Well, Christmas is almost here, and what better time to pick apart the birth narratives in the Gospels. I mean, they are so inconsistent it is almost ludicrous!
Were the early Christians like the Christians of today? Aware of the Scripture stories, but not really familiar with them? It's almost like Matthew and Luke are telling different stories, and Mark and John, it seems like they didn't think the story of Jesus' birth was important enough to even mention.
They fall apart on so many levels, and it is shocking that the stories presented by Matt & Luke were both held to be divinely inspired - if one story is true, then the other isn't. Huge differences start with the genealogies, and continue. And why genealogies in the first place, if Joseph wasn't the father?
Of course, Matthew's objective was to show how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies in the Torah, and Luke was explaining Jesus to gentiles in ways they would understand - gods impregnating mortals, Jesus being the 'Son of God' and all that.
What's my question? Heck I don't know. I just don't understand how any Christian can really read the scriptures...and still have faith.
Posts: 2007 | Location: Boise, Idaho, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Yup, pretty tough to swallow, gar. Even the great Catholic exegete, Raymond Brown, pretty much gives up on the Nativity stories, after some 800 pages of studying them. I'd say, they are all part of an adding process, much later than the death and resurrection stories. And, they come from traditions apparently unknown to Mark and John...and to Paul too. Had they known of a virgin birth story, they certainly would have included it. As for the geneologies, it seems that the desire to relate Jesus to David was earlier to a divine conception story. And they were never eliminated, even though the David connection became superfluous once Jesus came directly from god's loins. But you have to hand it to Chrisitianity, it is nothing if not resilient; and has managed to survive nearly 2 millenia, despite the textual problems of the NT.
Posts: 7709 | Location: On Vacation | Registered: 06-06-02
Originally posted by FredPuli: It can't be true. All that stuff about the people we call the wise men. When are there ever wise men in the Near East/ Middle East?
