Was it an accident that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

Answer 1

A:

Before answering this question, we should look at the history of the two gospels that place the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. All the New Testament gospels were originally anonymous, until attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John later in the second century. This means we do not know who really wrote the gospels and whether they really knew anything about Jesus.

We can say that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were substantially based on Mark's Gospel and the hypothetical 'Q' document, and that they were written during the final years of the first century. From this we can infer that the authors of?Matthew and Luke?knew nothing about the mission of Jesus apart from what they learnt from those sources. Yet they set out to describe personal details and even thoughts and dreams of Joseph and Mary, around a hundred years earlier. Moreover, as?Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) says, the two accounts are "massively different" and virtually irreconcilable.?

If the two accounts are not really historical, why do they both place the birth in Bethlehem? Both authors wanted to show that Jesus fulfilled an apparent prophecy in?Micah 5:2. Far from this being a cynical explanation,?E. P. Sanders (Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism:?A Parallel History of Their Origins and Early Development,?The Life of Jesus) says that the authors of the Gospels were more interested in theological truth than in bare historical accuracy, and their theological concerns sometimes shaped the material. It was not an accident that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it was a theological expectation.

Another thought:

No, according to the Bible, Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was no accident.

It was a fulfillment of the messianic prophecy at Micah 5:2, which says:"...But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”(John 17:5/John 8:58).? This was clearly understood by those who knew the scriptures in Jesus' day to be referring to the Messiah(John 7:40+42/Matthew 2:3-6).??

There were actually two Bethlehems back then, one in the territory of Zubulun (Joshua 19:10+15), and another, a small village, that fell within the territory of Judah, called the 'Bethlehem of Judah'(Judges 17:7/Luke 2:4) or "Bethlehem Ephrathah"(Judges 19:1,2,18/Genesis 35:19/Genesis 48:7). It was this one, the smaller insignificant village of David(John 7:42), that became Jesus' prophesied birthplace.