The StoryThis story of the Birth and Call of Jesus has been written using the four canonical gospels in the Bible, and also Josephus (with Old Slavonic), who mentions both John the Baptist and Jesus, and the story very much follows how those old records present it.
The gospel accounts aren't easy to fit together to make a single story. In some places they have irreconcilable statements, and at other places they are too vague, and so i've done my best to make things work. In so doing, i've downplayed the over-aggrandisement of the miraculous and removed a few oddities.
The following are noteworthy.
Galilee/Jerusalem - In the three synoptic gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke), Jesus spends all His time around Galilee, and only at the end of His life does He go down to Jerusalem. On the other hand, John's gospel presents Jesus going down to Jerusalem all the time. It is as if one account of some person presents him always moving within a certain country, and another account presents him as travelling all over the world. So i've worked on the principle, that John, for whatever reason, is far more informed about the Jerusalem aspects of Jesus' mission than the other three, and i've therefore followed his outline. Since John the Baptist was operating nearby Jerusalem - although that's really a matter of debate, but since John's gospel is the one with the details it's quite likely - i've given priority to John's version for matters surrounding Baptism, and I've included the cleansing of the temple at the start of Jesus' mission, which John places at the start but the other gospels place at the end.
Mission Sequence - I've presumed that whilst John Baptist is actively carrying out his mission, Jesus is a veiled promoter of John, and then at some point Jesus begins a private mission, and finally a public mission, and in doing so that the public mission won't really have started until John is away from the scene and imprisoned.
Temptation Scene - In the first three gospels, Jesus' temptation is immediately after His baptism, but in John's gospel it cannot fit there. So i've shifted the temptation scene to fall at the point where Jesus leaves John the Baptist on the second occasion (Jesus is baptised, calls disciples, goes to a wedding, goes to Jerusalem, cleanses the temple, returns again to John, and leaves through Samaria for Galilee, and here i've put the temptation scene), since it's only at this point, with John becoming imprisoned, can Jesus begin his mission, and a wandering in the wilderness would be the ideal place at this moment to escape his growing popularity, provide a semantic break for those who see Him as a promoter of John, and prepare for His mission he is now opening, as He travels up from Jerusalem area through Samaria to begin His work in Galilee.
40 Days - Living in the wilderness without food, is taken more in the sense of having no food to hand - i.e. negligible food, rather than none - and forty days is presented as a period of a few weeks, because it was an idiom for a long time, although of course given the story of Moses' 40 years in the wilderness, it is quite possible Jesus would have recapitulated this as exactly 40 days. We can't tell at this late date.
Andrew and Simon - I've presented the differing accounts of the conversion of Andrew and Simon as two valid stories (after all, the gospels might have got incorrect names to valid stories, or the second 'conversion' could really be the public call of people already called privately).
Tax Collection - When I have Mary travel down to Bethlehem, I omit the explanation it is for tax-collection, since Roman tax-collection didn't involve people returning to their places of birth. Can you possibly imagine large numbers of people in the empire getting on boats to go to another part of the world, just to have their tax collected? the tax collection Mary's journey was related to in Luke, was also by clear consensus of everyone, many years later.
Egypt - When Joseph and Mary flee from the king when he goes to slay the children, I don't say to Egypt, but simply a far-away place, making it ambiguous. Terms like 'Egypt' were often used as metaphors; for example, Rome was called 'Babylon'.
Zechariah's Silence - Zechariah's silence is left as ambiguous, so you can view it as a punishing sign from the angel, or simply a vow of silence on Zechariah's part.
Mary's Conception - The conception of Jesus in Mary's womb, i have also left as open to meaning as possible. On the one hand, the eternal soul and reality of Jesus is from the direct creative power of God, and not from man; on the other hand, the creation of the temporary, mortal body of Jesus may happily stem from ordinary laws. The whole New Testament is blissfully unaware of even a hint of virgin birth, except for the opening of Luke and Matthew. For such a symbol-laden happening, you would expect it to be mentioned all over the New Testament for its deep meaning and power, but it shouts out its absence. Coupled with the meaning of virgin not meaning "virgin" and the prophecy in Isaiah of a "virgin" referring to ordinary things happening at the time in the 8th Century BC (read the whole prophecy!), and also the census story of Luke being 10 years too early, leads one to prefer to word the story in such a way, that those who believe in a virgin birth, will be able to read their preferred meaning into it, and those who see it as an ordinary birth, can also read it accordingly. Given the nature of the birth story of Jesus in the Bible, there is a good likelihood that some kind of scandal or rumour caught Mary's faithfulness in its storm, and this has all been kept.
The Wedding - When Jesus serves up water to the drunken wedding guests, it is literally water that is given, and in their drunkenness they imagine it to be wine.
Josephus (Old Slavonic) - There is a slightly different version of Josephus in the Old Slavonic. This version says much more about John the Baptist and Jesus than his final draft. To shorten a long debate, there's no satisfactory explanation for how this could have come about, but it has all the hallmarks of representing very early, 1st century material, even though we don't know how it came to get included there.