Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Why Gospels disagree | Rodolfo Galvan Estrada
Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one’s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the Greco-Roman era, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur
The Conversation
30 December 2020, 7:41am
Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the Palestinian West Bank comes centre-stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago.
Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus’ birth at all.
Birth of a dilemma
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III
Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the Palestinian West Bank comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago.
Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus birth at all.
The Gospels different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a scholar of the New Testament, I argue the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity, including genealogies.
Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the Greco-Roman era, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur.
The remains of a 2,000-year-old ritual bath have been discovered at Gethsemane the place where Jesus Christ prayed before He was betrayed by Judas marking the first archeological evidence linking the pilgrimage site to the New Testament era. | YouTube/ The Watchman
The remains of a 2,000-year-old ritual bath have been discovered at Gethsemane the place where Jesus Christ prayed before He was betrayed by Judas marking the first archeological evidence linking the pilgrimage site to the New Testament era.
The Times of London reports that archaeologists working in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed the bath, along with the steps that would have led down into the water, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, near the modern church at Gethsemane.
Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? | Opinion
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
By Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III
Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the Palestinian West Bank comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago.
Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus’ birth at all.
The Gospels’ different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a scholar of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity, including genealogies.
| UPDATED: 18:30, Mon, Dec 21, 2020
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A collection of early Christian texts, the Gnostic Gospels were uncovered near the town of Nag Hammadi, North Egypt, in 1945. The stories were not included in the New Testament, a point which many scholars argue suggests they in fact supplement the Bible, helping to fill in the gaps of many unexplainable events. Around 52 gospel texts were found in a sealed jar, collected in 13 leather-bound papyruses, dubbed the Nag Hammadi library .