A minister said this below to me after I asked questions on the Gospel accounts, order or them etc…
“I have no problems with the chronology.
1). Joseph and Mary live in Nazareth.
2). They go to Joseph’s ancestoral home to be counted in the census. They might in fact plan to stay there to avoid the scorn of Mary as an unwed mother in Nazareth.
3). Jesus is born and the shepherds come.
4). Jesus at 40 days goes to Jerusalem.
5). Magi come and locate Jesus. There is no time parameters. It appears they take as many as two years, because Herod has all the kids 2 and under killed. He likely took the date they saw the star and killed every kid born then or after. Mary and Joseph when the magi appear are in a house, not in a stable. They likely had moved into Bethlehem as Jesus home for his infant years.
6). Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt.
7). Herod dies.
8). They return to Nazareth. Why back to Nazareth now after time in Bethlehem? After Herod’s death Galilee has a more stable Herodian leader. There has been some years since Mary’s scandalous pregnancy.
All the data fits fine. Matthew includes the Herod and Egypt bits because he cares about making Jesus echo Moses. Luke cares about Jerusalem because it is part of his theological program, making Jerusalem more central to his version than Matthew or Mark. He also highlights shepherds due to his interest in social class and has Anna and Simeon due to his attention on gender. All the events could easily have happened, they just have different reasons they include different parts. There are no contradictions.”
There is plenty wrong with this.
For starters it treats biblical passages as though they are true. You can’t use one untruth to prove a greater untruth.
“They go to Joseph’s ancestral home to be counted in the census”. Joseph’s ancestral home – yeah right. And why do the Romans (the Xian link about the Roman census notwithstanding) care a whit about anyone’s ancestral home? All the Romans wanted was to know how many were in a city so they could know their tax collectors weren’t holding out on them.
Concern about one’s ancestral home is a Jewish concept only, not Roman. It was included in the story to link Jesus to David – no matter that Joseph wasn’t even Jesus’ biological father. That inconvenient fact is ignored.
There is no way a peasant like Joseph could know his genealogy all the way back to David. How would he know which is the first home of his (which) ancestor? Which ancestor?
And this ancestral home nonsense ignores all the other people in the region at the time. Presumably, they too would have to know the home of their prime ancestor. the whole region would have been in turmoil. Thousands of people going about trying to find their “ancestral home” What rubbish, what nonsense, what an untruth.
Hey answer this, I was told by a Devout Christian that they believe the Gospels more on the empty tomb story & who was there & not & the whole different accounts to prove it more to be real because they could have fixed it. I was told why didn’t they fix it instead of leave it sloppy & that many many believed it for years so the people closer to that time wouldn’t have believed if didn’t agree with the accounts. That they were all different accounts of the story like would happen if you & 3 others saw an event & didn’t recall it the same. Also was told that why say Women saw the open tomb 1st? Because they weren’t someone to believe based on men being higher & more trustworthy. ???
The Church Of Truth™ 
A minister said this below to me after I asked questions on the Gospel accounts, order or them etc…
“I have no problems with the chronology.
1). Joseph and Mary live in Nazareth.
2). They go to Joseph’s ancestoral home to be counted in the census. They might in fact plan to stay there to avoid the scorn of Mary as an unwed mother in Nazareth.
3). Jesus is born and the shepherds come.
4). Jesus at 40 days goes to Jerusalem.
5). Magi come and locate Jesus. There is no time parameters. It appears they take as many as two years, because Herod has all the kids 2 and under killed. He likely took the date they saw the star and killed every kid born then or after. Mary and Joseph when the magi appear are in a house, not in a stable. They likely had moved into Bethlehem as Jesus home for his infant years.
6). Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt.
7). Herod dies.
8). They return to Nazareth. Why back to Nazareth now after time in Bethlehem? After Herod’s death Galilee has a more stable Herodian leader. There has been some years since Mary’s scandalous pregnancy.
All the data fits fine. Matthew includes the Herod and Egypt bits because he cares about making Jesus echo Moses. Luke cares about Jerusalem because it is part of his theological program, making Jerusalem more central to his version than Matthew or Mark. He also highlights shepherds due to his interest in social class and has Anna and Simeon due to his attention on gender. All the events could easily have happened, they just have different reasons they include different parts. There are no contradictions.”
On the census issue. http://www.comereason.org/roman-census.asp
There is plenty wrong with this.
For starters it treats biblical passages as though they are true. You can’t use one untruth to prove a greater untruth.
“They go to Joseph’s ancestral home to be counted in the census”. Joseph’s ancestral home – yeah right. And why do the Romans (the Xian link about the Roman census notwithstanding) care a whit about anyone’s ancestral home? All the Romans wanted was to know how many were in a city so they could know their tax collectors weren’t holding out on them.
Concern about one’s ancestral home is a Jewish concept only, not Roman. It was included in the story to link Jesus to David – no matter that Joseph wasn’t even Jesus’ biological father. That inconvenient fact is ignored.
There is no way a peasant like Joseph could know his genealogy all the way back to David. How would he know which is the first home of his (which) ancestor? Which ancestor?
And this ancestral home nonsense ignores all the other people in the region at the time. Presumably, they too would have to know the home of their prime ancestor. the whole region would have been in turmoil. Thousands of people going about trying to find their “ancestral home” What rubbish, what nonsense, what an untruth.
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Hey answer this, I was told by a Devout Christian that they believe the Gospels more on the empty tomb story & who was there & not & the whole different accounts to prove it more to be real because they could have fixed it. I was told why didn’t they fix it instead of leave it sloppy & that many many believed it for years so the people closer to that time wouldn’t have believed if didn’t agree with the accounts. That they were all different accounts of the story like would happen if you & 3 others saw an event & didn’t recall it the same. Also was told that why say Women saw the open tomb 1st? Because they weren’t someone to believe based on men being higher & more trustworthy. ???