Jesus' Birth in the Gospels

The Nativity Stories

In this course, Dr James Carleton Paget (University of Cambridge) discusses the birth narratives of Jesus in the accounts of Matthew and Luke. In the first lecture, we provide a summary of the birth stories presented in Matthew and Luke, and possible reasons for their inclusion. In the second module, we turn to the historicity of the birth narratives, taking into account similarities and differences between the stories in Matthew and Luke, and details which are not corroborated by external historical accounts. In the third module, we examine what Matthew sought to achieve in his account of Jesus’ birth, before doing the same for Luke’s account in the fourth module. In the fifth and final module, we bring all of our knowledge together to discuss the theological significance of the birth narratives within the context of the New Testament.

Jesus' Birth in the Gospels

In this module, we introduce the presentation of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament, focusing in particular on (i) the story of the birth of Jesus as it appears in the Gospel of Matthew (ii) the story of the birth of Jesus as it appears in the Gospel of Luke (iii) possible reasons why Matthew and Luke wanted to include birth stories, when they are absent in Mark and John.