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Luke vs Matthew Birth Accounts
When you were a child, did you ever ask your parents how you were made or where you came from? I did. And my mother answered that I was made out of their love. Of course, as I got older, I now know how I was made. It was through sexual intercourse. The sperm cell happened to meet the egg cell and they formed me.
Hearing stories on how I came out in this world really interests me. Though I already know how I was made, I love hearing the funny stories from my father. He said that I was a child of a banana tree, and that was the place where he had found me. On a bright, sunny day, he was looking for some bananas to pick, and then he had found a very cute baby crying. He brought the baby home, and the baby became their youngest child. Sometimes my father would change the setting. He would tell me that he was not my father, and that my father was a cow. One rainy day, he heard a baby crying. He saw a distressed baby covered with cow poop, and that was me. He raised me as his child to look like him and not like a cow. No matter what he said, I just laughed since I knew it wasn’t true. I had two, tiny marks on my cheeks like he does, and I have a legal birth certificate to prove my birth!
Then I wonder how Jesus Christ would react for his birth. There are obviously lots of documents to support his birth which are the Bibles. The Bibles are printed and circulated all over the world. However, Jesus Christ’s birth has many issues. Yes, He had many accounts to support that He was born because of the Bible. However, his birth narratives were different in the books of Luke and Matthew. Would Jesus Christ not be confused about His own birth?
We all know that Jesus Christ had a virgin birth. His mother Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit without sexual intercourse. It was a supernatural event.
Then scholars have a dispute regarding the birth of Jesus Christ because of Luke and Matthew! Their narrative stories about Jesus’ birth are different. Here are the differences between Luke’s and Matthew’s narrative birth stories. The comparison table is from errancy.org.
Luke | Matthew |
| A census requires Joseph and Mary to go from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem. | An angel appears to Joseph to reassure him, and so he marries Mary. |
| Jesus is born in Bethlehem. | Jesus is born in Bethlehem. |
| There is “no room in the inn”; Mary places Jesus in a manger. | Perhaps two years later (or perhaps not), wise men see his star. They come and inform Herod. |
| Nearby shepherds are told of these events by angels. | The wise men – bringing gifts – find Jesus in Bethlehem. |
The shepherds visit the family. | Warned in a dream, Joseph and family flee from Bethlehem to Egypt. |
| After about a month or so, Jesus is taken to the temple in Jerusalem. | Herod commences the massacre of the infants. |
There, Simeon and Anna praise Jesus. | Herod dies. Informed in a dream of Herod’s death, Joseph takes the family back. |
| Soon after, Joseph and Mary return to their home in Nazareth. | But he is afraid to go to Judea so he makes their home in Nazareth, Galilee. |
The scholars are debating that there are no overlap of events in Jesus’ birth. The only points that overlap are that Jesus is born in Bethlehem and that their family lives in Nazareth. For me, no matter what the story is, the important thing is that Jesus was born and has brought salvation to the world.
Summary:
Luke and Matthew have different narrative stories on Jesus’ birth.
The only points that overlap are that Jesus is born in Bethlehem and that their family lives in Nazareth.
Scholars are debating over His birth issues.
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Celine
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APA 7
Franscisco, . (2012, August 29). Differences Between the Luke and Matthew Birth Accounts. Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/religion-miscellaneous/differences-between-the-luke-and-matthew-birth-accounts/.
MLA 8
Franscisco, . "Differences Between the Luke and Matthew Birth Accounts." Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects, 29 August, 2012, http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/religion-miscellaneous/differences-between-the-luke-and-matthew-birth-accounts/.
Written by : Celine. and updated on 2012, August 29
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