Christmas story timeline - does it work?

Question

In Luke, we read that after Mary's time of cleansing was completed (40 days), Joseph, Mary and Jesus went back to Nazareth. We don't hear anything else until Jesus is 12.

In Matthew we read about the Magi, finding Jesus in a house and then leaving. Herod gets angry, Joseph flees with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Herod has all the boys under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding hills killed. Herod dies and the family moves from Egypt back to Israel, settling in - yes, Nazareth.

Nazareth is nowhere near Bethlehem. Yet Matthew implies the Magi went to Bethlehem. So the Magi were there within the 40 days prescribed as noted by Luke. But then, they did not go to Nazareth as Luke relates, if they went to Egypt as Matthew tells.

Has anyone got a way to reconcile the two accounts? (and please don't just say "it's a story" or something like that).

Answer 1

Probably in the same way as the "seven days" of creation historically corresponds with the time line of evolution - first the matter, then the regular rotation of the earth, then the waters... and the human as the last. But the story is a metaphor, put in the shape as the simple bronze-age goatherds could understand it.

Probably something similar with this thing. Keep in mind it was written down years and years after it actually happened. If that was the biggest inaccuracy there is in the bible, it would be a very good text indeed. Sadly it's brimming with illogical and inconsistent stuff.

Answer 2

Mary and Joseph were from Nazareth. They went to Bethlehem because of the census. Joseph was of the house of David and therefore had to register at the city of David. I do not know about reconciling the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the historians of that day did not meet the standards of present day historians.

Answer 3

the true time line of a christmas story is
-boy wants BB gun
-boy gets told hes not aloud a BB gun
-boy gets BB gun
-boy hurts himself with BB gun just as told he would