{"id":23480,"date":"2020-12-26T01:01:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T01:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=23480"},"modified":"2020-12-27T15:04:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T15:04:05","slug":"was-jesus-really-born-in-bethlehem-why-the-gospels-disagree-over-the-circumstances-of-christs-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/was-jesus-really-born-in-bethlehem-why-the-gospels-disagree-over-the-circumstances-of-christs-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Why the Gospels disagree over the circumstances of Christ’s birth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III<\/a>, Fuller Theological Seminary<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the Palestinian West Bank<\/a> comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago.<\/p>\n

Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus\u2019 birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus\u2019 birth at all.<\/p>\n

The Gospels\u2019 different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a scholar<\/a> of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity<\/a>, including genealogies.<\/p>\n

Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one\u2019s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the Greco-Roman era<\/a>, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur.<\/p>\n

Gospel of Matthew<\/h2>\n

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the first Gospel in the canon of the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Jesus was born<\/a>. The story begins with wise men who come to the city of Jerusalem after seeing a star that they interpreted as signaling the birth of a new king.<\/p>\n

It goes on to describe their meeting with the local Jewish king named Herod, of whom they inquire about the location of Jesus\u2019 birth. The Gospel says that the star of Bethlehem subsequently leads them to a house \u2013 not a manger<\/a> \u2013 where Jesus has been born to Joseph and Mary. Overjoyed, they worship Jesus and present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were valuable gifts, especially frankincense and myrrh, which were costly fragrances that had medicinal use.<\/p>\n

The Gospel explains that after their visit, Joseph has a dream<\/a> where he is warned of Herod\u2019s attempt to kill baby Jesus. When the wise men went to Herod with the news that a child had been born to be the king of the Jews, he made a plan to kill all young children to remove the threat to his throne. It then mentions how Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus leave for Egypt to escape King Herod\u2019s attempt to assassinate<\/a> all young children.<\/p>\n

Matthew also says that after Herod dies<\/a> from an illness, Joseph, Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem. Instead, they travel north to Nazareth in Galilee<\/a>, which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel.<\/p>\n

Gospel of Luke<\/h2>\n

The Gospel of Luke, an account of Jesus\u2019 life which was written during the same period as the Gospel of Matthew, has a different version of Jesus\u2019 birth. The Gospel of Luke starts with Joseph and a pregnant Mary in Galilee. They journey to Bethlehem in response to a census<\/a> that the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus required for all the Jewish people. Since Joseph was a descendant of King David, Bethlehem was the hometown where he was required to register.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of Luke includes no flight to Egypt, no paranoid King Herod, no murder of children and no wise men visiting baby Jesus. Jesus is born in a manger<\/a> because all the travelers overcrowded the guest rooms. After the birth, Joseph and Mary are visited not by wise men but shepherds<\/a>, who were also overjoyed at Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n

Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus\u2019 location in Bethlehem by angels. There is no guiding star in Luke\u2019s story, nor do the shepherds bring gifts to baby Jesus. Luke also mentions that Joseph, Mary and Jesus leave Bethlehem eight days after his birth and travel to Jerusalem<\/a> and then to Nazareth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The differences between Matthew and Luke are nearly impossible to reconcile, although they do share some similarities. John Meier<\/a>, a scholar on the historical Jesus, explains<\/a> that Jesus\u2019 \u201cbirth at Bethlehem is to be taken not as a historical fact\u201d but as a \u201ctheological affirmation put into the form of an apparently historical narrative.\u201d In other words, the belief that Jesus was a descendant of King David led to the development of a story about Jesus\u2019 birth in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

Raymond Brown<\/a>, another scholar on the Gospels, also states<\/a> that \u201cthe two narratives are not only different \u2013 they are contrary to each other in a number of details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s and John\u2019s Gospels<\/h2>\n
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A Nativity scene showing the birth of Jesus in a manger.<\/span>
\nSwen Pf\u00f6rtner\/picture alliance via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What makes it more difficult is that neither the other Gospels, that of Mark and John, mentions Jesus\u2019 birth or his connection to Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of Mark is the earliest account of Jesus\u2019 life, written around A.D. 60. The opening chapter of Mark says that Jesus is from \u201cNazareth of Galilee<\/a>.\u201d This is repeated throughout the Gospel on several occasions<\/a>, and Bethlehem is never mentioned.<\/p>\n

A blind beggar<\/a> in the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus as both from Nazareth and the son of David, the second king of Israel and Judah during 1010-970 B.C. But King David was not born in Nazareth, nor associated with that city. He was from Bethlehem<\/a>. Yet Mark doesn\u2019t identify Jesus with the city Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of John, written approximately 15 to 20 years after that of Mark, also does not associate Jesus with Bethlehem. Galilee<\/a> is Jesus\u2019 hometown. Jesus finds his first disciples<\/a>, does several miracles<\/a> and has brothers in Galilee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that John was unaware of Bethlehem\u2019s significance. John mentions a debate where some Jewish people referred to the prophecy which claimed that the messiah would be a descendant of David and come from Bethlehem<\/a>. But Jesus according to John\u2019s Gospel is never associated with Bethlehem, but with Galilee, and more specifically, Nazareth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Gospels of Mark and John reveal that they either had trouble linking Bethlehem with Jesus, did not know his birthplace, or were not concerned with this city.<\/p>\n

These were not the only ones. Apostle Paul, who wrote the earliest documents of the New Testament, considered Jesus a descendant of David but does not associate him with Bethlehem<\/a>. The Book of Revelation also affirms that Jesus was a descendant of David but does not mention Bethlehem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An ethnic identity<\/h2>\n

During the period of Jesus\u2019 life, there were multiple perspectives on the Messiah<\/a>. In one stream of Jewish thought, the Messiah was expected to be an everlasting ruler from the lineage of David<\/a>. Other Jewish texts, such as the book 4 Ezra<\/a>, written in the same century as the Gospels, and the Jewish sectarian Qumran literature<\/a>, which is written two centuries earlier, also echo this belief.<\/p>\n

But within the Hebrew Bible, a prophetic book called Micah<\/a>, thought to be written around B.C. 722, prophesies that the messiah would come from David\u2019s hometown, Bethlehem<\/a>. This text is repeated in Matthew\u2019s version. Luke mentions that Jesus is not only genealogically connected to King David, but also born in Bethlehem, \u201cthe city of David<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Genealogical claims were made for important ancient founders and political leaders. For example, Ion<\/a>, the founder of the Greek colonies in Asia, was considered to be a descendant of Apollo. Alexander the Great<\/a>, whose empire reached from Macedonia to India, was claimed to be a son of Hercules. Caesar Augustus<\/a>, who was the first Roman emperor, was proclaimed as a descendant of Apollo. And a Jewish writer named Philo who lived in the first century wrote that Abraham and the Jewish priest and prophets<\/a> were born of God.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether these claims were accepted at the time to be true, they shaped a person\u2019s ethnic identity, political status and claims to honor. As the Greek historian Polybius explains, the renown deeds of ancestors are \u201cpart of the heritage of posterity<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew and Luke\u2019s inclusion of the city of Bethlehem contributed to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah from a Davidic lineage. They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus\u2019 genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city. Birth stories in Bethlehem solidified the claim that Jesus was a rightful descendant of King David.<\/p>\n

So today, when the importance of Bethlehem is heard in Christmas carols or displayed in Nativity scenes, the name of the town connects Jesus to an ancestral lineage and the prophetic hope for a new leader like King David.<\/p>\n

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Fuller Theological Seminary is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.<\/a>\"The<\/p>\n