SS - Birth Narrative Contradictions
Notes
Transcript
If I told you there were approx 16 events in the birth narrative accounts between Matthew & Luke, how many would you think they share?
4 Events
Virgin conception
Born in Bethlehem
Named Jesus
Settling in Nazareth
Contradiction
“A preposition, statement, or phrase that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something”
“A contradiction requires two statements that cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time”
Same sense same time
“The light is on”
“The light is not on”
Same sense, same time, same light
Time
“I am single”
“I am married”
Category
Lorna
“This book is heavy”
“This book is”
Scope:
“You ate all the cookies”
“There was one cookie left”
In the Bible we have differences
Differences actually confirm reliability
Angel appearances
Read Matt 1:26-37
Matt:
Ask what events happen
Angel appears to Joseph
In dream
Virgin conception by holy spirit
Name Jesus
Save his people
Luke:
Events
Angel appears to Mary
Appears to be in person
Tells her she will become pregnant by holy spirit
Name Jesus
Great
Son of most high
He will be given davids throne
Differences
Angel to joseph vs angel to mary
In a dream vs in person
Different message
Account of the same event
Reconcile
Angel appeared to Mary in person (not for sure) BEFORE she was pregnant
You WILL conceive Lk 1:31
Mary told Joseph the story Matt 1:18
“found to be with child”
Timing
Matt says Jesus was born during the reign of Herod
Matt 2 1
Luke says Jesus was born when during census when Quirinius was governor
Lk 2 1
What’s the issue?
Herod dies in 4bc
So Matt account puts Jesus birth around 4BC
The census under Quirinius was done in 6Ad
So Luke puts the birth around 6AD
10 year gap in timing around the birth of Jesus
How do we approach this?
How do we know when Herod died?
Josephus
How do we know about the census
Josephus
Acts 5:37 - There was a revolt
Reconciled
Linguistic Reconciliation
The word “protos” in Luke 2:2 can be translated as “before”, not only first.
John 1:30 “This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before (protos) me.’”
If it is before the census of Quirinius, then the dating could fall in line with Matt
Multiple Census under Quirinius
Quirinius was governor 2 different times. Once in 4 bc and again in 6ad
Which is why Luke says this is the “FIRST” census
Josephus is mistaken on the date
Some scholars believe that Josephus is mistaken about the dating of the time of the census of Quirinius was earlier during Herod’s reign
Further reading:
JOSEPHUS MISDATED THE CENSUS OF QUIRINIUS
john h. rhoads*
Wise Men & Shepherds/ Manger & House
Read Luke 2:8-21
Read Matt 2:1-12
Shepherds in luke
Wise men in Matt
Shepherds find him lying in a manger
Wise men find them in a house
Family Journey
Lukes account Ch 2
8 days circumcised
32 more days for purification
Offering at temple
Return to Nazareth
vs 39
Luke 2:39 “And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.”
Matt Account
Angel appears to Joseph in a dream
Tells them to flee to egypt bc Herod is trying to kill him
Flee to egypt
Stay there until herod dies
Angel tells them to return once bc hes dead
They go to return to “land of israel”
Hear Archelaus was reigning
Warned in dream
Goes to Nazareth
Luke Account:
Doesnt mention herod killing
Doesnt mention egypt
Issue
Both cant be right because if Jesus is born in bethlehem, then 40 days later they go to jerusalem, then go to nazareth, there is no time to go down to egypt.
Silence is not denial
Mark & John start with Jesus as an adult, does that mean the details of his Childhood are false?
Jesus is born in bethlehem in a manger
The sheperds come and see him
He is circumcised on the 8th day
40th day, he is at the temple
They return to Bethlehem
Magi arrive later (Perhaps weeks or months. Which is why Herod wants all the children 2 and under killed) and find Jesus in their home
Herod’s threat becomes known
Joseph, Mary, & Jesus flee to Egypt
Herod kills the children in Bethlehem
Joseph gets dream in Egypt about herods death
Return to Nazareth
Handles all of the realities in both accounts
Bart Ehrman said in an interview that some of the differences in these accounts “can not be reconciled”
When pressed for an example, this is the account he gives these accounts
“One way to reconcile it…”
They returned to nazareth right away
Then they came back to Bethlehem
Then they found out about Herod
Then went to Egypt
Then came back to nazareth
Genealogies
Luke records mary geneology but writes Joseph because he was the son in law
Levirite marriage
Man dies childless, his brother marries his wife
Joseph would have a ‘legal’ and biological father
Omission is not denial
Because det
“Cannot be reconciled”
After 32 days temple sacrifice
