The Bible presents Christ nativity information in segments. The Book of Matthew relates Christ’s conception, birth, and early life primarily from Joseph’s perspective. Luke looks more from Mary’s point of view. John focuses on Christ’s spiritual source.

In Matthew chapter 1, Joseph discovers that his fiancée, Mary, is pregnant although the two have not had intercourse. He plans to break up quietly to protect Mary’s reputation, but in a dream an angel tells him to go on and marry the lady because the Holy Spirit conceived the child within her. The same angel instructs him to name the son Jesus.

After awakening, Joseph obeyed the angel’s instructions, took Mary home as his wife but did not enter her until after she bore the son, whom Joseph did name Jesus.

The focus through Joseph continues in chapter 2. After the Magi complete their famous gift-giving visit, an angel instructs Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s impending pogrom against toddlers. Again Joseph obeys, so that family was out of town when Herod ordered the execution of all Bethlehem boys under two years old.

Chapter 2 ends with an angel telling Joseph, again in a dream, to return to the land of Israel, since those intent on killing Jesus were dead. Joseph returned, settling his family in Nazareth, far north Bethlehem, because Herod’s son, Archelaus, was ruling the area that included Bethlehem.

What was happening with Mary while Joseph was implementing God’s leadership directives? Luke’s gospel tells us in chapters 1-2 that she was hearing from God also.

In Chapter 1, God sends His angel, Gabriel, to tell Mary, a virgin, that she was favored, that the Lord was with her, and that she would bear a son and name Him Jesus.

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end,”1 the angel said.

Mary asked how could this happen, since she was virgin. The angel answered that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, and that for that reason the Child would be called the Son of God. Mary called herself the Lord’s bondslave and said, “may it be done to me according to your word.”

Mary hurried to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. When Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped, and Elizabeth, filled with Holy Spirit, shouted to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

Mary then sang praises about God.

In Chapter 2, Luke writes of Joseph and Mary travelling to Bethlehem to register for the census, the inn being full, and Mary laying Jesus in a manger after birthing him. Luke also reports the angels’ appearance to the shepherds and the shepherds’ visit to the family.Afterward, Luke discusses Joseph and Mary taking the eight-day old infant to the temple for ritual circumcision and naming, where old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna, thanking God, identify Jesus as God’s salvation.

John’s writings are more spiritual than the synoptic gospels. Ignoring human birthday details, John focuses on the Messiah’s spiritual history. Thus, The Gospel According to John begins something like Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning,” .

“The Word” means Christ. John says all things were created through the Christ spiritually long before baby Jesus was born physically.

Hence, John reveals that Christ existed as part of God before our familiar Christmas story. The adult Jesus reinforces this fact in John 17:5 as he prays prior to his arrest and crucifixion: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world began.”

So the core Christmas message is that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14 ). God’s entry into the physical world as a human being was the new beginning.

Read it for yourself.

1NASB. 2ew American Standard Bible (NASB) 3Female slave. NASB.
4NASB. 5New International Version (NIV). 6NASB