Reply #5: The Church Fathers were often further from actual events

[intaglio]

... than we credit. Not for them the multiple sources we now have access too or the hard "in the ground" archaeology. These Church Fathers had oral tradition, a few badly copied writings and their own desire for a church after their preferred model. Such persons were not above forgery - even faking apostolic letters of Peter and Paul. They did not know, as we do, that there was no Census of the Roman Province of Syria in the time of Herod the Great or that such a Census never involved a return to the family home.

The long unrecorded verbal traditions of the nomads in Israel and Judea accreted many fabulous and fantastical details, examples including events of the Exodus and the Flood stories.

Three other points:
Firstly, it the views of the "Church Fathers" that were entirely subjective being based only on hearsay and personal belief;

Secondly, the modern view has the benefit of the objective findings brought to light by archaeology;

Thirdly, please place an extra line between paragraphs - it will make your thoughts far easier to comprehend.