Careful interpretation is needed. These slides discuss some of the issues involved. For instance, both Matthew and Luke date Jesus’ birth toward the end of the reign of King Herod the Great, who we ...

In Matthew’s narrative, Jesus’ birth is detected by foreign priests, the magi; in Luke it is lowly Jewish shepherds who first learn the news. In Matthew’s narrative, King Herod in Jerusalem hunts ...

How does this relate to the birth of Jesus? Fast forward a few hundred years to the writers of the Gospels in the New Testament. To confirm that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God, they referred ...

Accordingly its consideration of the birth of Jesus starts with Paul’s references thereto: Galatians 4:4; Romans 1:3, 4 and 8:3, and Philippians 2:5–11. In Galatians four, Paul is talking ...

These and many other questions will be the subject of homilies across many Christian traditions that celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Counsellor, the Lord, the King of Kings.

There's a theory, though, that Jesus' place of birth gives us a clue to a rather more sophisticated character. Somebody who was just on the doorstep of a Hellenized small town, multi-lingual.