Christmas in the Gospels Trivia Quiz

Answer: Matthew

The birth of Jesus was a matter of great theological import for the writer of Matthew, who sought to convince readers that this was indeed the Messiah predicted by Old Testament prophecies. This made it important to make all the necessary connections clear, which is the reason behind many of the seemingly extraneous details included in the account. Jewish tradition holds that the Messiah will be descended patrilineally (through the father) from David, so establishing such descent was of primal importance.

While Luke also verifies Joseph's patrilineal descent from David, he gives no detail. His target audience is Greek, not Jewish, and his emphasis is on who Jesus was and what he did, not on how he fit into Jewish theology.

Answer: Luke

The Annunciation is the record of the angel Gabriel informing Mary that she was to become the mother of Jesus through a virgin birth. The event is described in Luke 1:26-38, immediately after the miraculous late life pregnancy of her kinswoman Elizabeth, which was to lead to the birth of John the Baptist.

Exactly where the Annunciation occurred is a matter of dispute. In Nazareth, the Roman Catholic church claims their Basilica of the Annunciation is on the site, while the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, about half a mile away, makes the same claim.

Answer: Luke

Luke's account actually starts with Zechariah being told that he and Elizabeth were to become parents, despite her advanced age. When he expressed some doubt, the angel Gabriel informed him that he would remain unable to speak until the birth of his son, which duly occurred.

After describing the Annunciation and Mary's subsequent visit to Elizabeth, Luke returns to describe the birth of John the Baptist and his naming eight days later. When Zechariah successfully insisted on the name John, his voice was miraculously restored, and Luke records him making the prophetic prayer about his son which is known as the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79).

Answer: Luke

Shortly after hearing that she was to become the mother of God, Mary left her home in Nazareth to visit Elizabeth, who was about five months into her pregnancy. Luke's description of these two meetings provides two of the traditional prayers associated with Mary, the Hail Mary and the Magnificat. Both Mary and Elizabeth are described as being filled with the Holy Spirit, and experiencing joy at their privileged position - and Elizabeth's unborn child likewise acknowledges (leaping within the womb) the arrival of the mother of his Lord.

Answer: Matthew

While Luke's story focuses on Mary, Matthew starts by establishing that Joseph was part of the lineage of David from which a messiah was expected to appear, and deals with Joseph's response to the news that his wife-to-be was going to have a child. As described in Matthew 1:18-25, his first response was to break things off, but a visit from an angel changed his mind. In verse 21, this unnamed angel advised, "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

The name Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which in Hebrew means "the Lord saves". According to Matthew, his birth was to be seen as fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 about the Messiah's birth: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Immanuel is a title meaning "The Lord with us".

Answer: Luke

Luke Chapter 2 is the most detailed biblical source of details about Jesus's birth. It starts by explaining that the Romans (who controlled the area at that time) had ordered a census. Since Joseph was from the House of David, he had to go to Bethlehem to be registered in the census. Because he and Mary were engaged, she had to travel there with him. The straight-line distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem is about 110 km; the road distance was probably more like 150 km. Given that Mary was nearing the end of her pregnancy, that was no mean challenge!

It should be noted that Luke's mention of the census conflicts with Matthew's statement that the events occurred in the reign of Herod - close, but not at the same time. Matthew jumps straight from Joseph deciding to maintain his plan to marry Mary to the birth. Since Chapter 2 starts by saying it took place in Bethlehem, Matthew actually implies that they were living in that town; there is no description of any travelling.

Answer: Not in the Gospels

The only mention of the journey to Bethlehem is in Luke, which only says that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, and Mary went with him (Luke 2:4-5). Given the distance, and her pregnancy, it is quite possible that the couple did have an animal of some sort to carry their goods and/or on which to ride. It is even more likely that, since there would have been many people making the same journey, they joined a caravan, and were not traveling on their own.

The donkey seems to originate in the Gospel of James, a second-century writing that combines and expands on the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke. It is non-canonical, meaning that it is one of the many writings from that time which were held by those who compiled the New Testament as not being essential truth to be included. This account has Joseph's son (so clearly he is much older than his prospective wife, with grown children from an earlier marriage) leading a donkey on which Mary rode while Joseph walked alongside.

Answer: Not in the Gospels

In fact, almost every detail that can be gleaned from the Gospels about the birth of Christ suggests that it was at quite another time. For example, shepherds would be unlikely to have been in the fields with their flocks in the depths of winter. It is not even possible to fix the year more closely than within a two-year period (roughly 4-6 BCE) based on the meagre historical facts on record.

It was not until the fourth century that the Christian church set the date on which the birth of Jesus was to be observed as 25 December. This conveniently was close in time to the winter solstice and celebrations associated with that date in the Roman empire. It also meant that the Annunciation could be celebrated near the time of the vernal equinox, again useful in the syncretic development of Christianity as it absorbed local celebrations into its own.

Just to make things more complicated, some Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar for their dating, so they celebrate Christmas around the time when western churches are celebrating Epiphany.

Answer: Not in the Gospels

Matthew provides no details of the birth, and Luke 2:7 states that she "wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger". There is no mention of where that manger was located. In fact, many historical theologians consider it was probably a room on the ground level of the house in which they were visiting, where they were lodging because there was no room in the usual guest room. (This interpretation of events also dispenses with the inn and the innkeeper who turned them away. It is based on a reading that has the couple spending at least some days in Bethlehem, probably residing with relatives, after they arrived.)

The Gospel of James (a second-century infancy narrative, not accepted as canonical, which is the source for many of the details of later Mariology, such as her perpetual virginity) is the first record to mention a cave, but it is not in Bethlehem. Instead, this account has the birth occurring while they are still on the road to Bethlehem, forcing them to shelter in a nearby cave. Justin Martyr, another writer in the second century, described the birth as occurring in a cave outside the town of Bethlehem.

Inside the town of Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity was built by Constantine the Great around 330 CE, following the lengthy visit to the Holy Land of his mother, St. Helena, a few years previously. It claims to be built (actually, rebuilt after its destruction in the sixth century) over the cave that was the site of the nativity. It has grown to be a massive complex, with three different groups maintaining monasteries inside it: Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic and Greek Orthodox.

Answer: Luke

Luke 2:8-20 describes how an angel appeared to a group of shepherds watching their flocks overnight in the field, telling them great news: the birth of the long-awaited Messiah. The shepherds were then told to go to Bethlehem and look for a baby in a manger. They did so, and, having found Mary and Joseph with their child as described, they started spreading the word.

Answer: Not in the Gospels

There is no mention of any animal involvement at all in the Gospels - they are completely a later addition to the story. The closest animals mentioned are the sheep in the fields, from whom the shepherds hastened to see the child. If they were really in a rush, they may well have left the flocks behind to look after themselves for a bit.

Of course, where there is a manger there are likely to be animals. And what school Christmas pageant could include everyone without a generous supply of animals around the manger? A number of popular carols include them, such as 'Away in a Manger', whose second verse starts, "The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes".

Answer: Matthew

Despite the fact that many nativity scenes include the Magi as being present at the birth of Jesus, this is not recorded in the Gospels. Matthew 2:11 explicitly says they followed a star that came to rest over a house which they entered, and found Jesus there.

While this could possibly be reconciled with a presence at the time of the nativity (remembering that the manger might have been in a ground-floor room where animals were stabled, hence in a house), Herod's response to finding out that the Magi had warned the Holy Family suggests it was significantly later: "When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi." (Matthew 2:16)

Answer: Not in the Gospels

Matthew is the only one who mentions Magi, a term used for Zoroastrian priests, from the east. The Greek word he used is sometimes translated in this context as Wise Men or Kings. The latter emphasizes the sovereignty of Jesus - that even kings will worship him. Once again, this is a link to Old Testament prophecies in which the Messiah is worshiped by kings (for example, Isaiah 60:3, Psalm 68:29, and Psalm 72:10).

Matthew 2:11 states that Magi visited bearing gifts: "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh." Since there are three named gifts, it has become traditional to refer to three wise men.

Western tradition goes further, and gives them names: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar (all of which appear in multiple variants), first found in a document written around 500 CE. Balthazar is said to have come from Africa (Egypt or Ethiopia), Melchior from Persia, and Caspar from India.

Answer: Luke

Luke 2:21 records, "On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived." Luke's infancy narrative then ends with Jesus being presented at the temple forty days after his birth, for Mary's final purification rites and to complete the redemption of the first-born son prescribed in the Torah. This event is celebrated as the Feast of the Presentation around 2 February (dates differing between denominations, but all within a week of that date).

Luke's account of Jesus' birth then ends with the statement that they went back to Nazareth, and he grew up there (Luke 2:39-40). The next verse moves on to the Passover celebrations when he was 12.

Answer: Matthew

After the Magi had made Herod aware that they believed the Messiah had been born, Herod decided to move swiftly against this potential challenge to his authority, and order the Slaughter of the Innocents - the killing of all boys under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding area (Matthew 2:16). No such mass killing is recorded in non-Biblical records (not even Josephus, who delighted in making bad reports about Herod), so it is generally considered to be non-historical, included in Matthew's narrative to provide another link between the birth of Jesus and the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. This specifically fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15 (Matthew 2:17-18).

To avoid the massacre, Joseph obeyed the instruction of yet another angel to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, staying there until Herod was dead and the threat had passed. And here is another Old Testament link, with Hosea 11:1 reading, "Out of Egypt I called my son."