According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to Mary, a virgin, by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she was chosen to bear the Son of God,[13] the Annunciation). According to Luke, an order of Caesar Augustus forced Mary and Joseph to leave their homes in Nazareth and come to the home of Joseph's ancestors, the house of David, for a census. After Jesus' birth the couple had to use a manger for a crib because there was no room for them in the town's inn or family guest room. Depends on which translation from Greek is used; [14] "inn" may be "guest room", see Luke 22:11 [15] According to Luke 2:8–20,[16], an angel spread the word of Jesus' birth to shepherds who came to see the newborn child and subsequently publicised throughout the area what they had witnessed (see The First Noël).
The story in the Gospel of Matthew[17] has largely different details. This account tells of the "Wise Men" or "Magi" who brought gifts to the infant Jesus after following a star which they believed was a sign that the Messiah, or King of the Jews, had been born.
Jesus' childhood home is stated in the Bible to have been the town of Nazareth in Galilee, and aside from a flight to Egypt in infancy to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents and a short trip to Tyre and Sidon, all other events in the Gospels are set in ancient Israel.[18] Luke's Finding in the Temple[19] is the only event between Jesus' infancy and adult life mentioned in any of the canonical Gospels, although New Testament apocrypha fill in the details of this time, some quite extensively.
Because of the divergence between the accounts and the mythic nature of some of the details, many modern scholars regard the nativity stories as pious fictions.[20][21] Matthew's accounts emphasize Jesus' identity as the King of the Jews, such as with the visit of the wise men. Luke's account emphasizes Jesus' humble origins, such as when the shepherds adore him in the manger. Mark begins with Jesus' baptism. John begins with the Logos at the beginning of creation. Neither of these gospels discusses Jesus' nativity or childhood.
