Nativity of Jesus. The question of whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem or in Nazareth is controversial
One of the most controversial historical data of the Gospels is what concerns the exact place where Jesus was born, it is not known if Bethlehem or Nazareth.
While it is true that traditionally it is believed that Mary gave birth in the small town of Bethlehem, on the other hand it is also known that Jesus is said to be "of Nazareth ”Or “ Nazarene “, A circumstance that makes the question difficult to ascertain.
In the Gospels, Bethlehem is referred to as the birthplace of the Messiah , yet his full name, in Hebrew, is Joshua ben-Joseph ( Jesus son of Joseph ) from Nazareth.
The evangelists Luke and Matteo , while both indicating Bethlehem as the place of birth, they disagree as to where Mary and Joseph actually lived with the family; according to the first, they resided permanently in Nazareth, they would be only for a short period in Bethlehem, to then return definitively to the first city; for the second, they were citizens of Bethlehem, but would have settled in Nazareth, where Jesus would have spent his childhood and adolescence, after the flight to Egypt.
It is difficult, if not impossible at this point, to establish the historical truth.
However, most scholars believe that the two evangelists wanted to indicate Bethlehem as the place of birth because it was the one established in the Old Testament and also because it was the city of David, to whose noble lineage Giuseppe belonged.
In support of the thesis, the fact that the Gospel of Mark , which is the closest from a chronological point of view to the events narrated, never mentions Bethlehem but only Nazareth.