Christmas Supplement

The Infancy Gospels: More than the birth of Jesus

By John F. Fink

Both the Gospel According to Matthew and the Gospel According to Luke begin with infancy narratives.

They tell about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus and his early infancy. But there is a great deal more than that in those Gospels.

Both Gospels were written independently several decades after Jesus’ birth.

Each author chose to emphasize something different about Jesus.

In Matthew’s case, it was his kingly role, while it was his priestly role for Luke. Both, though, stressed the Messianic signs—that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures.

Both Gospels include a genealogy of Jesus. Matthew begins his Gospel with it while Luke places it after Jesus’ baptism. Matthew begins with Abraham and moves forward to Joseph, while Luke begins with Joseph and moves backward all the way to God.

Matthew carefully, and artificially, arranged his genealogy into three groups of 14 generations. It is believed that he did this to emphasize that Jesus was descended from King David.

The name “David,” with three consonants and a numerical value of 14, is placed in the 14th spot. Matthew counts 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 more generations to the Babylonian exile and another 14 generations to the birth of Jesus.

Unlike Luke’s genealogy, Matthew’s includes four women, three of them Gentiles and one married to a Gentile. Tamar, a Canaanite, seduced her father-in-law, Judah, to become the mother of Perez and Zerah. Rahab, also a Canaanite, was a harlot who lived in Jericho and saved Joshua’s spies. She later lived among the Israelites and bore a son named Boaz. Ruth was a Moabite who married Boaz. And Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. She committed adultery with David and later, as his wife, was the mother of Solomon.

Since Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam’s creation by God, to stress Jesus’ divine Sonship, his list has 77 names. However, it doesn’t include King Solomon and his ancestors. Rather, Luke traces Jesus’ Davidic ancestry through the prophet Nathan. Therefore, there are considerable differences between the two genealogies.

Matthew’s Gospel tells about the birth of Jesus in eight verses (Mt 1:18-25). He says that Jesus’ mother, Mary, and Joseph were betrothed, that is, they had gone through the first part of the Jewish marriage and were considered husband and wife. The second part, some months later, consisted of the husband taking his wife into his home.

After the betrothal, Matthew says, Mary was found to be pregnant, and Joseph had to decide what to do. If he accused her of adultery, the penalty was death by stoning. Joseph didn’t want that so he decided to divorce Mary quietly.

It was then that an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that it was through the Holy Spirit that the child was conceived. This dream, and the three others that follow, recalled the dreams that the patriarch Joseph interpreted for the Egyptian pharaoh in the Book of Genesis (Gn 40:1-23, 41:1-36).

Matthew says, again to emphasize the fulfillment of Jewish Scripture, that Mary’s virginal conception was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” (Is 7:14).

In the Book of Isaiah, the Lord made that promise to Ahaz and the Jews took the subsequent birth of the future King Hezekiah as the fulfillment of the promise.

Matthew put a new light on the prophecy.

In Chapter 2, Matthew tells us the story of the magi, or astrologers, from the east, who traveled to Bethlehem to pay homage to “the newborn king of the Jews.” This story not only alludes to Jesus’ kingly role, but also the future rejection of Jesus by Israel and his acceptance by the Gentiles (Mt 2:1-12).

The magi told King Herod that they had seen the newborn king’s star because it was a common belief that a new star appeared at the time of a ruler’s birth. There was also the Old Testament story of Balaam, who prophesied that “a star shall advance from Jacob” (Nm 24:17).

Herod called the Jewish priests and scribes together, and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. They found a Scripture passage that pointed to Bethlehem, again showing that Jesus’ birth was a fulfillment of Scripture. This consultation was also a reminder of a Jewish legend, not found in Scripture, that the Egyptian pharaoh had been warned by his scribes about the imminent birth of Moses.

The magi, of course, found Jesus with Mary (no mention of Joseph so perhaps he was working somewhere at the time). They offered gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which gave us the idea that there were three magi. They were then warned—again, in a dream—not to return to Herod.

The next passages show how Jesus relived the Exodus experience of Israel (Mt 2:13-2:23). Note these parallels, which would have been readily recognized by Matthew’s first readers:

When the magi didn’t return, Herod ordered the massacre of all the boys 2 years old or younger (Mt 2:16-18). Pharaoh commanded that every male born to the Hebrews be cast into the Nile (Ex1:22).

But Jesus was no longer in Bethlehem because Joseph was warned to take him and Mary to Egypt so that, as Matthew says, “What the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’ ” (Hos 11:1). When Pharaoh tried to do away with Moses, he fled (Ex 2:15).

After Herod died, the angel told Joseph, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead” (Mt 2:20). After the pharaoh died, the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead” (Ex 4:19).

“[Joseph] rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel” (Mt 2:21). “Moses took his wife and his sons, and started back to the land of Egypt” (Ex 4:20).

Matthew also writes that the massacre of the infants fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, “A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more” (Jer 31:15).

It portrays Rachel, Jacob’s second wife, who was buried near Bethlehem, weeping for her children taken into exile when Assyria defeated the northern kingdom of Israel. Ramah was located six miles north of Jerusalem so Rachel’s lamentation could be heard at a great distance.

When the Holy Family arrived back in Israel, Matthew says, they were afraid to return to Bethlehem because Archelaus succeeded his father, Herod, as king of Judea. Therefore, they moved to Galilee, to a small town named Nazareth.

Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus is found in Chapter 2, except for the genealogy in Chapter 4. Luke used Chapter 1 to tell about the birth of John the Baptist, and Mary’s annunciation and visitation to Elizabeth.

Luke has Mary and Joseph already living in Nazareth, but they traveled to Bethlehem in obedience to a decree from the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole Roman world.

There was likely no such census, but Luke had to get them to Bethlehem somehow because that is where the Messiah was to be born, and he may have heard about a census while Quirinius was the governor of Syria.

He also wanted to tie the birth of Jesus to Emperor Augustus, who was credited with a time of peace, the Pax Augusta. The real peace bearer, Luke wanted to say, was the child who was born, which is why the angels tell the shepherds, “On earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests” (Lk 2:14).

Luke also wants to emphasize that Mary and Joseph were peaceful people who observed the Roman law as well as the Jewish rites.

Luke’s Gospel contains stories of Jesus’ compassion to the lowly and outcasts of society, and he begins that with the story of the angels’ appearance to the shepherds. They, in turn, are the first to visit the Holy Family in the cave where Jesus was born—thus giving us the crèche with which we are so familiar.

The basic message of Luke’s infancy narrative is in the announcement to those shepherds: “Today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:11).

As Savior, Jesus will be the one who rescues humanity from sin and alienation from God. The Messiah is the anointed one who, as told by Luke, will bring salvation to all humanity, Jew and Gentile alike. And Lord is the title most frequently used by Luke in both his Gospel and in his Acts of the Apostles.

By writing about Jesus’ circumcision and presentation in the Temple, Luke stresses that his parents were observant Jews. During the presentation, and after Mary’s purification, Simeon and Anna praise Jesus, with Simeon praying to God that he could now let him die because he had lived long enough to see the Messiah.

After the presentation, Luke says that the Holy Family returned to Nazareth. There’s no visitation of magi or flight into Egypt in this Gospel.

In the Church’s liturgy, Matthew’s infancy narrative is read at the vigil Mass. Luke’s is started during the first Mass of Christmas and continued in the second. For the third Mass of Christmas, though, the Church turns to the Prologue to the Gospel According to John because it tells us who Jesus was: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1).

It was this Word, who pre-existed from all eternity, who “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). He it is whose birth we celebrate on Christmas.

“Glory to God in the highest” (Lk 2:14).

(John F. Fink is editor emeritus of The Criterion. Among his published books is Jesus in the Gospels, published by Alba House. His latest book, St. Thomas More: Model for Modern Catholics (St. Pauls, 2009), can be purchased by calling 800-343-2522 or by logging on to www.stpauls.us.) †