Matthew’s Account of Jesus’s Birth

Matthew’s account contains a number of stories that are not found

in Luke, just as Luke’s stories are not found in Matthew.
o According to Matthew’s gospel, there is no trip to Bethlehem
from Nazareth. Instead, we’re told that Mary conceived by the
Holy Spirit. Joseph, her betrothed, decides that he will secretly
divorce her, but he then he learns in a dream that the child is by
the Holy Spirit. Jesus is then born in Bethlehem.

o Wise men from the east—astronomers—follow a star that has

told them that the king of the Jews has been born someplace in
the west. The wise men go to Jerusalem and ask whether this is
the city where the king of the Jews is to be born.

o King Herod, the real king of the Jews, finds out that these wise
men have come, and he asks his Bible scholars where the king
of the Jews is to be born. The scholars inform Herod that the
king is to be born in Bethlehem.

o Herod conveys this information to the wise men and indicates

that they should tell him when they find the child so that he can
come to worship him. But of course, Herod doesn’t want to
worship the child; he wants to destroy the child.

o The wise men continue on their journey, following the star,

which stops over the house where Jesus is in Bethlehem. The
wise men worship Jesus, but they return by a different route to
avoid informing Herod. Herod is enraged when he realizes that
he has been deceived. He sends out his soldiers to kill every
male child aged two and under.

o When Joseph learns in a dream that Herod is out to kill the

child, he flees with Jesus and Mary to Egypt. When Herod
dies, Joseph and his family return home, but they can’t live in
Bethlehem because Herod’s son, Archelaus, is now the king
there. Instead, the family goes to Nazareth.