Christian Theology: Theme A Topic A - Jesus & His Birth

Birth Narratives: the story of the conception and birth of Jesus of Nazzareth in the gospel accounts of Luke and Matthew

Similarities & Differences in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew

Similarities:

• The Angel Gabriel comes to visit and informs them of Mary's conception
• The family travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem
• Mary and Joesph where engaged in both Gospel Narratives

Differences:

• In Luke Mary is visted by the angel Gabriel to inform her about her and her sister Elizabeths Pregnancy
• In Matthew Joesph is visted by the angel Gabriel to inform him of Marys conception
• In Matthew Mary and Joesph are living togehter
• In Matthew Mary and Joesph are married

Harmonisation and Redactional Critisims

Harmonisation: the attempt to reconcile two or more contradictory biblical texts to make them achieve the same goal

Harmonisation appears easy for the Birth Narratives because the story only appears in the gospels of Luke and Matthew

Harmonisation allows us to come to logical conclusions on what actually happened and if whether what has already been recorded did happen

Advantages and Disadvantages of Harmonisation

Advantages:

• Supports Doctrine of Inerrancy
• Considers genre and purpose of the text
• We are able to get the clear picture of what really happened

Disadvantages:

• Leads to illogical conclusions
• Eisegisis not Exegesis
• Forces Historicty on texts

Eisegisis: reading into the text to fit the purpose into the text

Exegesis: reading into the text and drawing conclusions…