Birth Narrative Between St Mt and St Lk

2. Compare and contrast the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew and that of the Gospel of Luke.

The birth narrative of Matthew begins with a long genealogy of Jesus, which basically shows how Jesus is son of Abraham who is the father of the nation of Israel, and David the King of the Jews. This may not seem important but this genealogy shows how Jesus is connected to the Davidic line. Then we have Mary, who just found out she was pregnant and Joseph decides it is best to divorce her because he wanted to break his union with someone who is pregnant, by someone else. But behold the angel comes down and reassures Joseph that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and that he should take her back into his house. The angel also said to name the child Emmanuel. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and King Herod heard of this new newborn king of the Jews and he ordered that all boys under the age of 2 be killed. The magi gave Jesus the gifts and left. In a dream, the angel of the lord told Joseph to take the child and go to Egypt and hide, Herod then died, and Jesus was safe.

The birth narrative of Luke begins with the announcement of the birth of John, whose mother was Elizabeth. An angel came to Zechariah, Elizabeth's husband and the angel said that his son John would be in great sight of the Lord that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel who already came to Zechariah came to the Virgin Mary that she will bear a son and he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. Mary then visited Elizabeth and she finds out that Elizabeth is pregnant. Then Elizabeth has her child John and then Jesus is born. The shepherds visit Jesus in the manger and they soon believed that this child was the son of God. Eight days later he was named Jesus.

These 2 narratives are similar for the fact that the angel came to them and told Mary of her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit. There are more differences than there are similarities. First of all there is no mention of Joseph being ashamed of his virgin wife in Luke, in Matthew he was going to leave her but Gabriel came to him and reassured him that Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Also, Matthew doesn't talk about Elizabeth, or even the fact that Elizabeth is pregnant with John who plays an important role in Jesus'