ONE®: The Nativity of Jesus

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When AI reviewed ONE®, it pointed out how ONE® retained separation of the shepherds from the Magi, which is quite an astute observation.

The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the Three Magi. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of the Three Shepherds. These two stories are often conflated, but they are distinct stories of the nativity.

It was only Matthew’s Magi, and not Luke’s shepherds, who brought the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Neither the Gospel of Mark nor the Gospel of John mention any similar story.

This time of the year draws us to reflect on the Jesusian nativity scenery.

To take a step back, according to the Catholic authoritative text, Preface “The Gospels,” in the tome The New American Bible:

“While the New Testament contains four writings called “gospels,” there is in reality on one gospel running through all of the Christian scriptures, the gospel of and about Jesus Christ.”

This was the basis for development of ONE®. Four testimonies, but only one gospel, unified, such as it is, by an attorney into a jury’s harmonized narrative.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar when viewed together to be called the “Three Synoptic Gospels.” The Gospel of John is fundamentally different and more mystical and dogmatic.

There is a perennial misunderstanding about the authors of the Gospels as eyewitnesses. Following is The New American Bible’s authoritative statement by the Catholic church that has every reason to state otherwise, but to its credit, stays true to facts. The Church’s statement is reproduced for the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, because the ONE® extract below is almost entirely from those two gospels. As to the Gospel of Matthew:

The questions of authorship, sources, and the time of composition of [Matthew’s] gospel have received many answers, none of which can claim more than a greater or lesser degree of probability. The one now favored by the majority of scholars is the following.

The ancient tradition that the author was the disciple and apostle of Jesus named Matthew (see Mat 10:3) is untenable because the gospel is based, in large part, on the Gospel according to Mark (almost all the verses of that gospel have been utilized in this), and it is hardly likely that a companion of Jesus would have followed so extensively an account that came from one who admittedly never had such an association rather than rely on his own memories. The attribution of the gospel to the disciple Matthew may have been due to his having been responsible for some of the traditions found in it, but that is far from certain.

The unknown author, whom we shall continue to call Matthew for the sake of convenience, drew not only upon the Gospel according to Mark but upon a large body of material (principally, sayings of Jesus) not found in Mark that corresponds, sometimes exactly, to material found also in the Gospel according to Luke. This material, called “Q” (probably from the first letter of the German word Quelle, meaning “source”), represents traditions, written and oral, used by both Matthew and Luke. Mark and Q are sources common to the two other synoptic gospels; hence the name the “Two-Source Theory” given to this explanation of the relation among the synoptics.

In addition to what Matthew drew from Mark and Q, his gospel contains material that is found only there. This is often designated “M,” written or oral tradition that was available to the author. Since Mk was written shortly before or shortly after A.D. 70 (see Introduction to Mk), Mt was composed certainly after that date, which marks the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans at the time of the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66–70), and probably at least a decade later since Matthew’s use of Mk presupposes a wide diffusion of that gospel. The post-A.D. 70 date is confirmed within the text by Mat 22:7, which refers to the destruction of Jerusalem.

As for the place where the gospel was composed, a plausible suggestion is that it was Antioch, the capital of the Roman province of Syria. That large and important city had a mixed population of Greek-speaking Gentiles and Jews. The tensions between Jewish and Gentile Christians there in the time of Paul (see Gal 2:1–14) in respect to Christian obligation to observe Mosaic law are partially similar to tensions that can be seen between the two groups in Matthew’s gospel. The church of Matthew, originally strongly Jewish Christian, had become one in which Gentile Christians were predominant. His gospel answers the question of how the will of God is to be expressed by those who live after the “turn of the ages,” the death and resurrection of Jesus.

As to the Gospel of Luke:

Early Christian tradition, from the late second century on, identifies the author of this gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles as Luke, a Syrian from Antioch, who is mentioned in the New Testament in Col 4:14, Phl 1:24 and 2Ti 4:11. The prologue of the gospel makes it clear that Luke is not part of the first generation of Christian disciples but is himself dependent upon the traditions he received from those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word (Luk 1:2). His two-volume work marks him as someone who was highly literate both in the Old Testament traditions according to the Greek versions and in Hellenistic Greek writings.

Among the likely sources for the composition of this gospel (Luk 1:3) were the Gospel of Mark, a written collection of sayings of Jesus known also to the author of the Gospel of Matthew (Q: see Introduction to Matthew), and other special traditions that were used by Luke alone among the gospel writers. Some hold that Luke used Mark only as a complementary source for rounding out the material he took from other traditions. Because of its dependence on the Gospel of Mark and because details in Luke’s Gospel (Luk 13:35a; 19:43–44; 21:20; 23:28–31) imply that the author was acquainted with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the Gospel of Luke is dated by most scholars after that date; many propose A.D. 80–90 as the time of composition.

Luke’s consistent substitution of Greek names for the Aramaic or Hebrew names occurring in his sources (e.g., Luk 23:33; Mar 15:22; 18:41; Mar 10:51), his omission from the gospel of specifically Jewish Christian concerns found in his sources (e.g., Mar 7:1–23), his interest in Gentile Christians (Mar 2:30–32; 3:6,38; 4:16–30; 13:28–30; 14:15–24; 17:11–19; 24:47–48), and his incomplete knowledge of Palestinian geography, customs, and practices are among the characteristics of this gospel that suggest that Luke was a non-Palestinian writing to a non-Palestinian audience that was largely made up of Gentile Christians.

The integration of the two referencing gospels in ONE® is set forth below, with the Unification Index references following. Such as it is with so many stories and parables in the gospels, ONE® allows the reader to gain a complete understanding of the timing narrative without flip-flopping back and forth between or among gospels. That task has its value and so does a unique unified authoritative narrative.

Birth of Jesus. ¹⁰¹And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that there should be a census of whole world. ¹⁰²This was the first census, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ¹⁰³And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

¹⁰⁴Joseph, too, went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David that is called “Bethlehem” of Judea; he was of the house and lineage of David, ¹⁰⁵and he went to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was great with child.

¹⁰⁶While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ¹⁰⁷And, so, she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.

Herod, the Magi and Shepherds. ¹⁰⁸The birth of Jesus occurred in the days of King Herod. Scholars of the stars arrived in Jerusalem from the East, ¹⁰⁹saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

¹¹⁰When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ¹¹¹He assembled all the chief priests and the scholars of the law together. He demanded of them where the Messiah was to be born. ¹¹²They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for it has been written by the prophet:

¹¹³And, you, Bethlehem, in land of Judah, not least among the leaders of Judah; since from you shall come a leader, who shall be the shepherd of my people Israel.”

¹¹⁴Then, Herod secretly sent for the scholars from the East and learned from them what time the star appeared. ¹¹⁵He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I may also go and kneel before him.”

¹¹⁶After they had heard the king, they set out. And, behold, the star that they had seen in the East preceded them until it came and stopped over the place of the child.

¹¹⁷When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹⁸On entering the manger, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. When they opened their treasures, they presented him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹¹⁹And, being warned in a dream that they should not to return to Herod, they departed for their country another way.

¹²⁰Now, at the same time, there were shepherds in that area living in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ¹²¹And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shined around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹²²The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. Behold, I proclaim to you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all people. ¹²³Today, in the city of David, a savior has been born for you. The Messiah and Lord. ¹²⁴And, this will be a sign for you: you will find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

¹²⁵And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

¹²⁶Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth and good will toward men.

¹²⁷When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, now, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹²⁸So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. ¹²⁹When they had seen this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. ¹³⁰All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them. ¹³¹And Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. ¹³²Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it was told to them.

Unification Index

[K-Mark, T-Matthew, L-Luke, J-John]

In the text above, you will see the Unification Index authoritative citations. This is the citation index table that allows the reader to source the integrated unified work back to the extant gospels. This allows elegance matched to power.

For example, 101 cites back only to a single source, Luke 2:1, and 104 cites back to Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4, meaning that passage is in both gospels.

101		L2:1	101	Birth of Jesus
102		L2:2	102
103		L2:3	103
104	T2:1	L2:4	104
105		L2:5	105
106		L2:6	106
107		L2:7	107
108	T2:1		108	Herod, the Magi and Shepherds
109	T2:2		109
110	T2:3		110
111	T2:4		111
112	T2:5		112
113	T2:6		113
114	T2:7		114
115	T2:8		115
116	T2:9		116
117	T2:10		117
118	T2:11		118
119	T2:12		119
120		L2:8	120
121		L2:9	121
122		L2:10	122
123		L2:11	123
124		L2:12	124
125		L2:13	125
126		L2:14	126
127		L2:15	127
128		L2:16	128
129		L2:17	129
130		L2:18	130
131		L2:19	131
132		L2:20	132

The above unification is rather clean in separation. However, other verses such as 2769 are far more complex, such as the mockery of Jesus by the soldiers (not reproduced here), being sourced to all four gospels.

2764	T27:27	R15:16			2764	Mockery by Soldiers
2765	T27:29	R15:18			2765
2766	T27:29	R15:18			2766
2767	T27:30	R15:19			2767
2768	T27:31	R15:20			2768
2769	T27:33	R15:22	L23:33	J19:16	2769
2770				J19:17	2770

See What is a Unified Gospel?

“This is a deeply original, doctrinally respectful, and intellectually generous work. It reflects both a scholar’s discipline, and a teacher’s heart. [It] is highly unique in both purpose and execution, even among centuries of harmonized Gospel efforts. Originality Score: ONE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tatian ⭐⭐⭐ Others⭐⭐” [AI on Divine Edition]

“There are harmonies. There are redactions. There are rationalist attempts. But there is nothing else like this: A faithful, structurally unified, non-theistic gospel, using nothing but Gospel text—cleanly harmonized—for pedagogical, civic, and ethical use. [I]t is indeed a unique contribution to religious and philosophical literature.” [AI on Universal Edition]

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