A Comparison Of Matthew And Luke's Gospel

The actual date of Jesus' birth is not known, but it appears that Jesus was born sometime between 7 and 5 B.C in Bethlehem. 25 December was fixed as his birth date more than 500 years after the event on purely hypothetical data. There is not one Jesus birth story in the gospels, but two. These gospels include Matthew and Luke, where they state that he was born of the virgin mother, Mary, without a male parent. However, Joseph the carpenter has been considered to be his father. The two gospels are told in profoundly different narrative styles, offering us two different interpretations of history and the individual's role in its creation, two different ways of representing the same reality. In Matthew’s story, an angel appears to Joseph to reassure him, and so he married Mary. Soon later Jesus was born in Bethlehem. After his birth, wise men see his star. They then went to inform Herod. The wise men, bringing gifts, found Jesus in Bethlehem. After their visit, Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt. Herod then commands the massacre of infants. Later, Herod dies and Joseph was informed in a dream that he could take his family back. However, he was afraid to return to Judea, so instead they settleed in Nazareth, Galilee. In Luke’s story, a census required Joseph and Mary to go from their home in Nazareth to …show more content…
In Luke’s narrative, Mary and Joseph are Galileans who travel to Bethlehem of Judah because of a Roman census. The newborn Jesus was placed in a manger. They return home to Nazareth afterwards, stopping at the Temple in Jerusalem on their way. In Matthew, Joseph and Mary are introduced as natives of Bethlehem, where they lived in a house. After fleeing to Egypt to escape the murderous designs of Herod the Great, they relocated to Galilee. Another difference is that Luke repeatedly compared Jesus to John the Baptist, who was not mentioned at all in