A Year of Service

As Promised here are my notes on the talk that I gave this week and they are just notes:

The Birth of Jesus where does it all come from

During Advent we are engaged with the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament. The prophets of the Old Testament do two things they look to the future but also speak about the present “I will make a virtuous branch grow from David” (Jeremiah) the people of the Old Testament knew that the Messiah was coming. They had an expectation that this messiah would save them and be a great warrior: Someone who would remind them of David who was the greatest of the Kings of Israel.  Actually the reality of the prophets is very different:  “nations will not lift up sword against nation, there will be no more training for war.” For Isaiah it was a time of peace and justice. It would be a time when “God is with us” Emmanuel. Where the “wolf will lay down with the lamb” (Isaiah). And of course the last of the great prophets that would link the Old with the New Testament is John the Baptist. The voice crying in the wilderness prepares the way of the Lord: A time of baptism and repentance turning back to the Lord.    

And so we have the background to what we have the Infancy narrative. These only appear in Two Gospels Matthew and Luke there is NO narrative about the Birth of Jesus in Mark. Mark starts his gospel with the baptism of Jesus and John looks from the beginning of time “In the beginning was the word”. If we look at Matthew Mark and Luke we can see this clearly.

So why is the narrative only in Matthew and Luke? This is because of the sources where they go their information from. When we look at this diagram we can see that Matthew got some of his information from Mark’s Gospel which is the earliest Gospel. Luke got some of his information from a curious document called Q. These are the sayings of Jesus possibly written at the time of Jesus. This I have to say is only one theory and we could spend the who time looking at what we call the Synoptic Gospels.

We can see from this slide that there are many differences between the two. This shows us to some very interesting facts about the story that we have been so familiar with.

To really appreciate the story we have to look at where both these writers are coming from and who they are writing for.

Matthew wrote his gospel in the mid 80’s and in Syria. It is a mixed community where he is writing to those who had been converted of the Jewish religion and Gentile descent. He writes and quotes a lot all through his gospel the Old Testament prophets. What we call the Synoptic problem. As we saw from the slide earlier is a theory that Matthew got a lot of his material from Mark’s gospel. So Matthew was not an eye witness to the life of Jesus. Notice that the Birth of Jesus in his story is very short. There is not much detail here.

Let us look now at Luke’s account of the Birth of Jesus. The first thing that we notice is that there is a lot more detail about the birth of Jesus. Luke’s Gospel was written in about 70/80. It is written in the best Greek out of the synoptic gospels which suggests that the writer of Luke’s gospel was a Greek. There is thought that Luke was a companion of St Paul. His framing of the Gospel is quite deliberate. He puts it into a time frame and also that journey from Israel to Rome (in acts) and to the whole world. We also see this when we look at the Passages of the Infancy narrative Luke puts it in context with the authorities at the time mentioning Augustus and Tiberius.  There is also evidence that Luke got some of his material from Mary or a source that knew Mary “Mary kept all these things in her heart.” She could also give an account of the Annunciation where there were no other witnesses. It is also important to recognize that all Gospel writers tell us what they think is important for us to know John tells us that what he writes is so that we might believe.

What we are doing with the Gospels when we look at them is called exegesis and this involves two stages. The Pope in his new book put these stages quite clearly

“Firstly one has to ask what the respective authors intended to convey through their text in their own day- the historical component of exegesis. But it is not sufficient to leave the text in the past and thus relegate it to history. The second question posed by good exegesis is: what I read here is true? Does it concern me? If so, how? With a text like the Bible whose ultimate and fundamental author, according to our faith, is God himself, the question regarding the here and now if things past are undeniably included in the task of exegesis”

So what do we know about the Infancy narrative and where have we go our information from. Here are a few suggestions:

Christmas Carols

The Bible itself

Popular Piety

School nativity

A mixture from all the above

So let us take a look at the Questions in our Quiz.

Question 1:

Who did the Angel tell first, that the Child Mary had conceived happened by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Mary or Joseph

There are two annunciation stories:

Luke to Mary the angel tells Mary she is to conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit he will be the some of the most high and to call him Jesus. Luke presents Mary a lowly handmaid if the Lord as the example of a faithful disciple her yes to God.

Matthew to Joseph the angel came in a dream, when Mary was already pregnant because he was going to divorce Mary, told him that the baby she had conceived was by the power of the Holy Spirit and to name him Jesus. Joseph seems ignorant of the paternity of Jesus.

The hero in Matthews account is Joseph think later when he responds to the angel and takes his family to Egypt. He presents Joseph as a good Jew, an observer of the law, so if he, a good upright Jew believes in Jesus so should his readers.

So why did Mary not tell Joseph that the child she was to have was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew does not seem to know about the birth narrative that Luke knew and used Joseph as the vehicle for the annunciation of the coming of the Messiah. Matthew wrote for the Jewish Christians, knew the laws of adultery a male dominated religion so the message from God cane through a male.

Luke wrote for the gentiles and did not know Jewish law he wrote for the poor and neglected of society in his Gospel he raised the status of women.

2/ Did Mary and Joseph have to travel to Bethlehem?

According to the tradition of the Old Testament the Messiah would come from Nazareth but was born in the house of David that is Bethlehem. Matthew and Luke would have to be aware of this BUT Matthew already has Mary and Joseph living in Bethlehem for the birth but he then has to get the Holy Family to Nazareth which in his story he dies via Egypt because of the Killing of the under two children by King Herod.

Luke has the family living on Nazareth and uses the census as a vehicle to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem

3. Luke says that Jesus was lying in a manger, where does he say the manger is?

An inn/ A Stable/A Cave/ or somewhere else

Luke says that Jesus was laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn, he does not say where the manger was. In those days people lived on the second floor of their homes and the animals lived in the ground floor, so according to Luke Jesus was probably born on the ground floor of the inn.

Why does Luke have Mary and Joseph with no where to stay it is very unlikely that they knew no one in Bethlehem family ties were very strong and if they went back to their home town family would be there. It maybe because Mary was only engaged to Joseph so was out of wedlock a single mother.

Does Luke place Jesus in the manager to demonstrate the lowly birth of the Messiah?

“Swaddling clothes” refer to royalty c/f King Solomon description of his birth.

Matthew already has Mary and Joseph already living in Bethlehem, Jesus was born in Joseph’s home.

 

4 Who were the first people to visit Jesus?

Shepherds

Wise Men

We do not know

Luke says that the Shepherds were first as we have already seen Luke wrote for the underdogs shepherds were the least respected in that society, he gives the honour of seeing the Son of God to the lowliest in society, came to see the infant Jesus the shepherds stand for all people.

Matthew gospel was to the gentiles so he will focus on the magi and the wise men came to Mary and Joseph but he does not say where they visited the child Jesus again Matthew has Jesus coming for all people and not just for the Jews. Jesus was the light for all nations remember the first Christians were a sect  of Judaism, but by the time of the gospels were written Christians had been expelled from the synagogues the birth story reflects this.

 

There are also other quite important questions here too. Why did Mattherw have them coming from the east? Why those particular gifts?

The three gifts given by the Magi were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These three gifts represent the roles of Jesus Christ in his relation to man. Gold, which was the usual offering presented to a king by his subjects, represents his office as king (obviously). Frankincense, which was used in worship at the temple, represents both his divine nature and office as most high priest. Myrrh, which is one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil described in Exodus chapter 30 used to consecrate the things in the temple used to minister unto God, and was also used to anoint (and deodorize) the dead, represents his role as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of man.

Gold: Represents Christ's role as King.

Frankincense: Represents his divine nature and role as most high priest.

Why is there no tradition of followers of Jesus who had heard of the messiah from the Shepherds or the kings the wise men paid him homage gave expensive gifts the shepherds saw angels and who glorified and praised God.

These people told no one!!!!

Each group guided by a revelation from God to go to Jesus

5/ what happened next?

Mary and Joseph a) took Jesus to the Temple b) Fled to Egypt

Luke has Jesus going to the temple at eight days old- the family travelled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem then back to Nazareth

In Matthew, when the wise men came to visit Jesus would have been about 18 months old and the family went to Egypt. And later returned to Nazareth.

6/ what did the Innkeeper say to Mary and Joseph?

Perhaps, but there is no solid, biblical reason to believe that they did. Although innkeepers play a prominent part in many Christmas plays, no innkeeper is actually mentioned in the biblical record of Christ’s birth. Furthermore, it is likely that Mary and Joseph actually stayed in a house with relatives, not behind some kind of Bible-times hotel.