The JESUS of Matthew 1:18-21 is made to appear as a baby born out of wedlock in a Jewish society where such births were frowned upon but tolerated in the Jerusalem area, but not in Galilee. Joseph considers the option of divorcing his pregnant betrothed bride-to-be and the insinuation is clearly made that he, Joseph, was not the "cause" of her pregnancy, and will not, when the baby is born, be the father of this child, which he is instructed to call JESUS by an angel in a dream.

 JESUS, the real Essene first-born son of the Essene Joseph and much younger "virgin" Mary, was not born "out of wedlock", but Joseph was following an Essene custom clearly described by Josephus, in which Essenes would not marry a woman UNTIL she was pregnant for THREE MONTHS, because Essenes were only permitted ONE WIFE, (not true of other Jews of that era), and if they married an infertile woman, their genealogy and blood-line would come to an abrupt end.  Indeed they could live with and sleep with a woman for THREE YEARS, without marrying them waiting for a pregnancy, then walk away -- this was the case with Mary Magdalene, who had had several TRIAL MARRIAGES before she met and associated with Jesus during the Gospel Years.

 The JESUS of Matthew 1:22-25 is made to appear by Matthew as a direct fulfillment of a prophecy of Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 7:14, in which Isaiah's own son will be called "EMMANUEL" which means "God-with-us".  But in the real world, Isaiah's son was named Maher-shalal-hashbaz, and Joseph's son was named Jesus.  Neither was named "EMMANUEL".

    The word translated as "virgin" in Isaiah means a "young woman" and she was no "virgin" of the "no-sex" kind, and as the text makes very clear, Isaiah made sure that the son would be his in the time-honored usual way.  Isaiah 8:3 "And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived--"  In Matthew 1:24 "Then Joseph --took unto him his wife." means exactly the same thing as "went in unto the prophetess" means in Isaiah 8:3, and Mary the wife of Joseph was no more a "virgin" than was Isaiah's wife "the prophetess" was, once she had conceived.  Verse 25, "and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son" means not what we have been made to think it means.  It means that after Mary was three months pregnant, and the wedding ceremony was performed, Joseph honored the usual Essene custom of not having sex with an already-pregnant woman.

  JESUS, the real Essene first-born son of the Essene Joseph and much younger "virgin" Mary, was "born early" according to a new "birth schedule" the other Essenes had devised for Joseph, in which Jesus was supposed to be born in September of 7 BC, not in March of 7 BC, when he actually was born, but this in no way proves that Joseph was NOT his father.  More about this later!

    The JESUS of Matthew 2:13-15 is thought to have spent his baby years, and the first part of his child-hood in Egypt, being carried there in his mother's arms, and perhaps walking back in a slowly moving caravan with his father and mother.

   JESUS, the firstborn son of the Essene Joseph and his wife Mary never spent even one day in Egypt as a baby, but was hiding with his mother in a cave near Qumran.  Qumran was in those days being run by the Egyptian Therapautae, a Charismatic group of Gnostic Essenes, whose leader was named Theudas.  Joseph was not at that time a "Carpenter" but a Zealot leader, as was Theudas.  Joseph hoped that his son Jesus would grow up to be a Zealot leader also, but Jesus later developed a disturbing tendency to side with the Annas priests, who were against Zealotry, and for peaceful co-existence with the Romans.

  The JESUS of Matthew 2:23 is said by Matthew to have moved from Egypt to Nazareth with his father Joseph, because of a prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.  We have always assumed, us Bible-readers, that this Nazareth mentioned here was a city in Galilee, about 90 miles north of Jerusalem.  No one has been able to find a prophecy that Jesus would be a "Nazarene".  Nazarenes were a religious group in the Old Testament who took special vows not to cut their hair, drink wine, and certain other restrictions.  They could live anywhere they wished to live, so long as they kept these special vows.

    JESUS, the firstborn son of the Essene Joseph and his wife Mary did not walk the hundreds of miles from Egypt to Nazareth in Galilee, which, if it existed at all in those days, may have been a very small Jewish area near the Greek city of Sepphoris, but instead walked only about seven miles from the Qumran area to Mar Saba, a "Nazarite" monastery not far from Bethlehem.   And indeed Joseph, Jesus' father was a "Nazarite" at least part of the time.  Maybe he did do some carpenter work at that monastery when he was not out teaching Zealotry to his followers.

    The JESUS of Luke 1:26-31was not conceived "immaculately" in some cave in Nazareth of Galilee now covered by a Catholic church built in modern times at the time, June of 8 BC, when an angel visited Mary and revealed to her that she would become pregnant in some mysterious and miraculous way. Luke has been a bit deceptive with Luke 1:26. "And in the sixth month (June of 8 BC) the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary."

   JESUS, the firstborn son of the Essene Joseph and his wife Mary was conceived in the ordinary, time-honored way that all human babies are conceived, and at some point on the trail between the Nazarite Essene Monastery at Mar Saba (near Bethlehem) and Ain Feshkha, where lived Elizabeth, and her husband the Essene Priest Zechariah or Zecharias (Greek spelling).

    It was time for Joseph and Mary to undergo their "Betrothal Ceremony" after which sexual intercourse was permitted but discouraged until December of that same year -- a six-month wait in the case of Joseph and Mary.  However, subsequent events show that the six-month wait wishes of the Essenes, so that the baby would be born in September of 7 BC, was not honored by Joseph and Mary. 

    As a Zealot captain or general, Joseph was supposed to protect Mary from bandits on the 7 mile rocky desert down-hill trail to the Qumran area, but there seems to have been some dallying along this trail.  They arrived at Elizabeth's house.  Zacharias the ESSENE priest performed the "Betrothal Ceremony" (not mentioned in Luke, but "assumed" in Matthew), Either than, or perhaps a few days or weeks later, Joseph headed back to "Nazareth" (Mar Saba), and Mary stayed there with Elizabeth ("Into the hill country,-- into a city of Juda" Luke 1:39.

    Elizabeth, who was pregnant, could recognize this condition also in Mary, her visitor become house-guest for nine months.  Perhaps because Mary was retching or vomiting every day before breakfast for those first three months. When Elizabeth was 6-months pregnant, Baby John jumped in her womb, (a "miracle" repeated in most pregnancies around the world) Luke 1:44.

    In another bit of devious reporting, only apparent in Greek, Mary leaves Elizabeth's house to go to her own house in "about three months."  "About months three" means March (the third month) of 7 BC, the actual birth date of Jesus Christ, and "her own house" of Luke 1:56 indicates "the Queen's house" or the "house of the Queen" 1 Km. south of the Qumran monastery ( a 2 Km. walk from where Elizabeth and Zacharias lived at Ain Feshkha.  That's where illegitimate babies were delivered in those days, who were adopted by the Essenes and trained as celibate monks to work in the monastery.

    The JESUS of Luke 2:21-24 was not, as Catholic book-writers of the early Dark Ages fictiticiously wrote in such books as the (Other) Gospel of James, the youngest son of Joseph, with lots of older "half-brothers" of a sort, who tempted and fought with Jesus all during his childhood and youth, but Jesus was, as I have said here repeatedly, the OLDEST of a fairly large crowd of the "Virgin" Mary's kids.  He tempted and bothered them, his YOUNGER brothers and sisters, not the other way around, and the proof is right here in Luke 2:21-24.

   JESUS, firstborn Jewish son of a Jewish couple must be "redeemed" by a special redemption sacrifice ("bribe-money" paid temple priests to be able to keep these firstborn) described clearly in Luke 2:21-24.

   "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.  And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb (FIRST-BORN MALE) shall be called holy to the Lord;)  And to offer a sacrifice accord to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."