david@cvl.UUCP (David Harwood) (06/14/85)
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>From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Synoptic Gospels
Message-ID: <183@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Now the curious thing about the birth narratives is that they are widely
different, yet they fit together very well. The read, in fact, as if two
people from varying perspectives wrote about the same event. The fact that
Mark does not include them signifies nothing. The point at which Mark
begins is the start of Jesus' ministry, which is a perfectly natural
starting point. Again, one can speculate endlessly on why Mark chose to
start there instead of at the birth, but it's just idle speculation.
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For a very deliberate and scholarly treatment of the evidence
and significance of these two narratives, I recommend The Birth of the
Messiah by the distinguished Catholic scholar Raymond Brown. This is
a very long book (600 pp) treating all aspects of this 'problem',
including the ancient charge that Jesus was an illegitimate offspring
since he was apparently conceived before final rite of marriage. (I don't
entirely agree with the author, but I have absolutely no doubts about his
intellectual integrity. And it is very fascinating to consider the
manifold allusions of these narratives -- his basic point is that these
narratives which focus an the 'annunciation' by the angel of the Lord
of the advent of the Christ -- to Mary, to the Gentile star-gazers, to
the Jews who looked forward to the Messiah, even to the shepherds watching
in the fields by night -- this 'annunciation' by the angel of the Lord
is similar to the 'baptism' of Jesus as Christ, the 'transfiguration'
of Jesus as Christ, the 'ressurrection' of Jesus as the 'ascended'
Christ, the 'parousia' or 'epiphany' of the 'glorified' Christ ---
all of these accounts have to do with the mystery of the fundemental
recognition of Jesus as the Christ, recognized by an 'annunciation'
of the Lord.
Anyway, these accounts are not simply either literal or
fictional, as some would suggest.