Infancy narratives
What is the source of Matthew's and Luke's material concerning the birth and
early years of Jesus? Patrick Henry Reardon is a Senior Editor of Touchstone: A
Journal of Mere Christianity
A special historical problem attends the gospel accounts of our Lord's Nativity: where did Matthew and Luke find the historical material that fills the first two chapters of each of their gospels?
The earliest apostolic preaching was based on a defined narrative structure,
which invariably began with the ministry of John the Baptist. It contained
nothing pertinent to the Lords conception, birth and childhood. We discern the
structure of that preaching in Acts. Thus, when St Peter began to evangelize
Cornelius and his friends at Caesarea, he began with the ministry of John
[10.36-7]. He went directly from John to Jesus; nothing was mentioned about
Jesus prior to his baptism.
The evangelical narrative
The same is true of Paul's evangelization of Pisidian Antioch. Paul began by
linking Jesus directly to the ministry of John. He included not one word of
Jesus' life prior to that time [13.23-5]. That is to say, the 'evangelical
narrative' embraced the ministry of Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist. It
contained no information about Jesus' earlier years.
This is exactly what we should expect from a close inspection of the directive
that Peter gave to the assembled Apostles prior to the Pentecostal outpouring of
the Holy Spirit. When they determined to choose some person to take the place of
Judas Iscariot, Peter specified the time period concerning which that chosen
person would have to bear witness. He must be selected, said Peter, from among
'these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and
out among us, beginning from the baptism by John to the day that he was taken up
from us' [1.21-2]. This time period defined the specified limits of the original
apostolic narrative.
Two of the Gospel writers adhere rather strictly to these limits. Thus, Mark's
Gospel begins with the ministry of John the Baptist [1.2-3]. Even the evangelist
John, before declaring that 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,'
proclaims, 'there was a man
sent forth from God whose name was John.' He then describes the Baptist's
ministry at some length [1.6-40]. He moves directly from John to Jesus. Neither
Mark nor John mentions a single detail about Jesus' life from an earlier period.
In short, then, the inherited story structure of the first apostolic witness began the story of Jesus' life at the point of the preaching of John the Baptist. Consequently, Matthew and Luke had available no pertinent material on Jesus' conception, birth and early life from the earliest apostolic preaching. So where did they obtain the narrative material that fills the first two chapters of each of their Gospels?
The personal source
The only reasonable answer, it seems to me, is Jesus' own mother, of whom we are
told, 'Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart' [Luke 2.19,
51]. Luke is obviously disclosing his source here. Mary alone was still alive to
remember, years later, those details no longer known by anyone else. She is the
living witness of the precious stories about herself and Joseph, the conception
and birth of John the Baptist, her own virginal conception, the manger in the
stable, the angels and the shepherds, the Magi, the Lord's circumcision, the
presentation in the Temple, Simeon and Anna, and the dramatic event that
occurred when Jesus was twelve years old.
Matthew and Luke differ greatly between themselves with respect to details, and
their differing literary and theological interests, but they tell essentially
the same story, and it was a story they could have learned from only one source.
Consequently, to read their Christmas stories is to enter into a mother's
contemplative heart where those stories were preserved until they were written
down in the gospels under the inerrant guidance of the Holy Spirit. Holy Church,
in order to proclaim this earlier part of Jesus' life, draws us into the
immaculate heart of Mary, to share in her inner faith and contemplative
vigilance, to understand Christmas as she understood it.