The genealogies of Jesus in the first and third Gospels differ irreconcileably from each other. Justin differs from both. In this passage another discrepancy arises. While Luke seems to represent Nazareth as the dwelling-place of Joseph and Mary, and Bethlehem as the city to which they went solely on account of the census,(4)
Matthew, who seems to know nothing of the census, makes Bethlehem, on the contrary, the place of residence of Joseph,(1) and on coming back from Egypt, with the evident intention of returning to Bethlehem, Joseph is warned by a dream to turn aside into Galilee, and he goes and dwells, apparently for the first time, "in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets: He shall be called a Nazarene."(2) Justin, however, goes still further than the third Gospel in his departure from the data of Matthew, and where Luke merely infers, Justin distinctly asserts Nazareth to have been the dwelling-place of Joseph [--Greek--], and Bethlehem, in contradistinction, the place from which he derived his origin [--Greek--].3
The same view is to be found in several apocryphal Gospels still extant. In the Protevangelium of James again, we find Joseph journeying to Bethlehem with Mary before the birth of Jesus.(4) The census here is ordered by Augustus, who commands: "That all who were in Bethlehem _of Judeæ_, should be enrolled."(5) a limitation worthy of notice in comparison with that of Justin. In like manner the Gospel of the Nativity. This Gospel represents the parents of Mary as living in Nazareth, in
which place she was born,(1) and it is here that the Angel Gabriel announces to her the supernatural conception.(2) Joseph goes to Bethlehem to set his house in order and prepare what is necessary for the marriage, but then returns to Nazareth, where he remains with Mary until her time was nearly accomplished,(3) "when Joseph having taken his wife with whatever else was necessary went to the city of Bethlehem, whence he was."(4) The phrase "_unde ipse erat_" recalls the [--Greek--] of Justin.(6) As we continue the narrative of the birth and infancy of Jesus, we meet with further variations from the account in the canonical Gospels for which the preceding have prepared us, and which indicate that Justin's Memorials certainly differed from them: