A Historical Paradox About The Birth Of Jesus

“When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Lastly, to complete the prophecy of Jesus’s birth, Matthew reaffirms that “. . . Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea . . .” (Matthew 2.1). Matthew inserts these assertions to emphasize the credulity of Jesus’ tie with traditional Judaism.

In the Gospels according to Matthew and that according to Luke, Jesus’ birth and childhood is narrated. While both of these accounts mention Jesus as not only being the son of Joseph and his virgin wife Mary but also the Son of God, they also have numerous differences between the two. When compared and contrasted many scholars find historical inaccuracies between the two Gospels (especially when it comes to the birth and childhood of Jesus). That being said however, after a closer look at some of the historical problems one may be able to see that they are not nearly as important as the deeper motivation they bring out to the reader.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the focus on the Jewish genealogy of Jesus played a significant role in the birth story. To fully understand Jesus, it was imperative to first acknowledge who Jesus was within Jewish ancestry and his subsequent position as King of the Jews.

The way in which both Matthew and Luke treat Mary in their birth narratives affects our understanding of the historicity of these accounts. It could be argued that both of the birth narratives present the male ideology of that time. This is clear when in Luke, Mary is first introduced as “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David” This description reveals the two most important features of a woman of her time: her virginity and, the man who she belonged to. This male ideology is also presented through Matthew’s writing as he also associates the female population with the aspect of birth and nurture. However, despite both of

Jesus was born in 6 BC in Bethlehem and died in Jerusalem AD 30. Jesus was a religious leader whose teaching and life are recorded in the new testament of the bible. He is a central figure in Christianity and is emulated as the son of God.

Yancey provides many clear pieces of evidence supporting his idea that the Jesus he grew up with is different than the actual Jesus who lived over two-thousand years ago. He proves how different Jesus’ birth was than how people make it out to be in this day and age. Yancey points out how his birth was amid a time of great religious conflict and scandal, and would have been much different than Christmas cards and stories would have some believe. When Mary was given the news that she would be the mother of Jesus, Joseph did not accept it as truth. Joseph thought Mary had committed adultery, and Yancey even states, “Matthew tells of Joseph magnanimously agreeing to divorce Mary in private rather than press charges, until an angel shows up to correct his perception of betrayal.” (Yancey 31) Only when an angel came to Joseph, did he believe Mary would give birth to Jesus. This part of the birth of Jesus is not one that is told to anyone learning the Christmas story. It is one part of many that are overlooked because they do not fit with the calm, yet miraculous, birth told of in church. Yancey uses arguments such as the one above to convince his reader there is more to Jesus than what most Christians think. His arguments are backed up by facts from the Bible, and because of this, he successfully creates a strong basis for his

The Bible is full of narratives and accounts which point to our need for a savior and God meeting that need through Jesus Christ. The New Testament begins with four accounts of Christ's life; same person, same life, somewhat different stories. In general, it seems as though the church looks at all the gospels as a whole, treating each gospel as pieces of a puzzle that give us a full picture of Jesus’s time here on earth. However, if we look at it from the perspective of the people who would be reading these accounts or from the perspective of the authors our view might be a little different. Each account of Christ’s life has specific choices made by the author to guide our understanding and have an effect on how we read the text. One relatively

There are many aspects of Jesus’ birth and life that lay hidden within the folds of time, most of these tend to bring about theories that to some degree cannot be proven or disproven. This vagueness around the life of Jesus is offset by the works of the gospels in the

Most of what is known about Jesus’s life comes from the Gospels. However, historians and religious scholars do not agree about how much of the Gospels is literally true. The Gospels were all written between 40 and 60 years after the death of Jesus. Although there is non-Biblical evidence to show that Jesus was a historical figure, there is limited evidence outside the Gospels documenting the events of his life.

The early life of Jesus Christ, where everything started. Jesus was given birth approximately in the 4 B.C., around the time when King Herod died (‘‘Jesus of Nazareth.’’ Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale). Matthew and Luke communicated that Jesus birth was in Bethlehem, a city close to Jerusalem, which was important in Jewish ancient times as the town of David (‘‘Jesus of Nazareth.’’

On the other hand, Jesus was the founder of Christianity. He was born in Bethlehem in the year 0 to a young woman named Mary. The Angel Gabriel appeared to her and said that she would have a son, who is the son of God. Not much is known about Jesus’ childhood other than his birth at Bethlehem. Jesus’ father was a carpenter named Joseph who taught Jesus throughout his childhood.

Long before Jesus was born, his existence as the Messiah was proven by his fulfillment of prophecies written in the old testament. The prophecies of the Messiah’s family and birth was fulfilled by Jesus. A virgin would give birth to the Messiah in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Isaiah 7:14). Mary, a virgin, gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem (Matt 2:1, Luke 1:26-31). It was prophesied that the Messiah would be a descendant of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and then Jesse ( Genesis 22:18; 12; 17; 22; 28; 35:10-12; Num. 24:17 Isaiah 11:1-5). Jesus’ genealogy

Matthew validated that Jesus came from a Jewish background and was fit to be the Messiah. Matthew’s unique features began by writing in Joseph’s perspective. By writing in this way, the gospel was able to emphasize that Jesus was of Jewish descent and will grow up following the Jewish law. The gospel went on to predict the birth of Jesus. Mary was pregnant and Joseph was going to divorce her quietly so she would not be punished severely by the community.

The Roman period was stable when Jesus was born and the struggles of the Jews were mainly of their own hearts. The Greek background is important to the gospel because the Hellenistic culture paved the way for world-wide proclamation of God’s message of salvation. All of human history revolves around Jesus, the Person. The gospel of Matthew recorded Jesus as the King promised from God who shall rule forever over Israel. Matthew’s gospel contains references to the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.

The New Testament is a collection of books which contains the writings concerning the significant events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. These books appeared after the physical death of Jesus Christ. In this regard, Jesus had left no records concerning him, and all that is written about him depends wholly on what other people have written about him. The first four books of the New Testament are part of the several biographies of Jesus which were written by the end of the first century of the era of Christianity. Then before any of these biographies have been drafted, there were Christian communities which were being instructed through epistles on how to live like Jesus and how to solve their problem like Christians. A good number of these letters were written by a man called Paul. After Paul death, some other new leaders of the Christian movement continued to write letters to the churches to encourage and strengthen them. As Christians grew in number persecution arose, and some letters have been drafted to support them and also to counter the false doctrines. These letters are part of the New Testament. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were selected from the list of writings in that period (Bruce, 1988)