[Talisker]

Apparently God disagrees since He did not inspire Matthew to include anything about it in his narrative.

On the other hand, He has inspired many people to consider the question that is raised precisely because of the paucity of information in Matthew's narrative.

So following your logic, those who aren't asking questions as a result of Matthew's narrative aren't following the curiosity that God wants them to follow - otherwise God would have made the narrative perfectly clear to everyone.

So in this case, questioning the deeper meaning of the narrative is following the will of God. In fact, it is possible God desires such investigation as a matter of course. What a concept - that God gives His children curiosity in order for them to use it.

[muawiyah]

Good point. Interesting how all of us are reading that part differently, and we probably wouldn't have known that unless this issue was raised.

Fortunately we are all in synch with the Fathers of the Church ~ (cited in the references)