Science, History, and the Birth of Jesus

Christmas, they say, is a time for families, a time inspired by the story of a Holy Family of long ago. But to the modern mind the story of that Holy Family seems so improbable. Our way of seeing the world has little room for choirs of angels, God-sent dreams, or a star that works like your GPS. Who wrote this stuff, anyway? And what kind of physician would seriously believe a young mother who claimed that she had “never known a man”. Just the sort of chap, you might think, who could misdate an Imperial census by fourteen years – or compose a genealogy that contradicts the “official” version. But first-century Christians insisted that “we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known the coming of our Lord Jesus” (2 Peter 1:16). Robert Lyon presents evidence that supports that claim – evidence that, for the most part, has been known for many years but never made its way from the pulpit to the pew. Lyon also poses an intriguing view of what constitutes a miracle.