers. He reacts by massacring all the children of Israel under two

·         Jesus doesn’t return to Judah (specifically to Nazareth) until “about” the time that John is preaching. [If Luke is correct and John is only six months older than Jesus, then the time of Jesus’ return to Nazareth contradicts Luke who says that Jesus grew up in Nazareth and stayed there until he was twelve.]

Mark

·         The Gospel of Mark contains no nativity story—and no mention of the virgin birth. In Mark, we first meet Jesus when he is baptized by John.

Luke

·         In Luke, Jesus’ birth is related closely to John the Baptist’s

·         The angel Gabriel visits Elizabeth (who was “well on in years” and “barren”) and announces that she will give birth a son. [We later know him as John the Baptist]

·         Six months later, Gabriel visits Mary. Mary is surprised given that she is a “virgin.” [In the Greek , virgin (παρθένος, parthénos) generally just means “young woman.” It generally does not directly imply anything about not yet having sex. ] Gabriel announces to Mary that she will give birth to a child named Jesus.

·         When Elizabeth is about six months pregnant, the pregnant Mary visits the pregnant Elizabeth and the Holy Spirit enters into Elizabeth on this occasion

·         Emperor Augustus orders census and Joseph and Mary travel from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem (to a City of David) to comply, since his ancestors descended from David.

·         Mary (betrothed to Joseph, but not yet married, as reported by Luke and possibly contradicting Matthew) gives birth to a child on the way. (The child is not yet given a name.) Mary wraps the baby in swaddling clothes and lays him in a manger. Luke states that there is no room in the “house.” There is no mention of an Inn.

·         Nearby shepherds are visited by an angel and go visit the baby (Mary ponders their visit)

·         Mary and Joseph do legal Jewish stuff. (It is interesting that the only Gospel that mentions these things was written by Luke, who is a Gentile):

o   Per Jewish custom, Joseph and Mary “buy back” their first born, who by Jewish custom belonged to God, with a payment of two turtle doves (two of the gifts mentioned in the Twelve Days of Christmas song)

o   Eight days after birth, Mary’s baby was circumcised and named Jesus

o   Two prominent Jewish people recognize that there is something special about Jesus:

§  Simeon (an upright and devout very old man) says that Jesus is the Messiah. Simeon could not die until he saw the Messiah. (Mary and Joseph are full of wonder at Simeon’s reaction to Jesus)

§  The prophetess Anna also told Mary and Joseph that Jesus is special

·         Joseph, Mary and Jesus return to Nazareth in Galilee where Jesus grows up. Jesus doesn’t leave Nazareth until he is twelve. [This account of Jesus growing up in Nazareth contradicts Matthew’s account that has Jesus growing up in Egypt up until the time of John’s preaching.]

·         Luke’s genealogy of Jesus is given on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism.  [Luke’s genealogy shows 77 generations from God—emphasizing to many that Jesus is the son of God—not just the king of the Jews. Luke also shows 43 generations from David to Jesus, contradicting the 28 generations for the same period that are in Matthew’s genealogy. There are very creative ways apologists have of hand waving over these contradictions. All of these attempts take liberties with the actual Biblical texts and treat them as secondary to the presupposition that there can be no contradictions in the Bible. An early, and still widely held view, is that Luke’s genealogy gives the ancestors of Mary (although it never mentions Mary), and is not the genealogy of Joseph as it literally claims to be.)

John

·         John emphasizes thae eternal nature of Christ—emphasizing that Christ existed prior to creation.

·         There is no mention of the birth of the historical Jesus

·         There is, however, a reference to the Word becoming flesh. (In John, there is no Nativity story, no mention of a virgin birth, there are no angels announcing Jesus , and astrologers, and no star.)