Everyone’s Christmas nativity scene is wrong! And skeptics use this to argue that Matthew and Luke contradict each other. In this blockbuster episode, Jimmy Akin takes Bart Ehrman’s challenge head-on: he lines up every event in Matthew’s and Luke’s infancy narratives side-by-side and weaves them into one jaw-droppingly coherent timeline—with NO contradictions. Shepherds, Magi, Egypt, Nazareth, census, star… it all fits perfectly! Discover the real movements of the Holy Family you’ve never heard before and why the classic “barn + three kings on the same night” isn’t correct. Mind-blowing biblical detective work that will change how you see Christmas forever!

 

TRANSCRIPT: 

Coming Up

MEGAN LEWIS: Did you know that the Christmas story, everyone knows with the shepherds and the wise men is actually an amalgamation of the accounts found in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew? Today? Dr. Barman answers my questions about the inconsistencies in these two narratives and whether they can be reconciled.

Let’s get into it!

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Howdy, folks!

We’re in our second year of the podcast now, and you can help me keep making this podcast for years to come—and get early access to new episodes—by going to Patreon.com/JimmyAkinPodcast

 

Introduction

People often envision Jesus’ childhood in a way that’s different than how it’s portrayed in the Bible.

For example, they will imagine that Mary gave birth to Jesus in a barn, that on that very night the shepherds of Bethlehem showed up, and also the magi arrived.

That’s why in a nativity set, you’ll have figures for the holy family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

You’ll have farm animals because of the barn.

You’ll have one or more shepherds.

And you’ll have at least three magi.

But this view is based more on Christian art than it is on the Bible.

Images like that are actually a fusion of the details we find in Matthew’s infancy narrative and in Luke’s.

As Bart Ehrman points out . . .

BART EHRMAN: Luke has the shepherds, for example, and Matthew has the wise men. Luke has the census where they have to go down to Bethlehem. Matthew has their flight to Egypt. And so there are these differences, and the reality is that the Christmas stories that people see in a Christmas pageant are a combination of these two stories where they put them all the details together into one.

And if you study the passages carefully, you find out that Matthew and Luke don’t portray these events as occurring on the same night.

On a Christmas card, or in a Christmas play, or in a nativity set, it’s okay to compress these events together for artistic reasons.

Art can be wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.

But we shouldn’t confuse art with history. So what really happened, historically?

A starting point for that is figuring out exactly what Matthew and Luke say.

BART: This is an exercise I give my students, my undergraduate students, because it’s an easy one to do and everybody should do it because it’s eye-opening. I have them read Matthew’s Gospel, the account of birth, it’s in Matthew chapters one and two. And I simply tell them, list everything that happens in the sequence that happens, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then I say, okay, now, and then do the same thing for Luke and list everything happens. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And compare the list and see what’s similar and what’s different, and are there any differences that cannot be reconciled. And it’s a really interesting exercise.

And I agree! It is a really interesting exercise.

Being a biblical chronology geek, I first did it years ago, and I’m going to be sharing the results I came up with in today’s episode.

I should point out, though, that not everybody proposes the same solution that I do.

For example, Bart is a skeptical scholar, and he thinks that on some points Matthew and Luke have irreconcilable contradictions.

For example, Bart thinks that Matthew’s account of how the holy family ended up in Nazareth cannot be reconciled with Luke’s account of the same thing.

BART: I think that this is one of the things in these two accounts that simply cannot be reconciled because if, I mean, Luke is quite explicit that eight days afterwards, Jesus is circumcised in Jerusalem. 32 days later Mary does the sacrifice in the temple, and Jesus is recognized there in the temple as the Son of God by two figures there. And then they immediately go back to Nazareth. If it’s true, they immediately went back to Nazareth. How is it that they went down to Egypt and spent months or years there? Matthew has ’em in Egypt, then Luke has ’em up in Nazareth, then I don’t think that one can be reconciled.

So Bart thinks that there’s a flat-out contradiction here.

But I want to give Bart credit, because he doesn’t automatically see contradictions.

MEGAN: How about the shepherds and the wise men? Those are quite substantial differences. You’ve got people working out on the hills and then you’ve got educated people coming from abroad to follow a star. Where did those two differences come from?

BART: Yeah, well those are differences. And I would say in that case, they’re not contradictions, they’re differences because you can easily reconcile just by saying they both happened.

And I agree with Bart on that one. The visit of the magi and the visit of the shepherds do not contradict each other.

Where I disagree with Bart is in thinking that Matthew and Luke contain actual, irreconcilable contradictions.

When I did my study of the two nativity accounts, I discovered that they fit together extraordinarily well, with no contradictions.

So let’s see why.

 

Partial Accounts

First, you might ask why Matthew and Luke have different accounts of Jesus’ birth to begin with.

Why don’t the Gospels all record the same events as each other?

Because there was too much information to fit into a single book about Jesus.

John notes this specifically, and humorously, at the end of his Gospel.

In the last verse, he says:

John 21:25, ESV

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

That’s exaggeration, of course, but John’s point that his book does not cover everything Jesus said and did is correct.

None of the Gospels give us complete accounts, and there’s a very good reason for that.

In the ancient world, they didn’t have the printing technology needed to make large books, and so there was pressure to keep each single book short by modern standards.

Both books and the paper they were made of—either papyrus or parchment—also had to be made by hand, and so they were fantastically expensive.

Just one copy of the Gospel of Matthew would have cost the equivalent of about $4,000 in 2025 dollars—after all the inflation the government has caused.

So there was also price pressure to keep books short.

This meant each Evangelist had to leave many things out.

There was also more than one way to approach telling the story of Jesus, to benefit different audiences, and so each Evangelist takes a somewhat different approach, and that affects his selection of which stories and sayings to include in his Gospel.

 

Matthew’s Approach and Luke’s Approach

What approaches do Matthew and Luke take in their accounts of Jesus’ childhood?

The accounts of his childhood are known as “Infancy Narratives.”

Although both have many points in common (e.g., Jesus was born of a Virgin named Mary, his foster father was Joseph, he was born in Bethlehem, the family later moved to Nazareth, etc.), it’s clear that Matthew and Luke are emphasizing different aspects of Jesus and the people around him.

Matthew keeps his account short, he focuses on Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, and he emphasizes Jesus kingly role. For example, Matthew notes Jesus’ descent through Solomon in his genealogy, he notes that Jesus is seen as a threat by King Herod, he notes that Jesus is visited by foreign dignitaries, etc.

Luke devotes much more space to Jesus’ birth, he focuses on Jesus’ mother, Mary, and he does not emphasize Jesus’ kingship as much. For example, he records him being visited by humble shepherds.

 

Integrating the Infancy Narratives

Can we track the movements of the Holy Family (and the others in the narratives) by bringing together Matthew and Luke’s accounts?

Yes. The texts give us enough indications of time and sequence to do this.

The infancy narratives contain a total of 22 events, depending on how you count them, and they fit together as follows:

Event 1. John’s Birth Announcement: This happens in Luke 1:5-22.

The angel Gabriel appears to the priest Zechariah in Jerusalem to announce the birth of John the Baptist.

Event 2. Elizabeth Becomes Pregnant: This happens in Luke 1:23-25.

At the end of Zechariah’s term of priestly service in the temple, he returns to his home in the hill country of Judea, and his wife, Elizabeth, becomes pregnant

Event 3. Jesus’ Birth Announcement or the Annunciation: This happens in Luke 1:26-38.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy—that is, after the end of the fifth month but before the end of the sixth month—Gabriel appears to Mary in Nazareth to announce the birth of Jesus.

Event 4. Mary Visits Elizabeth: This happens in Luke 1:39-56.

Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and stays for three months before returning to Nazareth. This appears to happen in the ninth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy—that is after the end of the eighth month but before the end of the ninth month.

Event 5. John Is Born: This happens in Luke 1:57-80.

In the tenth month of her pregnancy—that is, after the end of the ninth month but before the end of a tenth month—Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist.

It’s important to note that the ancient Israelites often reckoned pregnancy as lasting ten months, rather than the nine we do. For example, you can see that in Wisdom 7:2, where the speaker describes being in the womb of his mother “within the period of ten months.”

Wisdom 7:1-2, RSVCE

I also am mortal, like all men, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth; and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh, within the period of ten months, compacted with blood, from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.

Technically, a pregnancy lasted 9.6 months on the Jewish calendar, but the ancients often rounded all fractions up, which is how they got ≈ 10 months.

By comparison, a pregnancy is typically 9.3 months on a modern calendar, but we round this fraction down instead of up, which is how we get ≈ 9 months.

And eight days after he is born, John is circumcised and named.

Event 6. Joseph Is Informed about Mary’s pregnancy: This happens in Matthew 1:18-23.

Sometime between event 3 and event 7, Joseph is informed that Mary is pregnant, and he plans to divorce her quietly.

However, an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him to go ahead and continue the marriage.

The exact placement of this event isn’t 100% clear, but it does not contradict anything in Luke.

Most likely, this event occurred after Mary returned from her visit to Elizabeth.

Joseph likely would have waited to deal with the divorce question until Mary’s pregnancy was confirmed, either by it beginning to show or by Mary reaching the point of “quickening.”

Quickening is when the unborn child is big enough and strong enough for the mother to feel it kicking in her womb.

In the absence of pregnancy tests, the ancients used the pregnancy showing and quickening as proof that a woman was pregnant.

Both occur around the 16 to 20th week of pregnancy.

These points would have been reached around or shortly after the time Mary returned from her visit with Elizabeth.

In fact, they even could have motivated her return so that she, also, could go into seclusion for the remainder of her pregnancy.

You thus could slide Joseph’s learning—for sure—about Mary’s pregnancy a bit earlier, but I put it here as a likely estimate.

Event 7. Joseph and Mary Begin Cohabiting: This happens in Matthew 1:24.

Joseph and Mary begin living together under the same roof, and the two would have been in Nazareth according to Luke’s account.

Event 8. The Trip to Bethlehem: This happens in Luke 2:1-5.

Because of the enrollment announced by Caesar Augustus, the Holy Family travels to Bethlehem, despite Mary’s pregnancy (which was at this point in the second or third trimester).

If this was a tax enrollment, the journey was likely required because Joseph owned or was co-owner of property there.

On the other hand, it may not have been a tax enrollment but another kind, as I discuss elsewhere.

While in Bethlehem, they likely stayed with relatives, but there were so many that there was no room in the main part of the house, and so they stayed in the part—likely a grotto—where the animals were kept.

Animals were often kept in the homes of the people who owned them at this time.

Event 9. Jesus Is Born: This happens in Bethlehem according to Matthew 1:24a and Luke 2:7.

Event 10. The Shepherds Visit: This happens in Luke 2:8-20.

That same night that Jesus is born, shepherds visited the holy family.

Event 11. The Magi See the Star: This event is referred to in Matthew 2:2 and 16.

About this time, an unusual star is observed by the magi in their eastern homeland.

Event 12. Jesus Is Circumcised and Named: Eight days after his birth, Jesus was circumcised and named. The naming is mentioned in Matthew 1:24b and both the circumcision and the naming are mentioned in Luke 2:21.

Event 13. Jesus Is Presented in the Temple: This happens in Luke 2:22-38.

Forty days after the birth, Jesus was presented at the temple in Jerusalem, and the Holy Family encountered Simeon and Anna.

Event 14. A Possible Return to Nazareth: It is possible that, shortly after this, the Holy Family returned to Nazareth, as suggested in Luke 2:39-40.

If you’re watching the video version of the podcast, you’ll see that I’ve put parentheses around this entry and a question mark by the verse, because I don’t consider it certain that they did return to Nazareth so quickly.

If they did, they later returned to Bethlehem on multiple occasions in the next 1-2 years, because they observed the three annual pilgrimage feasts that Jews were required to make each year.

Those feasts were 1) Passover or Unleavened Bread, 2) Tabernacles, and 3) Pentecost.

They were required to go to Jerusalem, and they likely stayed with relatives in Bethlehem on these occasions, since Bethlehem is just 6 miles from Jerusalem.

You can read about those feasts in Exodus 23:14-17, and we know that the holy family observed them because the last event in our list involves them going on the pilgrimage feast of Passover.

That’s when the twelve-year-old Jesus was found in the temple, and Luke 2:41 says they did this every year.

So it’s possible that they returned to Nazareth shortly after Jesus was born and then periodically returned to the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area.

However, it is also possible that they did not return to Nazareth at this time but stayed in Bethlehem for a period of as much as two years, for reasons we will see in our next item, and it seems to me that this is the more probable course of action.

I’ll discuss why that is once we get through our list, but if they did stay in Bethlehem instead of returning to Nazareth, they probably continued to live in family property with relatives.

It is possible that they acquired their own house, but it was much more common in ancient Israel than it is today to have an extended family living under the same roof, especially among the poor.

And we know that the holy family was poor because in Luke 2:24, they make the kind of offering for Mary’s post-birth ritual purification that was required for a poor woman. You can read about that kind of offering in Leviticus 12:8.

Event 15. The Magi Arrive in Jerusalem: This happens in Matthew 2:1-11.

Between one and two years after the birth, the magi appear in Jerusalem and ask Herod the Great where the newborn king of the Jews is to be found.

T

hey are directed to Bethlehem, and they travel there by night.

They note that the star is now in the southern sky—that’s the direction of Bethlehem from Jerusalem—and when they arrive they note that, from their perspective, the same star is above the house in a providential coincidence.

They then enter the house, see the child Jesus with Mary, pay him homage, and offer gifts.

We know this happened one to two years after Jesus’ birth because the magi told Herod when they saw the star, and according to Matthew 2:16, Herod then killed all the children two years old and under.erHer

That suggests that Jesus was as much as two years old when the magi appeared, given the tendency of the ancients to round up all fractions and the desire on Herod’s part to make sure he would eliminate Jesus.

He would not want to have cut it close and missed the baby by a few days or months, so he would have at least rounded up and may have even padded the amount of time the magi told him.

The magi thus did not arrive on the night Jesus was born but some time later.

Event 16. The Magi are warned in a dream: This happens in Matthew 2:12.

Either the night after visiting the Christ child or very quickly after, the magi are warned in a dream to return to their country by a different route, which they then do.

Event 17. The Flight to Egypt: This happens in Matthew 2:13-15.

After the magi leave, Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, which the Holy Family does.

Event 18. The Slaughter of the Innocents: This happens in Matthew 2:16-18.

Some time shortly after the magi and the holy family escape, Herod realizes that the magi are not coming back and flies into a rage.

He orders all the boys two years old and under who are in Bethlehem to be killed.

This is entirely in keeping with what we know about Herod, particularly in the latter portion of his reign.

He had several of his own sons killed when he perceived them as threats, and Caesar Augustus allegedly quipped that it would be better to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son—the joke being that, as a Jew, Herod couldn’t eat pork, so his pig would be safe.

Event 19. The Instruction to Return: This happens in Matthew 2:19-21.

Herod the Great dies. This likely happened in 1 B.C.—not the 4 B.C. date you commonly hear—and afterward his surviving sons assume full authority over the different parts of his kingdom.

In Egypt, Joseph is informed in a dream that Herod the Great is dead, and he is told to return to Israel. He and the Holy Family do so.

Event 20. Joseph Learns of Archelaus: This happens in Matthew 2:22a.

Once back in Israel, Joseph is informed that Herod’s son Archelaus is ruling in Judea in place of his father.

Knowing Archelaus’s reputation, Joseph is afraid to settle in Judea, and that reaction is a good one.

Archelaus was a terrible ruler who was eventually removed from power by the Romans, who replaced him with a governor in A.D. 6.

This is why Judea is ruled by the governor Pontius Pilate during Jesus’ adult ministry, rather than by one of Herod’s sons.

Event 21. The Move to Nazareth: This happens in Matthew 2:22b-23 and is most likely the same relocation referred to in Luke 2:39

Being warned in a dream, Joseph relocates the family to its previous home in Nazareth, which, being in Galilee, is outside of Archelaus’s territory.

Event 22. The Finding in the Temple: This happens in Luke 2:41-52.

The family continues to make the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and when Jesus is twelve, at Passover, Jesus remains behind, and his parents find him in the temple three days later.

So there you have it: an integration of Matthew and Luke’s infancy narratives.

No contradictions found!

 

More on the Return to Nazareth

You’ll recall that Bart said that he didn’t think that Matthew’s description of the holy family moving to Nazareth after the flight to Egypt could be reconciled with Luke’s description of them going back to Nazareth after the presentation in the temple shortly after Jesus’ birth.

BART: I think that this is one of the things in these two accounts that simply cannot be reconciled. Because if, I mean, Luke is quite explicit that eight days afterwards, Jesus is circumcised in Jerusalem. 32 days later he married, does this little sacrifice in the temple, and Jesus is recognized there in the temple as the Son of God by two figures there. And then they immediately go back to Nazareth. If it’s true, they immediately went back to Nazareth. How is it that they went down to Egypt and spent months or years there? Matthew has ’em in Egypt, then Luke has him up in Nazareth, then I don’t think that one can be reconciled.

I’m afraid that I don’t agree. Luke does not say that they “Immediately” went back to Nazareth.

He doesn’t use that word or any synonym for it.

And there’s more than one way that the accounts can be reconciled.

One way is why I included Event 14 or the possible return to Nazareth shortly after Jesus’ birth.

If that happened, it doesn’t mean that they stayed in Nazareth and never came back to Bethlehem.

As I pointed out, they were observant Jews who observed the pilgrimage feasts and came back to Jerusalem regularly.

It’s very likely that when they did that, they stayed with family in Bethlehem, where Joseph owned or was co-owner of property.

It’s also possible—though I didn’t mention this—that after they returned to Nazareth Joseph learned about work opportunities near Bethlehem and moved back there.

The family was poor, and so you needed to go where the work was.

One way or the other, the magi just happened to show up one to two years later when they were back in Bethlehem

So, there’s no contradiction here.

Bart is assuming that once they went back to Nazareth they never visited or relocated to Bethlehem.

He needs to make that assumption to generate the contradiction, but Luke simply never says this.

And that’s taking the relevant verse in Luke the way Bart does, but they don’t have to be taken that way.

Let’s look more closely at the verse in question, which is Luke 2:39. It says:

Luke 2:39, ESV

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

So Luke says that they returned to Nazareth “when they had performed everything according to the Law.”

That means that they didn’t leave anything unfinished that the Law required when a woman had given birth.

But what does it mean in terms of time?

Well, it means that the return to Nazareth happened after they completed what the Law required, but it doesn’t really tell us anything about how long afterward this happened.

Bart is assuming that it happened immediately, but the text does not require that.

Luke is making two points: First, that they performed everything according to the Law and second, that they returned to their own town of Nazareth.

That gives us the sequence of the events, but... Read more on Catholic.com