It was prophesied that the birth would be in Bethlehem.
Yes, exactly; which is why both accounts had to have the birth occur there. Luke does it by using the literary devise of the census (I say literary devise because Quirinius' census happened too late and no Roman census would ever require a person to register in their ancestral village/town) to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Matthew does it by having Joseph and Mary originating in Bethlehem, but then needs to come up with a reason for them to end up in Nazareth. Mark and John presuppose Nazareth (neither contains a birth narrative indicating that Jesus was born anywhere but Nazareth).
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