1A Jesus: His Birth

What are the birth narratives?

The accounts, in Matthew and Luke's gospels that give information on how Jesus came into the world

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Angels?

- Matthew: Unnamed angel appears to Joseph and quotes Isiah 7:14
- Luke: Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her of her pregnancy (the Annunciation)

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Mary and Joseph's marriage?

- Matthew: Joseph marries Mary
* Luke: Joseph is engaged to Mary

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Elizabeth and Zechariah?

- Matthew: No mention
- Luke: Mary visits Elizabeth, who expresses her joy in the song, Magnificat; And Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist and Zechariah makes a prophecy, Benedictus

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the visitors?

- Matthew: Magi (Wise Men)
* Luke: Shepards

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding Herod?

- Matthew: Magi duped Herod, who reacted by killing all children in Bethlehem under 2 years old
- Luke: No mention

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the Temple?

- Matthew: No mention
- Luke: 8 days after birth, Christ is presented in the Temple; mysteriously recognised by Simeon and Anna; Simeon speaks a hymn, Nunc Dimittis

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the return journey?

Matthew: Flight to Egypt; return to Nazareth from Egypt after Herod's death
Luke: Return to Nazareth from Jerusalem

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the chronology?

- Matthew: Jesus was born "in the days of Herod the king"
* Luke: "It was when Quirinus was governor of Syria"

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding the census?

- Matthew: No mention
* Luke: Caesar Augustus calls a census; made it necessary for Joseph + Mary to travel to Bethlehem to be registered

What are the differences in the Gospels regarding where Jesus was born?

- Matthew: "in a house"
* Luke: "in a manger"

In Matthew's Gospel, it is not mentioned that there were three Magi, nor that they were kings; where does the idea of three kings originate from?

- Three: Tradition of three gifts
* Kings: Tradition based on passages like Psalm 72:11, "May all kings fall down before him"

Outline the historicity of Matthew's account.

- Little historical detail but does mention Herod's massacre.
- Massacre = not reported by any other contemporary historian
- Some believe he made it up to draw a parallel between Jesus and Moses, who was similarly threatened by a pharoah
- However, does fit with Herod's character as he murdered three of his own sons to protect his power

Outline the historicity of Luke's account.

- Insists on the historical accuracy - "an orderly account"; "investigating everything clearly"
- Quirinus = governor from 6-12 CE, but it cannot be established that he was gov. "in the days of Herod"
- Unless he served a previous term or a scribe miscopied Quirinus for Saturnius (9BCE-6CE), his chronology must be erroneous
- Quirinus held a census in 6/7 CE, but no evidence of one several years earlier

What is the issue with the chronology of Herod?

He died in 4BCE; how could he have known about Jesus if he died 4 years prior?

What do some scholars argue about the three hymns in Luke's Gospel?

- That Luke misleads his readers
* The three hymns were already in use by the early Christian community before Luke attributed them to the characters

What supernatural event do both Gospels claim is true?

Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin

What supernatural events are there in Matthew's version?

- Angel appears to Joseph on three occasions
- Angel appears to Magi
- Star appears to Magi and miraculously guides them

What supernatural events are there in Luke's version?

- Angel Gabriel appears to Mary
- Elizabeth's unborn baby leaps in her womb after recognising the unborn Jesus
- Jesus is mysteriously recognised as the Messiah in the Temple

What is the issue with the supernatural events in the narratives?

Casts doubts about their historicity

What are the obvious similarities between the two narratives?

- Born in Bethlehem
- Herod = king
- Mary = mother + betrothed to Joseph
- Jesus = conceived of HS
- Mary = virgin
- People travelled to visit
- Jesus = fulfilment of OT prophecy; came to save all humankind, not just Jews

How can we harmonise the accounts?

- Accounts do not blatantly contradict each other
- Matthew may have had access to info not available to luke (vice versa); many believe Luke received his story directly from Mary, which explains his accounts of the Annunciation, Liz, Temple
- Jesus may have been visited by Magi and shepherds; angel may have appeared to both Mary and Joseph; all may have fled to Egypt after being presented in the Temple

What is redaction criticism?

- A critical method for the study of biblical texts
- Assumes that original traditions about Jesus circulated as independent units within the early church
- Each gospel writer chose the material and arranged/edited it to suit their theological interests

Redaction: Who was Matthew's Gospel aimed at, and why?

- Jewish readers
- At pains to prove that Jesus descended from King David through Joseph
- Tries to prove that Jesus = a fulfilment of OT revelation of God; his accounts contain quotes from OT prophets (Isiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Hosea) + 2 OT books (2 Samuel, possibly Judges)
- Convinced that Jesus came for all people, not just Jews; expresses conviction as his first visitors were foreigners, Magi "from the East"

Redaction: Who is Luke's Gospel aimed at, and why?

- Gentiles
- Both his Gospel and Acts are dedicated to a Greek man, Theophilus ('lover of God') and may be a general term for all those who follow Jesus
- Luke was the only non-Jewish writer in the NT
- OT quotes = from the Greek Septuagint, not the Hebrew
- Mary's viewpoint: less anxious to connect Jesus to David

Redaction: How does Luke's Gospel appeal to poor people?

- News of birth first brought to poor shepherds, not the sophisticated Wise Men
- Mary/Joseph = poor
- Emphasises that Jesus brought salvation to the poor, underprivileged and downtrodden

Redaction: Despite its Greek 'flavour', how does Luke link his Gospel to the Jewish religion?

- Jesus = fulfilment of OT revelation of God
* Mention of John the Baptist, an OT prophet

What is the etymology of 'incarnation'?

Derives from the Latin, 'incarnationem'
* Meaning = 'becoming flesh'

Quote a Bible passage that gives credence to the incarnation.

John 1:14: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"

Where do the most widely accepted definitions of the incarnation come from, and what do they assert?

- First Council of Nicea (325)
- Council of Ephesus (431)
- Council of Chaceldon (451)
- Assert that Jesus = fully God (begotten from, but not created by, the Father) and fully man

What is the name given to the two natures united in one person?

• The hypostatic union

Explain how the doctrine of the incarnation sees Jesus as fully man and fully God.

- Fully God: existed from begin as God ; his appearance on earth = only a brief period
- Fully man: born as any other is born; flesh and blood; ate, slept, drank; died

Who rejects the doctrine of the incarnation? Why?

- Jews, Muslims, and some C.tian denom.s e.g. Unitarians
- It violates the transcendence and immutability of G.
- Christian theologians who have tried to emphasise one nature in J's person at the expense of the other have been condemned as heretics

What is kenosis?

- Jesus emptying himself
* Comes from the Greek verb, 'keno', meaning, 'to make empty'

Where does the word kenosis appear in the Bible?

• Paul's letter to the Philippians (2:7): Jesus, "though he was in the form of God...emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness

What is the main concern of kenotic theology?

To solve the difficulties that arise from J having a divine and human nature
E.g. How could an omniscient G become a baby? How could J, if he was G, be tempted (Mark 1:13) or not know when the world was going to end? (Mark 13:22)

What does Paul mean when he says that Christ emptied himself?

It cannot be that Jesus emptied himself of his divinity and ceased to be God; he must have hidden his divine attributes while maintaining the substantial presence of God
The emptying consists of a pre-incarnate self-limitation by J, agreeing to take "the form of a slave, being born in human likeness"; the self-emptying of his own will as a human being and submitting to the will of God.