Rome and the East
the Gospels all ‘‘belong’’ in pre-.. Palestine, and must in some sense de-
rive from it. Within that wider framework it must be firmly asserted that
the Gospelsarebiographical narratives; Matthew and Luke follow the life of
Jesus from birth to death; Mark and John do so from his recognition by John
the Baptist until death. The two pillars on which the structure of all four
narratives rest are therefore, firstly, John the Baptist and his proclamation of
Jesus and, secondly, the Passion narratives.
Only Matthew and Luke take the story back to the birth of Jesus, and
do so in wholly different and incompatible ways. But we cannot understand
thesignificanceof this comparison unless we hold fast to the historical frame-
work of the later years of Herodian rule and the early stages of Roman rule
in Judaea, as provided by Josephus.^4 If we use this framework, we find that
Matthew presents an entirely feasible succession of events. Jesus was born
in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King (:), therefore not
later than spring of ..In fear of Herod, Joseph took the family to Egypt
(:), which since ..had been a Roman province. When Herod died
(..), an angel prompted Joseph to return to the land of Israel; but hear-
ing that Herod’s son Archelaus was ruling in Judaea, as he did from ..to
.., Joseph was afraid. So he went instead to Galilee, and settled in Naza-
reth (:). The implication is that Archelaus was not ruling there, which is
correct. It is not, however, explicitly stated at this point that the ruler there
was Archelaus’ brother, Herodes Antipas, who was in fact in power there
from ..to... Indeed it is not until :– that ‘‘Herodes the tetrarch’’
(his correct title) makes his first and only entrance, with a reference back to
his execution of John the Baptist. So the historical framework is only par-
tially reflected; all the same the underlying presumption that there was more
to fear in Judaea under Archelaus than in Galilee under Herodes Antipas is
borne out by Josephus’ accounts of the two reigns.
The purpose of the story is to explain how Jesus, later to emerge from ob-
scurity as a man from Nazareth, both belonged to the line of David (hence
the genealogy in :–) and had in fact duly been born in Bethlehem (:
–).
Luke’s birth narrative has the same purpose, but sets about fulfilling it
quite differently. Even his genealogy, which he does not introduce until
chapter , disagrees with Matthew’s, beginning in the generation before
Joseph; but it too includes King David (:–). More important, having
begun by locating the story ‘‘in the days of Herod the king of Judaea’’ (:),
. For the historical framework and datings, and above all the crucial question of the
census of.., see Schürer, Vermes, and Millar,HistoryI, –.