RE: Christians - even the Bible says that Jesus was not God so why do you say he was ?
October 27, 2015 at 12:10 pm
(October 27, 2015 at 10:44 am)Irrational Wrote:(October 27, 2015 at 10:40 am)alpha male Wrote: As I noted, the two accounts share several key points. "Similar" is ambiguous. It will end up a false dichotomy with you on one side and me on the other.
Neither were there chapters, or headings, or agreed-upon "account" divisions, but you need to use some such system to do an account analysis.
These key points which are:
Bethlehem (based on a verse in Micah)
Virgin: Based on an unfortunate mistranslation of the verse in Isaiah
Joseph and Mary: common news at the time
But notice about the angel appearance: Matthew says he appeared to Jospeh, but Luke says he appeared to Mary.
And, alpha male, anyone not blinded by the "inerrancy" of the Bible can see that the nativity accounts are drastically different (even considering the few words you mentioned).
And anyone not blinded by anti-theism will conclude, or at least consider as a plausible possibility, that the accounts are complementary, rather than contradictory.
Same with the genealogies - that one is of Mary, or they're both of Joseph due to Levirate marriage, are possibilities that people without an agenda would consider.