DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Only Matthew and Luke have birth stories. Mark opens with Jesus as an adult at his baptism; John opens before creation, with the Word. The two nativities also tell different halves — magi and star in Matthew, shepherds and manger in Luke.
Why it’s interesting
Mark, which most scholars date earliest, begins without a birth story at all — the nativities enter the written tradition with Matthew and Luke, and each tells a different one.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.