The Virgin Birth 3: Two Geographical Centers in Jesus' Nativity

In this episode I discuss the realistic picture that we get in Matthew and Luke in which both Nazareth and Bethlehem play a role in the lives of Joseph and Mary at the time of Jesus' birth. I suggest that Mary was from Nazareth and that Joseph was from Bethlehem as his home town, though he may have been living for a time in Nazareth. Mary had family down in the Judean hill country as well. If the couple was planning to settle in Bethlehem, as they apparently did after Jesus' birth for a while until the flight to Egypt, this would also explain why Mary traveled with Joseph to Bethlehem at the census.  

Here again are some good resources on Christmas and the nativity narratives from Triablogue.  http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2020/11/christmas-resources-2020.html  Here is an interesting scholarly article by Stephen Carlson. (Hat tip to Jason Engwer for alerting me to it.) Carlson argues that Joseph was from Bethlehem personally. I don't endorse all of Carlson's speculations--in particular, the idea that the marriage of Mary and Joseph took place in Bethlehem seems incorrect to me. But the article is useful nonetheless.  http://www.hypotyposeis.org/papers/Carlson%202010%20NTS.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0oBuus-5Cw9q8thfl5oKSzwk5muEjo6NcWxDwq7JU8NWGRvlzp_mQgiUQ  

Originally uploaded to YouTube Dec 12 2020