Provide an overview of Jesus’ birth and childhood, comparing and contrasting the accounts of Matthew and Luke. Which account describes visions of angels as the way God warns Joseph and Mary, and which utilizes dreams? Evaluate the genealogies in each. Can they be harmonized? Why or why not?
Thomas D. Lea and David Alan Black explain that Matthew’s purpose in the telling of the birth of Jesus was to persuade the Jews of Jesus’s Messiahship (178). Accordingly, Matthew juxtaposed Jesus, the legitimate king of the Jews, with Herod, and likely appealed to the Jews with the telling of the wise men who avoided paganism and sought the Messiah (Lea and Black, 178). Furthermore, Matthew metaphorically connects the protection of the infant Christ with the protection of the nation of Israel and connects the grief over the murdered infants at the hand of Herod with the grief experienced by the exiled Jews at the hands of the Babylonians (Lea and Black, 178). Alternatively, Luke associates Jesus’s birth with a census ordered by the governor of Syria and references the announcement of the birth of Christ by angels, which prompted shepherds to attend Christ’s birth foreshadowing the Good Shepherd (Lea and Black, 177-178). Aligned with Jewish tradition, Luke explains that Jesus’s parents had him circumcised and gave temple offerings at his redemption ceremony (Lead and Black, 178). Finally, Luke is the only Gospel that references Jesus’s childhood (Lea and Black, 178). Specifically, at a young age, Jesus’s awareness was present, and his knowledge amazed those who heard him (Luke 2:47-49 [NASB]).
Matthew’s account is from Joseph’s perspective and God communicates the imminent birth of Christ through an angel that appears to Joseph in a dream. The angel told Joseph not to ‘be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). Alternatively, Luke provides the birth narrative through the perspective of Mary in a vision from an angel named Gabriel. Likewise, the angel told her not to be afraid, and then announced that she will have a son and name him Jesus (Luke 1:30-31).
Each evangelist connects the birth of Christ genealogically. Matthew provides the genealogy of Jesus by starting with Abraham and ending with Joseph (Matthew 1:1-16). Alternatively, Luke begins the genealogy of Jesus with Joseph and ends with Adam (Luke 3:23-38). Lea and Black propose three possible alternatives to harmonize the two genealogical accounts. First, some theorize that Matthew’s genealogy runs through Joseph, “the legal father of Jesus,” and Luke’s genealogy runs through Mary, “the actual lineage of Jesus” (Lea and Black, 174). A second proposal is that Matthew’s genealogy runs through “his actual father Jacob” and Luke’s genealogy runs through “his legal father Heli” (Lea and Black, 174). A final proposal maintained by J. G. Machen, suggests that Matthew’s genealogy runs through the “legal descendant of David,” and Luke’s genealogy runs through the “descendants of David…to which Joseph, Mary’s husband, belonged” (Lea and Black, 174). It appears that although the facts are not certain, numerous logical possibilities exist that can adequately support the harmonization of the two genealogies once the facts are available.
Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005.
Lea, Thomas D., and David Alan Black. The New Testament Its Background and Message. 2nd ed. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.
Scott, J. Julius. Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1995.
