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There is one story of the nativity in Matthew's Gospel. Joseph and Mary lived in a house in Bethlehem, where the virgin Mary conceived and had a child. Magi came following a star from the east, to bring gifts and worship Jesus. King Herod, afraid for his throne, sought to kill the baby Jesus, so Mary, Joseph and Jesus fled to Egypt until after the death of Herod, when they began to return to Bethlehem, but turned aside and migrated to Galilee.

There is another nativity story in Luke's Gospel. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth in Galilee, but had to travel to Bethlehem for the census of Quirinius. In Bethlehem, they could not find lodgings and had to sleep in a stable, where Mary bore a child. Shepherds were told by angels of the birth, and came to worship Jesus. A few days after the birth, the young family travelled to Jerusalem and then returned peacefully to Nazareth.

The modern Christian understanding of the nativity is a syncretism of the two gospel accounts.

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15y ago

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