Why did the gospel writers choose to present Jesus' birth differently?

Answer 1

A:

To the surprise of many Christians, the four New Testament gospels were actually anonymous until the second-century Church Fathers decided to attribute them to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John respectively, so we do not really know who the authors were. We do know that the first gospel to be written was the gospel now known as Mark's Gospel, and that the authors of Matthew and Luke based their narratives on that original gospel, with some further sayings material taken from the hypothetical 'Q' document. As long as Mark or Q provided guidance, Matthew and Luke are in substantial agreement.

However, Mark does not contain a nativity story, and the authors of Matthew and Luke had to write what they thought could have happened. Working independently of each other, they agreed on some basics such as the birth in Bethlehem, since the first-century Jews did expect the Messiah to be born in the city of David. However, Matthew says that Bethlehem was the home town of Joseph and Mary and they only settled in Nazareth after a sojourn in Egypt, while Luke says that Nazareth was already their hometown. Matthew says that the young family fled from Bethlehem to Egypt out of fear of King Herod, but Luke says that soon after the birth the young family, with no fear of Herod, travelled to Jerusalem and then returned peacefully to their home in Galilee.