The group then, briefly, discussed how the two accounts of Jesus' birth can't be satisfactorily reconciled. The details of their accounts make them incompatible with each other. A question was asked - which, then, is the 'true' one? Which one is the more historically accurate?
My answer was that, without finishing the time machine that I'm building in my garage we have no way of knowing. And that in all likelihood, even if we did finish that time machine, we might discover that neither Matthew nor Luke's account is entirely historical. The nativity stories are highly theological stories - with numerous elements and themes drawn from the old testament.
Jesus' birth story might have been (and probably) was entirely different from what we read in Matthew or Luke. But that got me wondering. What other alternate birth stories could have been written about Jesus?
And so, consider this an Alternate Nativity:
1In the
beginning of the new heavens and the new earth, the Lord God raised up his
servant Joseph, a man of labor who worked with his hands to build and to craft
the necessary things from stone and from wood.
2 And the Lord God said, “It is not good for Joseph to be
alone.” 3 And so he brought to him a wife, Mary, who had not yet
known a man. 4 The two were
married and they became one flesh.
5 And the Lord God caused a great sleep to fall upon them and they slept. 6 And the Lord God opened the womb of the woman, Mary, and placed in her his son, Jesus, and closed over the flesh again. 7 And, upon awakening, she said, “I have got a son with the Lord.” 8 Therefore is the man, Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God and men and God have become one together in him; 9 man and his God, and they were no longer ashamed.
5 And the Lord God caused a great sleep to fall upon them and they slept. 6 And the Lord God opened the womb of the woman, Mary, and placed in her his son, Jesus, and closed over the flesh again. 7 And, upon awakening, she said, “I have got a son with the Lord.” 8 Therefore is the man, Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God and men and God have become one together in him; 9 man and his God, and they were no longer ashamed.
"What other alternate birth stories could have been written about Jesus?"
ReplyDeleteOf course, there *were* alternate birth stories about Jesus.
In the Protoevangelium of James, Jesus is born in a cave and Joseph is an elderly man. In The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Mary was fed daily by angels. In the Arabic Infancy Gospel, infant Jesus heals the withered hands of the midwife. And so on…
Yes. I am aware of those - and others.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to try my hand at writing some.