Massacre of the Innocents
The Massacre of the Innocents is a myth recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Some Christians venerate the Holy Innocents as the first Christian martyrs, but modern scholarship finds no evidence that it happened outside the passages in Matthew.
The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens
Herod orders the Massacre of the Innocents; the Flight of Elizabeth; the martyrdom of Zachariah (illumination from a 9th-century manuscript)
10th-century illuminated manuscript
Giotto, Massacre of the Innocents
The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is documented in the biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judaea, that his mother, Mary, was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David and was not his biological father, and that his birth was caused by divine intervention. Some scholars do not see the two canonical gospel nativity stories as historically factual since they present clashing accounts and irreconcilable genealogies. The secular history of the time does not synchronize with the narratives of the birth and early childhood of Jesus in the two gospels. Some view the question of historicity as secondary, given that gospels were primarily written as theological documents rather than chronological timelines.
Adoration of the Shepherds by Dutch painter Matthias Stomer, 1632
A page from the 11th-century Bamberg Apocalypse showing Matthew 1:21
Angel Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary, by Murillo, c. 1660
Altar in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem