The Gospel accounts of the birth and childhood of Jesus have puzzling discrepancies and contradictions that have, in general, been ignored by biblical scholars. In particular, Matthew and Luke give very different versions of Jesus' birth and the events that follow.

A long obscured tradition has held that there were two families and two Jesus children--one from the kingly line of Solomon and the other from the priestly line of Nathan--whose destinies were to join and be fulfilled through the Divine plane. Emil Bock shows how the pattern and structure of the four Gospels support the...