Do You Know the Christmas Story in the Gospels? Quiz

Answer: Matthew

Written sometime around A.D. 70-110, Matthew emphasizes the Jewish tradition of the Church that has grown more Gentile. He presents a genealogy to illustrate that the coming of Jesus fulfills Tanakh (Old Testament) history and crowns his people's history. Thus he begins with Abraham. His source is Ruth 4:18-22 and 1 Chronicles 1-3, but the last part (Mt 1:12-16) is mostly full of names which do not appear in Tanakh/Old Testament genealogies.

Luke also has a genealogy, but as his audience is Gentile he starts with Adam (the first man created) to emphasize that Christ came to save all humankind. Mark and John have no genealogy.

The footnotes of the NABRE observe that Matthew's genealogy shows both continuities and discontinuities: "The women Tamar (Mt 1:3), Rahab and Ruth (1:5), and the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba (Mt 1:6), bore their sons through unions that were in varying degrees strange and unexpected. These 'irregularities' culminate in the supreme 'irregularity' of the Messiah's birth of a virgin mother; the age of fulfillment is inaugurated by a creative act of God."

Answer: Luke

Elizabeth was the wife of the preiest Zechariah and cousin to the Virgin Mary, and as the angel Gabriel foretold, the mother of John, whose name means "Yahweh has shown favor", and indication of John's role as the Baptist. Like Samson and Samuel, John "will drink neither wine nor strong drink" (Lk 1:15).

Elizabeth's childlessness until her senior years connects her to some of the great mothers of the Old Testament, such as Sarah (Gn 15:3 and 16:2), Rebekah (Gn 25:21), and Hannah (1 Sm 1:2).

Answer: Luke

This episode in the Luke's infancy narrative is traditionally called the The Annunciation (Lk 1:26-33). The announcement of the birth of Jesus centers on his identity as Son of David (1:32-33) and Son of God (1:32,35). The greeting and subsequent words of Gabriel are used to make the Catholic prayer Hail Mary (Ave Maria).

In the 4th or 5th century, the Feast of the Annunciation was fixed to March 25 -- nine months before December 25, and as close to the Vernal Equinox as Christmas is close to the Winter Solstice. It has long been an important Feast Day for Catholic and Orthodox Christians. In fact, when the scholarly monk St. Dionysius the Humble introduced Anno Domini dating in A.D. 525, he assigned New Year's Day to the Annunciation, as it also marks the Incarnation of the Christ.

A work of art depicting the Annunciation, a popular subject in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is sometimes itself called an Annunciation, such as the one by Leonardo da Vinci (housed in the Uffizi), one of his earliest completed works. El Greco's Annunciation hangs in The Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Answer: Luke

The Virgin Mary, pregnant with the infant Christ Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is carrying John the Baptist. At Mary's greeting, John "leapt in the womb", which has come to be interpreted by many Christians that he was cleansed of original sin, and also that he recognized the Lord. Mary then sang a song that begins with "My soul magnifies the Lord" (Lk 1:46-55 NRSV). It has come to be known as the Canticle of Mary or the Magnificat (after the first word in the Latin Vulgate) or the Ode of the Theotokos.

Up to the 12th century in Greek art, the greeting of the two women was very subdued and formal, but in Syrian art they would warmly embrace. After the 12th century, the more sisterly form of the Visitation predominated in Europe for the next three hundred years.

Answer: Matthew

As described in Matthew 1:18-15, Joseph discovered that the Virgin Mary was pregnant, while they were betrothed but not yet living together. "Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame"-- or death, the penalty for adultery-- "decided to divorce her quietly" (Mt 1:19). An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him not be afraid, that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. "She will bear a son," said the angel, "and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (1:21). Matthew does not identify the angel, but tradition has assumed him to be the archangel Gabriel, the same messenger who announced the coming birth of Jesus to His mother, the Virgin Mary, in the Gospel according to Luke.

Answer: Luke

Gabriel tells the shepherds not to be afraid, "For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord". He tells them to look for a baby "wrapped in swaddllng clothes and lying in a manger". And then a host of angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (2:14). Luke makes a point of mentioning the Virgin Mary, who observed the shepherds spreading what the angel had told them: "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart" (2:19).

Of the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), only Luke uses the specific title "savior" for Jesus, both in his Gospel and in the subsequent Acts of the Apostles.

Answer: Matthew

In Matthew's Gospel, the number of Magi are not specified or where they are from, other than the East (2:1-3, including the quote in the question). They followed a bright star until it stopped "over the place where the child was", and "on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage." (2:9-11).

In later retellings of the story, there are three Magi (or Kings or Wise Men), and they have been given names and a background: Melchior from Persia, Gaspar (or "Caspar") from India, and Balthazar from Arabia. Their gifts have been given significance: gold for Jesus' royalty ("King of the Jews"), frankincense for His divinity, and myrrh for His suffering and death. But none of those glosses appear in Matthew's account.

In Nativity scenes, stained-glass windows, etc. the Christmas story is compressed to make it seem that Magi arrived at the same time as the shepherds, and shortly after Christ's birth. But traditionally, they arrived almost a fortnight later. The day that the Three Magi arrived to see Jesus is called the Epiphany ("manifestation, conspicuous appearance") or the Theophany ("an appearance of God to humanity"). It is also called Three Kings Day or Día de Los Reyes especially in Latin America, where they have historically been more prominent. In Western traditions, if December 25 is the Nativity, then Epiphany is 12 days later, on January 6 (and that's how we get the Twelve Days of Christmas).

Answer: Matthew

Before entering Bethlehem to visit the newborn Jesus, The Magi had first informed King Herod of Judea that they were going to visit the one they called "the King of the Jews", whose star they were following (Mt 2:1-3). They were warned in a dream not to return to the anxious and vengeful Herod (2:12).

King Herod was still worried about a usurper to his throne, so he ordered the death of male children in Bethlehem aged two and under (2:16-18). This atrocity is known by various names, such as the Slaughter of the (Holy) Innocents or the Massacre of the Infants. It is commemorated by many Western churches (Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran) on the 28th and by most Eastern churches on the 29th of December. (West Syriac churches, however, observe it on the 27th and East Syriac on the 10th of January.)

Joseph was likewise forewarned in a dream: "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you", said an angel (Mt 2:13). Matthew does not identify the angel, but it is traditionally presumed to be Gabriel, who had earlier announced the maternity of both the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. After Herod died, the angel reappeared and told Joseph it was safe to return, and so Joseph brought his family home to Nazareth.

Answer: None of the Gospels

In the canonical Gospels, no animals are specified in the Nativity of Jesus. In the Old Testament (Tanakh), there is this: "The ox knows its owner and an ass, its master's manger, but Israel does not know me, my people have not understood" (Isaiah 1:3). Isaiah is talking about the Israelites' failure to follow God, but early Christian writers also linked this to the Nativity.

A non-canonical document appeared the early 7th century, nowadays dubbed the Infancy Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, though its name in antiquity was The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior. While never regarded as canonical, it still had a strong influence on medieval thought. In Pseudo-Matthew, the author states that after the birth, "the ox and the ass adored Him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by the prophet, saying: 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib' (Is 1:3)". It further states: "The very animals, therefore, the ox and the ass, having Him in their midst, incessantly adored Him."

So through an apocryphal embellishment, the animals became a common ingredient in artistic depictions of the Nativity, and they continue to appear in Nativity scenes today.

Answer: John

The Gospel according to John does not have an infancy narrative as such, yet in the prologue of the first chapter he crystallizes the Christmas Story into its essence: the Incarnation of Jesus Christ (the Word or the Logos in the original Greek), the Son of God, who reveals God the Father. It's a hymnic piece that begins:
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God." (1:1).

John concludes his prologue, "And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father's only Son,
full of grace and truth." (1:14)

As the Reader's Guide in "The Catholic Study Bible" points out, the Incarnation, God becoming human, "is the special revelation of Christianity" (RG 460).