What gospel included stories of Jesus' infancy?

Answer 1

No. Even though John's Gospel appears to have been inspired by Luke's Gospel, so that the author would have been familiar with Luke's version of the infancy narrative, John does not include an infancy narrative. There is even a suggestion that the author of John did not really believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (John 7:41-2, 52). Unlike the synoptic gospels, John portrays Jesus as pre-existing and the author might have felt that an infancy narrative was inappropriate.

Answer 2

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke contain stories of the birth and early life of Jesus. Both accounts had Jesus born in the royal city of Bethlehem, and in both cases an angel announced the divine conception of Jesus. But one gospel says the angel spoke to Mary, the other says the angel spoke to Joseph. Neither gospel author knew about story of the angel in the other gospel and the stories would not make sense if both were true.

In Matthew, Bethlehem was the hometown of Mary and Joseph. Magi came following a star from the east to worship Jesus, alerting King Herod to a possible threat to his rule. Mary and Joseph fled from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the threat from Herod, beginning the return to Bethlehem after Herod's death, but Joseph was told in a dream to turn aside and travel to Galilee, where Jesus grew up in the town of Nazareth.

In Luke, the hometown of Mary and Joseph was Nazareth in Galilee, but they were required by a census to travel to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in a manger. Poor shepherds came to worship him. A few weeks later, Mary and Joseph travelled with Jesus to Jerusalem and then returned peacefully to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. The family travelled from Nazareth to Jerusalem each year to celebrate the Passover.

The modern understanding of the nativity is a conflation of the two accounts in Matthew and Luke, having Nazareth as the home town of Joseph and Mary, and paying little regard to the flight to Egypt and return.

Answer 3

A:No, the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke are very different. The author of Matthew (who was actually anonymous) wrote his account in the eighties of the first century, while the author of Luke wrote his account some ten or fifteen years later, unaware of what Matthew's author had written. Some of the differences are:

• Matthew says that Bethlehem was the home town of Joseph and Mary, and they only went to Nazareth after their sojourn in Egypt, when they were warned in a dream not to return to their home in Bethlehem;

  Luke says that Nazareth was the home town of Joseph and Mary, and they had to travel to Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

• Matthew says that an angel told Joseph that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost;

  Luke says that an angel told Mary that that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and conceive Jesus

  - this is at best incongruous, as the stories could not really both be true.

• After the birth of Jesus, Matthew says the young family fled from Bethlehem to Egypt for fear of King Herod;

  Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Luke says the young family travelled peacefully to the royal capital, Jerusalem, where Jesus met two who recognised Jesus as the Messiah, then returned peacefully home to Nazareth.

• Matthew says that the family remained in Egypt until after the death of King Herod, a period hardly likely to be less than a few years, and that when they began to return, they again fled to Galilee for fear of Archelaus, who succeeded Herod and ruled for six years - clearly they would not have gone to Jerusalem each year for the Passover;

  Luke says that every year after the birth of Jesus, the young family travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

• Matthew says that the father of Joseph was called Jacob;

  Luke says that the father of Joseph was called Heli, and its genealogy has other irreconcilable differences chronologically before the great post-exilic leader Zorobabel.

Both gospels have people coming to worship the infant Jesus. For Matthew, they were the magi, bring valuable gifts. For Luke, they were poor shepherds, consistent with Luke's gospel theme forthe poor.

Answer 4

A:Luke is the only gospel that contains the infancy narrative in which Joseph and Mary are required to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.

However, there is another infancy narrative in Matthew. In this gospel, the young family does not travel from Nazareth because Bethlehem is their home town. Instead of returning peacefuly to their Home in Nazareth, as Luke recounts, the young family flees from Bethlehem to Egypt and finds its way to Nazareth some years later, after the death of King Herod.

Answer 5

Matthew and Luke are the only gospels that have it.