Was Jesus Really Born in Bethlehem?

Jesus's birth in Bethlehem is a well-known story from the New Testament. But he is also called Jesus of Nazareth. What gives? Was he actually born in Nazareth?

Bibliography:
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada, "Was Jesus Really Born in Bethlehem? The Gospels Disagree," The Daily Beast, Dec. 25, 2020.
Raymond Brown, "The Birth of the Messiah," 1977.
E.P. Sanders, "The Historical Figure of Jesus," 1995.
Geza Vermes, "The Nativity: History and Legend," 2006.
Sabine Huebner, "Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament," 2019.

Select footage courtesy of Getty
00:00 Overview of Nativity Stories
3:13 Evidence for Nazareth
5:52 Evidence Undermining Matthew and Luke
8:54 Counterarguments
11:45 Countering the Counterarguments
13:18 Conclusion

Select images courtesy of Getty

[jrpipik]

Another element involved is the motivations of the writers. The details of Matthew's narrative suggest he is trying to appeal to a well-to-do Jewish-Christian audience, while Luke is writing to a poor Gentile-Christian audience. Both land on Bethlehem as a key element, but use it in different ways.

[estebancespedes]

The explanation that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem because he had family or property there is pretty odd considering that a big part of the nativity story is that Jesus was born in a manger because they had nowhere to go in Bethlehem.

[Psychol-Snooper]

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

~Nathanael, Disciple and early troll

[ameribeaner]

Holy Cow! 5 years later, you're still making high-quality content in the same manner as you started! That's a true Christmas Miracle! Merry Christmas, Dr. Henry!

[Serai]

Even as a kid, I thought the whole census thing sounded suspicious. What census ever required people to go dozens or hundreds of miles away from their homes just to be counted? It's not only odd, it would be chaotic as hell. Not something the Romans would approve of, let alone require.

[just_ben]

Herod's Palace (Herodium) was near Bethlehem. Herod could see Bethlehem from his palace, and Bethlehem residents could see his palace in the distance. It's understandable that Joseph and Mary would not want to stay there long.

[Aquaria]

All these comments saying there were two Bethlehems are conveniently forgetting that both Matthew and Luke say that Bethlehem was in Judea, not Galilee. And also the fact that it's pretty clear the Galilee Bethlehem is the City of David. So the two Bethlehem theory does not work, and the stories are just contradictory.

[billcook]

I forget the name of a book I read, but it was by a non-Christian historian who was trying very hard to accept the biblical narrative of Jesus. They were able to make plausible most of it, but when it came to Luke’s birth story they gave up. The dates are wrong. The census doesn’t make sense. And even if you accept all that, there’s no way a very pregnant Mary makes the journey to Bethlehem, donkey or no donkey.

[alg]

There are some basic questions that were overlooked. The city of Nazareth is never mentioned in the entire Old Testament. The only reason it became thought of as the place of birth of the Messiah was due to Matthew 2:23 where it says, "as it was said through the prophet he would be called a Nazarene". There is no prophecy like that in any part of the Old Testament nor is any prophet mentioned. One idea is that it was misreading of the word Nazir which is a person who takes it upon himself to devote his life to God by not drinking or cutting his hair (like Samson). The other issue is Bethlehem. Surely it was the birth place of David. However, the term "city of David" always referred to Jerusalem 2 Sam 5:7, 5:9, 6:10, 6:16. In fact in 1 Kings 2:10 it says David was buried in the city of David and we know he wasn't buried in Bethlehem. In modern times, the city of Bethlehem was almost 100% Christian until the Palestinian Authority was given dominion over it. It is now less than 20% Christian.

[sjappiyah]

As always, your content is superb. I appreciate that whilst you present the scholarly consensus, that you also present counter arguments from other scholars.
To often people like to pretend the scholarly census is unanimous and that any alternative views are just that if Bible thumping layman.

Merry Christmas RFB !

[henrimourant]

Ok so I read up on the Tacitus Annals 6.41 passage cited by Sabine Huebner. Unless I am very much mistaken it seems she misunderstood what it said. It's not talking about Rome forcing a client state to conduct a census it is about Rome forcing local tribes to submit to a census AFTER Rome had already annexed the territory. The tribe from Annals 6.41 were from Cappadocia and had fled to Cilicia Tracheia (a client kingdom) in 36 AD (according to my translation) to avoid a census in Cappadocia but according to Tacitus Cappadocia was annexed in 17 AD (Annals 2.42, 2.56) so her example doesn't actually show that the Romans did stuff like that. I think I understand where the confusion took place though. The battle against the tribe took place in a client kingdom but the tribe was fleeing a census in an annexed province. So the the census itself was not done in the client kingdom.

[thcentury]

Just imagine. All those centuries ago, Christian scholars had these same arguments.

[danielmalinen]

It also depends on how the gospels are read. One way of reading Luke is that "everyone had to return to their own hometown/place of residence" for the census of Emperor Augustus (for registration, not taxation) which would mean that even though the Gospel says that Joseph was with Mary in Nazareth, Joseph still lived in Bethlehem and therefore had to return to where his home was. However, there is also strong support for the fact that the Bethlehem story was created for a religious purpose, because several texts of the Hebrew Bible say that the prophet and the Messiah can only be born in the City of David and this way of reading would mean that it is not true.

[jiminthe]

Just watched this over on Nebula but wanted to jump over here and say how much I enjoyed your work on this topic!

I’m a Christian minister. I found your coverage of the topic excellent! You presented your conclusion while also providing alternative views including their strengths and weaknesses.

Great job! Thank you!!

[Isaac_L..]

This is one of the biggest reasons Im not a mythicist. If the whole character of Jesus was made up then it makes sense that he would've simply been from Bethlehem rather than having some cleary contrived explination for why he was technically born in Bethlehem even though everyone knew he was from Nazareth. I think Jesus was a real guy that people widely knew was from Nazareth, hence the Bethlehem natavity story.

[discipleofra]

Census according to ancestral hometowns still occur in countries like Lebanon. This just seems weird to other countries, but over here it's been the normm

[ApplePi]

Another great Religon For Breakfast video!

[danr]

Jimmy Akin suggested a variant of Huebner’s hypothesis that seems plausible. Joseph may have had familial roots and property in Bethlehem but was working as a carpenter in Nazareth at the time of the census. He thus returned to Bethlehem to satisfy the census, but fled to Egypt avoid Herod. Upon returning he may have chosen to settle the family back in Nazareth where he had work.

[RealPumpkinJay]

I was born in a city I wasn’t raised in. My mother went to a different city just to have me there.

[jemdreamz]

I've heard these theories before. This is why we must keep our journaling dated and located correctly for future scholars such as yourself.