ipl-logo

Infancy Narrative Analysis

822 Words4 Pages

Matthew and Luke were both evangelists and they both helped to spread the Gospel, the good news of Jesus. Their telling of the Gospel is similar yet different as well. Specifically the infancy narratives differ in particular ways that may cause the audience to question which infancy narrative is more correct. This essay will compare the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke and will show how the infancy narrative of Luke previews the themes of Luke’s Gospel. The infancy narrative of Matthew occurs in the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew begins with “The Genealogy of Jesus”. Similarly Luke’s Gospel contains Jesus’ Genealogy as well. But, unlike Matthew, Luke includes the genealogy in the third chapter of Luke’s Gospel. The Genealogy …show more content…

However the people it was announced to and the time were different. In Matthew’s Gospel the angle was unnamed and “appeared to Joseph in a dream” (Mt 1:20). Matthew never said Mary’s side of how the Holy Spirit was working within her. Luke’s Gospel differs because the angle has a name, Gabriel. It also differs because Luke told Mary’s encounter with the Holy Spirit but did not include Joseph’s. “The angle Gabriel appears to Mary” (Lk 1:26), instead of Joseph and tells Mary that she will have a child “through the Holy Spirit” and “the child will be called Jesus” (Lk 1:31). Also another difference is that Mary was awake when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and Joseph was asleep and the unnamed angel appeared during a …show more content…

Therefore after Jesus’ birth the family moves to Egypt, running from king Herod. When they finally return they go to Nazareth instead of Jerusalem. It is obvious that in Matthew’s Gospel the family avoids Jerusalem and Jesus’s birth isn’t celebrated in the same way as Luke explains in Luke’s Gospel. This goes along with the difference in the themes of each Gospel. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is recognized publicly and the feel of the event is happy and joyful. Another difference is the people that came to visit baby Jesus. In Matthew’s account, it was “the Magi from the east” that came to Jesus. And in Luke’s gospel it was shepherds who were the first ones to visit Jesus. The magi are gentile philosophers, people with knowledge and most likely titles. In Luke’s gospel it was shepherds who are the lowly people. The shepherds were told of Jesus by angles in the night sky. And “the Magi from the east” “saw his star

Open Document