In the Gospels according to Matthew and that according to Luke, the birth and childhood of Jesus are recounted. Although both of these accounts mention Jesus as not only the son of Joseph and his virgin wife Mary, but also the Son of God, they also have many differences between the two. When compared and contrasted, many scholars find historical inaccuracies between the two Gospels (especially regarding the birth and childhood of Jesus). That being said however, upon closer examination of some of the historical issues it may be seen that they are not as important as the deeper motivation they bring out to the reader about the kingdom of God, the Jewish people and even pagans. .Matthew and Luke each contain short but elaborate birth stories about Jesus. In each of their accounts, Matthew and Luke mention the genealogies of Jesus which, compared to each other, are very different. In the Gospel of Matthew, he traces the ancestry of Jesus to that of “Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1). In Luke's gospel, Jesus goes back through David and Abraham to Adam and God. Now, even though the genealogies of Matthew and Luke are not the same, what is even more concerning is that neither is too correct. Regarding Matthew's view of Jesus' genealogy, we can see that "his genealogy suggests—indeed, it almost demonstrates—that the entire course of Israel's history unfolded according to divine providence." (Ehrman116). However, historians today know about two-thirds of Jesus' genealogy, and compared to other sources, the sequence Matthew alludes to does not hold up. Many names have been omitted, and probably because if he had included them Jes...... middle of paper ... historically correct in order to show that he would be important to the people. Ultimately, Matthew and the gospels of Luke contain different, even inaccurate, historical information in their accounts of Jesus' birth. However, as you saw in the two main examples I gave, it is likely that both authors were more focused on showing the reader how important Jesus was going to be to the kingdom of God, to the people Jew as well as pagans. Ultimately, the gospels were probably not written more to show deeper meaning than precise historical information. Works Cited Coogan, Michael D., et al. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: With the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.