A Historical Paradox About The Birth Of Jesus

Jesus Christ is a figure of religion and mythology. Miraculous deeds, divine attributes, and arcane sayings are attributed to him, and his billions of followers across the world hold countless views about who he was, what he said, what he meant, and how exactly he was related to God.

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

The profound birth narratives of Matthew and Luke clearly, and immediately, place Jesus as the Son of God. Both authors leave no room for doubt among readers that God orchestrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The basic premise within the narratives is also similar; Jesus is born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary, wife of Joseph. Soon after his birth, Jesus receives visitors who affirm his significance. The surety of Jesus’ divinity is established by God’s usage of visions and angels in guiding the characters involved in the birth narratives. Jesus’ birth is repeatedly portrayed to be fulfilling the prophecies of the Old Testament. However, even though the narratives strongly emphasize Jesus’ sanctity, their underlying premise is quite peculiar for God’s arrival on Earth. Instead of an entry into the world signified by grand celebrations and commemoration, the birth of Jesus occurs in an intimate setting.

One of the versions of the story of the birth of Jesus is found in Luke 2:1-21. Luke begins by explaining why Mary and Joseph are travelling right before Jesus was due. Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census was to be taken, so Mary and Joseph had to return back to Joseph’s birth town, Bethlehem. While they were there, Mary gave birth to her son. She “wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:7). There were shepherds working in a nearby field, who were terrified when light and “the Glory of God” shone around them. Luke explains that an angel came to them and told them about the birth of a baby, our Messiah. The shepherds visited baby Jesus and spread the good news to

Jesus was sent here to teach of the word of God, and give us eternal salvation. Both the teaching of the word of God and giving us eternal salvation were the legacy of Jesus. Many debate when the actual birth of Jesus was, but it is mostly believed that Jesus was born on December 25th, which is also why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, which is known as Good Friday, and he was resurrected on a Sunday. The Sunday is Easter Sunday, which almost all Christians celebrate. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but he was born and raised in the city of Nazareth. Mary and Joseph were the parents that raised Jesus, but he is the son of God. Major events in Jesus life included his teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection. While Mary and Joseph were the parents of Jesus, he was also associated with other character in the bible. One person that was close to Jesus was Mary Magdalen. Jesus also has his twelve disciples which were Thomas, Philip, Simon, Peter, Jude, Juda, Bartholomew, Andrew, James the Elder, James the Lesser, Matthew, and John. In the end Judas betrays

One of the many prophecies that Jesus fulfilled actually happened before he was born. The prophecy was said in Isaiah 7:14. It says,” Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” If we were to break down this verse it is giving the Israelites a sign from God. Their Savior would be born from virgin birth and be called Emmanuel. The naming of Jesus would be important because Emmanuel means “God with us” and that’s who Jesus was. He was God in the form of the Son here on earth. The prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 1:18 which says,” This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” This verse explains how Mary and Joseph were not yet married but she had been found with a baby. At this

According to the Bible, Jesus is the Son of God, and He happened to be present during creation. In the Old Testament, the prophets prophesied that there would come a time that after a man lost his way God the Father would send a Messiah. In the new testament of the Bible, the four books the gospel talk of the birth, life and ministry of Jesus Christ in Human form. Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, took the human form and lived amongst people. Through his death and suffering to save humankind, Christianity came in. Jesus was born of a simple carpenter and forfeited his heavenly glory to come into this world (Sayre,

The Gospels say that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, who conceived him through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born in Bethlehem and brought up by Mary and her husband Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth. When Jesus was about 30 years old, his ministry began with his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. After this he went into the desert to fast and prepare himself spiritually for the work ahead. After 40 days in the wilderness, he was tempted by the devil but resisted. His ministry lasted only three years, but in that time he became a charismatic teacher and healer, impressing people with his goodness, gentleness, and strength. Jesus was tolerant of peoples failings and slow to condemn. (Barnes 112)

The foundation of the Christian faith is cradled within truth of the virgin birth, life, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As diverse as the world-wide Christian culture is, the truth in the birth and life of Jesus stands without border and language limitations. Just as each individual life story can be adapted to be relevant for a variety of audiences, the birth story of the Messiah was also. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are an example of the well-rounded and diverse narration of the birth story of Jesus—Matthew’s narration spoke to the history of the Jewish people and Luke presented to the citizen of Rome.

The Old Testament are written accounts of what occurred before Christ. Between the Old and New Testament there was a 400 year gap that is known as the “Intertestamental Period” (The Bible Almanac, pg.36). After this time period, Jesus was born. The New

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.

“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.

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

It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other