Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?
The Adoration of the Shepherds by Paris Orlando
Asking the question whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem may seem odd for those familiar with the New Testament or Christian tradition. Those who have seen a Nativity play know that in the story the family leave their home in Nazareth because of a census to go to Bethlehem. Visits by shepherds and wisemen abound, and baby Jesus narrowly avoids death at the hands of Herod before the family returns to Nazareth after hiding in Egypt. The story is well known, but it is two separate narratives that have been combined together.
The gospels of Matthew and Luke are the only two books in the New Testament that discuss the birth of Jesus. Both texts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but how that birth took place differs quite a bit between these authors’ versions of the story. We will look briefly at the two narratives before returning to the question whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem. A group of Westar scholars were asked to vote on the question, and those results will come at the end of the post.
Matthew’s Narrative: Chapters 1 and 2
Joseph is troubled to learn that Mary, his fiancé, is pregnant, and he is not the father. He considers breaking their engagement but an angel tells him in a dream that the pregnancy is from the Holy Spirit. Joseph wakes up and marries Mary, but they do not have sex until Jesus is born. We learn that Jesus was born in Bethlehem when Magi, the famous “wisemen,” arrive in Jerusalem looking for the newborn king of the Jews. Notice how the narrative assumes the family lives in Bethlehem. There is no move from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Matthew. The Magi find the young family living in their house in Bethlehem. When Herod tries to kill the child, the family flees to Egypt where they stay until Herod is dead. However, they discover that Archelaus, the son of Herod, is now the ruler of Judea, and because of another dream the family relocates to Nazareth.
When reading Matthew’s birth narrative, we see that the family lived in Bethlehem, had to flee to save the child’s life, and relocated to Nazareth for safety. Along the way, these events are all said to fulfill prophecy, including the Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem, taken from a passage in Micah 5. Joseph and Mary are married before Jesus is born and are in a house with the child being perhaps two years old when the Magi visit.
Luke’s Narrative: Chapters 1 and 2
Luke tells the story of Jesus’s birth alongside the birth of John the Baptist, with the narrative revealing the two men are cousins. Mary is engaged to Joseph when the angel Gabriel tells her she is going to be miraculously impregnated. Mary and Joseph are living in Nazareth when her pregnancy occurs, but they are forced to travel to Bethlehem when she is nearly full-term for a census. At the time of Jesus’s birth, Mary and Joseph are still only engaged and not married. Jesus is born in a stable because there is no guest room available for them.
Following the birth, shepherds are told about the miracle child and come to see him shortly after birth. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, and after the purification period, presumably the thirty-three days prescribed in Leviticus 12:1–8, and blessings from a pair of righteous Jewish worshippers in the temple, they return to their home in Nazareth.
Similarities and Differences
The two narratives are very different, as we see when they are read separately and not combined as a single drama. Likewise, the two books were not written to be read together as part of the Bible. Read separately, we do find some important common points between them, such as the names of Jesus’ parents, the virgin birth (though this is a complicated issue for another post), that Jesus grew up in Nazareth, and that he was born in Bethlehem. The problem when considering history is how Jesus was supposedly born in Bethlehem.
Matthew claims the family was already living in Bethlehem, and through a series of events had to relocate to Nazareth, where they were guided by a dream. For Luke, the family was living in Nazareth and through a series of events temporarily went to Bethlehem, then returned back to Nazareth. How could the authors relate such different accounts when explaining how the family was in Bethlehem if it was a historical fact? All four New Testament gospels and Acts agree that Jesus’ hometown was Nazareth. Mark includes no birth of Jesus and makes no connection to Bethlehem at all. John mentions Bethlehem once in his gospel as part of a public debate about whether Jesus is the Messiah. Some people know the prophecy that the Messiah comes from Bethlehem, which they hold against Jesus since they know he is from Galilee (7:41–44). John does not correct this and makes no attempt to say Jesus had a connection to Bethlehem. There is no reason to assume either Mark or John believed Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The real issue seems to be prophecy.
Matthew directly refers to the Micah prophecy by having the scholars of the day tell Herod the Messiah would come from Bethlehem (2:3–5). Luke does not directly mention this prophecy but seems to know of it as, in this gospel, an angel tells the shepherds that the Messiah had just been born in Bethlehem, the city of David (2:9–12). Matthew and Luke had two issues: They knew Jesus was from Nazareth, but they also believed the Messiah would come from Bethlehem.
Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?
Bible Search & Rescue sent the question to a panel of Westar scholars with four possible answers: 1) Jesus was born in Bethlehem; 2) Jesus was probably born in Bethlehem; 3) Jesus was probably not born in Bethlehem; 4) Jesus was not born in Bethlehem.
Conclusion: Jesus Was Not Born in Bethlehem.
Most of the scholars concluded Jesus was not born in Bethlehem while some voted that Jesus was probably not born in Bethlehem. No votes were cast for Jesus being born in Bethlehem.
The authors we call Matthew and Luke needed a creative way to connect Jesus to Bethlehem knowing he was from Nazareth. They independently developed stories to explain how Jesus was born in Bethlehem but grew up in Nazareth. Matthew accomplished this feat by having the family in Bethlehem, but then having to move and finding Nazareth through a dream, much like the tradition about Moses. Luke did it by having the family in Nazareth, but temporarily relocating them to Bethlehem using a census. A census did take place under Quirinius, but it was several years after Jesus was born, and it was not done through the whole empire. The authors used creative storytelling to have Jesus fulfill the Micah prophecy, but it is unlikely the historical Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
A special thanks to Barbara Hampson for editing this post.
Recommended Resource:
Miller, Robert. Born Divine. Polebridge Press, 2003.
