Mark begins his gospel simply by assuming that the Son of God has made His appearance in the world in Jesus. In his fast-moving style Mark moves immediately into a vignette into the ministry of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus.

Matthew, like Luke, says much about the actual incarnation of Jesus, although he basically confines his narrative to a description of the virgin birth of Jesus and related subjects.

John begins his gospel as the book of Genesis begins the Bible: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh...," Jn. 1:1, 14.

Although Luke, with Matthew, reports at length the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, his emphasis is quite different than that of Matthew, so that Luke's account of the birth of Jesus is in no way a mere supplement to Matthew's account. The two accounts differ widely concerning what they report, although both are historically accurate.