The Matthean narrative of the birth of Jesus as explained by White is mutually exclusive from Mark. That is, two stories are just that two different stories on the same subject, they have different scenarios, writing styles, and themes. In the genealogy that is recorded by Matthew records the time from Abraham to Joseph who is that father of Jesus. I think that Matthew records this to show the importance of Jesus lineage in that it opens the allusion that there have been many generations that have spanned between Abraham and Jesus. The point of showing Jesus’ lineage was to show that Jesus had authority over the Jewish people. The formula that is used in recording the genealogy is “A was the father of B” to show the fulfillment of the prophecy that God gave to Abraham promising the Messiah would come from his line. The genealogy is arguably one of the most important aspects of Matthew because it shows the relationship between David/Messiah and Moses/Exodus which affirms the legacy of Moses to David and finally to Jesus.

Matthew shapes the narrative by providing elements that didn’t necessarily happen for the sake of spreading the religion and the divine kingship that was Jesus. For example in contrary to popular Christian belief there is no evidence of shepherds, mangers, a census, or travelling to Bethlehem in the M that was recorded. It is thought that these were added after Jesus was already going around spreading his religion. The reason that his birth was recorded as well as we would like is because back then is because in antiquity especially concerning divine figures they would embellish their birth stories to help spread the religion. Birth narratives were in fact shaped thematically and less than accurate.

The writing style of Matthew is very different from Luke, already knowing that Matthew and Luke essentially had two different birth stories for Jesus, Matthew composes the narrative in different ways. The Septuagint heavily influences Matthew’s pattern and style of writing, which is the Greek translation of the Bible. The major change is see is the idea of the Virgin Mary when she is carrying Jesus. White tells us that Matthew changes the tenses of “virgin” and “young woman” to fit his narrative. Matthew also stresses the fact that Jesus’ birth fulfills the prophecy that was given to Abraham from God promising that the Messiah would come down from his line.