Contradictions?
(Unwrapped: the Truth about Christmas #07)
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People often claim that the accounts of Jesus's birth in Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel contradict each other. For example, Luke starts with Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth; but Matthew does not mention Nazareth.
On the other hand, Matthew says that Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt, because the king was out to kill Jesus. Luke does not mention this.
The accounts are clearly independent. But they share quite a lot of common ground – just as we would expect if they were writing about events that really happened:
- The father’s name is Joseph
- The mother’s name is Mary
- They are engaged, but the baby is conceived by a miracle, without Joseph and Mary having sex
- Jesus is born in Bethlehem...
- ... during the reign of King Herod
- Hhe is brought up in Nazareth
The accounts never actually contradict each other. It is not as if Matthew says that Jesus was born in Nazareth, and Luke says that he was born in Bethlehem: where they do overlap, they agree.
To find out more read Luke 1:5 - 2:30
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