The Virgin Birth of Jesus is a religious tenet of Christianity Adherents of Christianity, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible . Orthodox Christian theology claims that Jesus suffered, died, and was resurrected to open heaven to humans. They further maintain that Jesus ascended into heaven, and most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, and Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the teachings contained in a religious book, the Qur'an, considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of Allah (the sole divine entity in Islam) as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a 7th century Arab which holds that Mary Mary , usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary , was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims also refer to her as the Virgin Mary or Syeda Mariam which means Our Lady Mary. In Islam she is the mother of the Prophet Jesus, Issa عيسى in the miraculously A miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different cultures have substantially different conceived Fertilisation , is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves a sperm fusing with an ovum, which eventually leads to the development of an embryo. Depending on the animal species, the process can occur within the body of the female in internal fertilisation, or outside in the case of external fertilisation Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity, and within most Christian denominations he is venerated as the Son of God and as God incarnate. Christians also view him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament; however, Judaism rejects this claim. Islam considers Jesus a prophet, while several other while remaining a virgin A virgin is, originally, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Virginity is the state of being a virgin. It is derived from the Latin virgo, which means "sexually inexperienced woman", used typically of adolescents, but also of older women, and even goddesses. A universally held belief in the Christian church by the second century,[1] this doctrine was included in the two most widely used Christian Adherents of Christianity, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible . Orthodox Christian theology claims that Jesus suffered, died, and was resurrected to open heaven to humans. They further maintain that Jesus ascended into heaven, and most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, creeds A creed is a statement of belief—usually religious belief—or faith often recited as part of a religious service. The word derives from the Latin: credo for I believe and credimus for we believe. It is sometimes called symbol , signifying a "token" by which persons of like beliefs might recognize each other, which state that Jesus "was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary" (the Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith (Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Πίστεως) that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene (pronounced /ˈnaɪsiːn/) because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in 325. The Nicene Creed has been as revised by the First Council of Constantinople The First Council of Constantinople is believed to be the Second Ecumenical Council by the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox, the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Old Catholics, and a number of other Western Christian groups. This being the first Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople, it was called by Theodosius I in) and was "born of the Virgin Mary" (Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol". It is widely used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical Churches of Western tradition, including the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic), and was not seriously challenged, except by some minor sects, before the Enlightenment theology Developing more or less simultaneously in Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Portugal the movement spread through much of Europe, including the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Scandinavia as well as in America. It could be argued that the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence, the United of the eighteenth century.[1]

The gospels of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from his genealogy to his Great Commission and Luke The Gospel of Luke is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the New Testament. The text narrates the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The gospel opens with the miraculous births of John the Baptist and of Jesus. Jesus, born to the Virgin Mary, has a humble birth in a stable, and is attended by shepherds. Jesus say that Mary was a virgin and that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit In Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God. In mainstream Christian theology he is the third person of the Trinity and part of the Godhead, equal with God the Father and with God the Son[2][3]. These gospels, later tradition and current doctrine present Jesus' conception as a miracle A miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different cultures have substantially different involving no natural father, no sexual intercourse, and no male seed in any form, but instead brought about by the Holy Spirit In Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God. In mainstream Christian theology he is the third person of the Trinity and part of the Godhead, equal with God the Father and with God the Son.[4][5][6][7] The Gospel of Matthew additionally presents the virgin birth of Jesus as fulfilling a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah is a book of the Bible traditionally attributed to the Prophet Isaiah, who lived in the second half of the 8th century BC. In the first 39 chapters, Isaiah prophesies doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God. The last 27 chapters prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel. This section.[8]

Reference to the virgin birth of Jesus usually directs thought to his virginal conception, rather than to his actual birth. But in Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church,[note 1] is the world's largest Christian church, and claims over a billion members, representing approximately half of all Christians[note 2] and one-sixth of the world's population. The Catholic Church is a communion of the Western Rite and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches ( and Orthodox The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world, estimated to number between 225-300 million total members. It is considered by its adherents to be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago. The Church is composed of numerous self- usage, the term "Virgin Birth" means not only that Mary was a virgin when she conceived, but also that she gave birth as a virgin (remaining a virgo intacta), a belief attested since the second century.[9] (See Perpetual virginity of Mary.) The doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus (i.e., Mary's virginal conception of Jesus) is not to be confused with that of the Immaculate Conception For artistic depictions see Roman Catholic Marian art. For the novel by Gaétan Soucy, see The Immaculate Conception. The latter holds that Mary herself was conceived in the normal way, but immaculately (i.e., without original sin Those who uphold the doctrine look to the teaching of Paul the Apostle in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 for its scriptural base, and see it as perhaps implied in Old Testament passages such as Psalm 51:5 and Psalm 58:3).

Mary's virginity at the conception of Jesus is also a tenet of Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the teachings contained in a religious book, the Qur'an, considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of Allah (the sole divine entity in Islam) as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a 7th century Arab.[10] The Qur'an frequently refers to Jesus with the matronymic A matronymic is a personal name based on the name of one's mother. It is the female equivalent of a patronymic. In patriarchal societies, matronymic surnames are far less common than patronyms. In the past, matronymic last names were often given to children of unwed mothers. Other times when a woman was especially well known or powerful, her Jesus son of Mary (Isa bin Maryam In Islam, Jesus is considered a messenger of God who had been sent to guide the Children of Israel (banī isrā'īl) with a new scripture, the Injīl (gospel). The Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be God's final revelation, states that Jesus was born to Mary (Arabic: Maryam) as the result of virginal conception, a miraculous event which occurred by).[11]

Contents

New Testament

A series of articles on

mother of Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity, and within most Christian denominations he is venerated as the Son of God and as God incarnate. Christians also view him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament; however, Judaism rejects this claim. Islam considers Jesus a prophet, while several other

Chronology Presentation of Mary The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary , or The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (its name in the East), is a liturgical feast celebrated by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches Annunciation The Annunciation is, in Christianity, the revelation to Mary, the mother of Jesus by the angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born the Son of God. Some Christian churches celebrate this with the Feast of Annunciation on 25 March, which as the Incarnation is nine months before Christmas · Visitation The Visitation is the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Saint Elizabeth as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 1:39-56. It is also the term for a Christian feast day commemorating this visit, celebrated on 31 May in the West and 30 March in the East · Virgin Birth · Nativity The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels and in various apocryphal texts that serve as key elements of Christian mythology · Presentation of Jesus The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, and falls on or around 2 February. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Presentation is the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is one of the twelve Great Feasts, and is sometimes called Hypapante . Other · Flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a biblical event described in the Gospel of Matthew , in which Joseph fled to Egypt with his wife Mary and infant son Jesus after a visit by Magi because they learn that King Herod intends to kill the infants of that area. The episode is frequently shown in art, as the final episode of the Nativity of Jesus in art, and was · Finding in the Temple The Finding in the Temple, also called "Christ among the Doctors" , and formerly the Disputation, was an episode in the early life of Jesus. It is the only event of the later childhood of Jesus mentioned in the gospels · Cana The Marriage at Cana or Wedding at Cana is an event reported by the Gospel of John: John 2:1-11 reports that while Jesus was attending a wedding in Cana with his disciples the hosts ran out of wine. Jesus' mother told Jesus, "They have no more wine," and Jesus replied, "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.& · Crucifixion The crucifixion of Jesus is an event described in all four gospels which takes place immediately after his arrest and trial. In Christian theology, the death of Jesus by crucifixion is a core event. It represents a critical aspect of the doctrine of salvation, portraying the suffering and death of the Messiah as necessary for the forgiveness of · Resurrection Within the body of Christian beliefs, the resurrection of Jesus is a core biblical event—upon which much of Christian doctrine, ritual and theology critically depend. According to the New Testament, after Jesus was executed by Roman crucifixion and buried, he was then resurrected on the third day. His empty tomb was found by his followers and he · Pentecost Pentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year. The feast is also called Whitsun, Whitsunday, Whit Sunday, Whitsuntide, especially in the United Kingdom. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks or 49 days after Easter Sunday, hence its name . Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday

Marian Perspectives Mariology is the theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mariology methodically presents teachings about her to other parts of the faith, such as teachings about Jesus, redemption and grace. Christian Mariology aims to connect scripture, tradition and the teachings of the Church on Mary Anglican Anglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. Within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion the Virgin Mary has always held a place of honour, but many of the doctrines surrounding her have been called into question over the centuries · Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Christian theology is the theology particular to the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is characterized by monotheistic Trinitarianism, belief in the Incarnation of the Logos , a balancing of cataphatic theology with apophatic theology, a hermeneutic defined by Sacred Tradition, a concrete ecclesiology, a robust theology of the person, · Muslim Mary in Islam , the mother of Jesus, is considered the most righteous woman in Islam. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an - her name is mentioned more than it is in the New Testament · Protestant · Roman Catholic As the mother of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary has a central role in the life of the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin has grown over time both in importance and manifestation. Popes contributed to the veneration but also reformed it periodically

Catholic Mariology Mariology Roman Catholic Mariology is theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and developed by the Roman Catholic Church. "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God." Theologically, Roman Catholic Mariology deals with not only • History of Mariology The history of Roman Catholic Mariology traces theological developments and views regarding Mary from the early Church to the twentieth century. Mariology is a mainly Catholic ecclesiogical movement within theology, which centers on the relation of Mary and the Church. Roman Catholic Mariology is the encyclopedic area of theology concerned with • Papal teachings The Mariology of the popes is the theological study of the influence that the popes have had on the development, formulation and transformation of the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrines and devotions relating to Mary, the Mother of God. The growth path of Mariology over the centuries has been influenced by a number of forces and factors, among • Mariology of the saints

Dogmas and Doctrines The Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church have their foundation in the central teaching of the Council of Ephesus that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God. Because of this, the Roman Catholic Church has always considered her to be the most important figure of Christianity and salvation history apart from Jesus Christ himself. Consequently the Mother of God Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God. Roman Catholics use the title Mother of God more often than • Perpetual virginity • Immaculate Conception For artistic depictions see Roman Catholic Marian art. For the novel by Gaétan Soucy, see The Immaculate Conception • Assumption The Assumption of Mary is the traditional belief held by Christians of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and some Protestant churches such as Lutheranism that the Virgin Mary at the end of her life was physically taken up into heaven. The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary, "having completed the

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Gospels

The New Testament has four accounts of Jesus' life, commonly known as gospels. While they have much in common there are also differences of coverage and focus. The Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John essentially begin with Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist; whereas the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke essentially begin with Jesus' birth.

Mark and John contain no birth narrative. The other two gospels, which are the only ones to give accounts of the infancy of Jesus (the first two chapters in each), explicitly state that Jesus was conceived without human father.

Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew (c 80-85) begins with a genealogy leading from Abraham to Joseph, but then calls Joseph "the husband of Mary, of whom (Mary) was born Jesus, who is called Christ"(1:16).[12] It then states that, when Mary was found to be pregnant, she had not lived with Joseph, to whom she was engaged (1:18), and that he did not have marital relations with her before the child was born (1:25). It declares: "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (1:20), in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, which Matthew refers to as: "A virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (1:22-23). On the actual text of Isaiah see the Old Testament section below.

The Gospel of Matthew presents the virgin birth of Jesus as fulfilling a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14, which Matthew adapts to his purpose.[13] Hebrew has a specific word, betulah, for a virgin, and a more general word, `almah, for a young woman. Since `almah is the word used in the Hebrew text of Isaiah, some commentators, whether Christian or not, have believed it at least possible that Isaiah had in mind only a normal conception by a young mother and that Matthew applied this text of Scripture to the birth of the one he believed to be Messiah, as John seems to have applied to his death another text of Scripture that in its original context referred to the Passover lamb.[14] Others believe that Isaiah was indeed directly prophesying the future virgin birth of the Messiah.

The author of Matthew may have recounted the virgin birth story to answer contemporary Jewish slanders about Jesus' origin.[15]

Miraculous but not virginal births appear in Jesus' own Hebrew tradition, as well as in other traditions. Hindu and Zoroastrian accounts of virgin births still involve male seed, while Christian and Muslim accounts of Jesus' virgin birth do not.

The Annunciation, by Fra Angelico

Luke

Like Matthew, Luke (c 85-90) includes infancy narratives and a genealogy.

In Luke 1:30-35 Mary asks how she is to conceive and bear a son, since she is a virgin; and she is told it will happen by the power of God. Luke 3:23-38 gives a genealogy, different from that given by Matthew. It traces the ancestry of Joseph, whose son, Luke says, Jesus was thought to be, back beyond King David and Abraham, to the origin of the human race.

When the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a son conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38), she responds with the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), a prayer of joy, probably from an early Christian liturgy.[15] The Magnificat is one of several formal set pieces the author incorporates into the gospel.[15]

Historicity

Some writers have taken as significant that two separate gospels attest to the virgin birth, although their details vary.[16]In this view, the virgin conception and birth constitute a tradition that fits within the criterion of multiple attestation. The accounts of Matthew and Luke are taken as independent testimonies of the tradition, thus adding significantly to the evidence for the historical reality of the event of the birth. That the conception itself was indeed miraculous appears to rest on a "single attestation", that of Mary. The attestation of the angel to Joseph on the miraculous nature of the conception would not be accepted by many scholars as historiographically valid.

Some critics of the double attestation argument point to differences between the accounts of Matthew and Luke regarding Jesus' birth.[17][18]According to Matthew, an unnamed angel informs Joseph of the virginal conception; in Luke the angel Gabriel informs Mary before the conception occurs. Matthew says that Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Jesus was born (Matthew 2:1) and that they moved first to Egypt, to avoid Herod the Great (2:13-14), and later, to avoid living under Herod's son Archelaus, they moved to Nazareth (2:22); according to Luke, the couple lived in Nazareth and only traveled to Bethlehem in order to comply with a Roman census (Luke 2:4). Luke mentions that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, has the new-born Jesus visited by shepherds, and attributes two long hymns (the Magnificat and the Benedictus) and one short one (the Nunc dimittis) to various characters. None of this is mentioned by Matthew, and Matthew's account of the visit of the Magi, the massacre of the innocents by Herod, and the flight into Egypt is not mentioned by Luke.

Two rival explanations are put forward for the "double attestation" of Matthew and Luke regarding the virgin birth of Jesus:[19][20][21]

  1. The virgin birth was a historical event, and the narratives of Matthew and Luke are based on different aspects of the event according to witnesses' reports of it.
  2. Matthew and Luke both wanted to present Jesus as fulfilling prophecies from Hebrew scripture. Both were aware of prophecies concerning a virgin birth and Bethlehem, and therefore these elements of their stories match. But each author wove these prophecies into an overall narrative in a different way. For example, both authors had to explain how Jesus was born in Bethlehem when he was known to be from Nazareth (as mentioned in all four gospels) — and each came up with an independent explanation.

Among other theories that have been proposed as explanations of the origin of the accounts in Matthew and Luke of the birth of Jesus from a virgin is that of Stephen L Harris, who proposed that these were written to answer Jewish slanders about Jesus' illegitimate birth,[15] of which there is evidence from the second century and later.[22]

Allegory

According to Uta Ranke-Heinemann, the virgin birth of Jesus was meant - and should be understood - as an allegory of a special initiative of God, comparable to God's creation of Adam, and in line with legends and allegories of antiquity according to which famous people originated from gods (as Augustus as the son of Apollo or Alexander the Great as the son of Zeus).[23] However, it must be noted that Heinemann was excommunicated for expressing these views, which are not accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.

Illegitimacy

A charge of illegitimacy against Jesus can be traced back at least to about 177-180, when Celsus, drawing on Jewish sources, wrote: "It was Jesus himself who fabricated the story that he had been born of a virgin. In fact, however, his mother was a poor country woman who earned her money by spinning. She had been driven out by her carpenter husband when she was convicted of adultery with a soldier named Panthera. She then wandered about and secretly gave birth to Jesus. Later, because he was poor, Jesus hired himself out in Egypt where he became adept in magical powers. Puffed up by these, he claimed for himself the title of God."[24] According to this view, the accounts in Matthew and Luke were intended as a response to this charge.

Denial

Others deny the historical existence of Jesus and of Mary, and thus rule out completely any possibility that the accounts of Matthew and Luke had any historical basis whatsoever.[25]

Epistles of Paul

The letters of Paul of Tarsus, considered to be the earliest texts in the New Testament, do not state that Jesus' mother was a virgin. Some passages in them have received special attention.

In Galatians 4:4 Paul wrote:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born[26] of a woman, born under the law ...

This phrase speaks of Jesus as born "of a woman", not "of a virgin". Some see this as evidence that Paul knew of no account of the virgin birth of Jesus. Others see the phrase "born of a woman, born under the law" significant enough to imply that Jesus had no human father, especially since the emphasis on the mother and the omission of any mention of both parents is the opposite of that in Hebrew genealogy, where the father is often the only parent mentioned.[27] And some point to the curse upon Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:30) as evidence of God's miraculous working,[28] saying that only by a virgin birth could Jesus have Joseph as a legal father, inheriting the promises through David, while avoiding the curse through Jechoniah that none of his descendants would prosper and sit on the throne of David [29]

The Epistle to the Romans opens with the words:

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord ...(Romans 1:1-4)

Whether "descended from David according to the flesh" implies physical descent through Joseph is disputed. It may rather imply a physical descent through Mary. Conversely, the phrase "declared to be Son of God" might also imply an adoptionist (that Jesus was merely human and gained prophetic powers and the title "Christ" via the baptism of John) Christology.

Romans 8:3-4 has:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

While some see "in the likeness of sinful flesh" as meaning merely that Jesus was externally just like any other human being. This view is perhaps supported by Paul's remark elsewhere that Christ "knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). Others suggest a contradiction between Paul's notion of being "in the likeness of sinful flesh" and his having been born of a virgin.

As has been remarked by students of the New Testament,[30] the order of writing of the books shows that the oldest Christian preaching about Jesus concerned his death and resurrection.[31] They turned their attention also to the deeds and words that came to them from the traditions of Jesus' ministry, which were formed into collections arranged in logical rather than chronological order, and which formed a basis for the four canonical Gospels, of which Mark is the earliest. Acts 10:37-41 gives an outline similar to Mark's, beginning with the baptism and ending with the resurrection, with no mention of the birth. Only later, for reasons not only of curiosity but also of apologetics and theology, attention was given to the birth and infancy, as in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

The absence of reference in Paul's writings to the infancy and even the ministry of Jesus may be seen as fitting this pattern. It should also be pointed out, however, that Paul was not one of Jesus' original disciples. His only encounter with Jesus, apparently, was with the resurrected Jesus. Also, his epistles are focused primarily on ecclesiastical matters, not the life of Jesus.

Old Testament

See also: Isaiah 7:14

Stories of miraculous or unexpected births occur throughout the Bible. Early in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Sarah gives birth to Isaac when she is 90 years old. In Genesis and later books, other women also give birth after years of infertility. There is something of a pattern of waiting for a son promised to the father or mother, a son who goes on to rescue the nation, often by leading it.[32] This is considered by certain scholars to be distinctive of the Hebrew theology of a divine right of kings.[33] Jesus' birth narrative is, therefore, interpreted as knowingly based on this particular archetype of a divine mandate to rescue, rule or both. A Christian is, literally, one who believes Jesus is the Christ, a divinely appointed saviour and king. Difference of opinion mainly concerns the historicity of New Testament accounts, rather than interpretation of their intention.

Unlike the account that Matthew and Luke give of the miraculous conception of Jesus, all the miraculous births in Old Testament times, and that of John the Baptist in the New Testament, are presented as the result of sexual intercourse between a married couple.

Isaiah by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

Matthew, writing in Greek about the virgin birth of Jesus, quotes the Septuagint text of Isaiah 7:14-16, which uses the Greek word "παρθένος" (parthenos, virgin), while the original Hebrew text has "עלמה" (almah), which has the wider meaning of a young woman.

In the King James Version of the Bible, a traditional Protestant translation, the verses of Isaiah appear as follows:

7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

However, several notable modern translations do not use virgin for `almah in this passage.

A plausible explanation of the purpose of the passage in Isaiah is that the original prophecy was spoken in 734 BC, when, before a soon-to-be-born child knows the difference between good and evil, Syria (which threatened Israel at the time) would be conquered. This prophecy would be fulfilled 2 years later, when Syria was defeated by the Assyrians in 732 BC. This child also appears in chapter 8, where it is said that, before he comes of age, the northern kingdom of Israel would be destroyed, which occurred also at the hands of Assyria in 722 BC.

Those who do not believe that this passage is a direct reference to the birth of Jesus, object that Jesus was not in fact named "Immanuel" and point to other problems such as: (1) what does the "butter and honey" refer to? (2) Why is Jesus, who was sinless from birth in the traditional Christian understanding, described as having to learn to refuse the evil and choose the good? and (3) This passage within the latter translations states that the "young woman" within this prophecy is "with child" (in the present tense, i.e. already pregnant, in English translations, though the present/future grammatical distinction does not exist in the Hebrew language). Readers of these English translations then find this prophecy difficult to apply to the coming Messiah Jesus, as it would have already been fulfilled during Isaiah's time.[34]

Some say that the passage is a double reference[35] — a sign both to Ahaz that the alliance against him would be destroyed, and to the house of David as a whole that was threatened with extinction[36]. The Hebrew text uses "singular you" for the former and "plural you' for the latter. With the former, Isaiah reassures Ahaz that the alliance would be destroyed before his own son Shear Jashub, who was present (v. 3), would "learn to refuse the evil and choose the good".

A more common view among Christian commentators is that Matthew applied this text to the conception of Jesus in much the same way that John applied Exodus 12:46 to the crucified Jesus' legs not being broken like those of the two who were crucified with him.[37]

Bethulah and `almah

Of the two Hebrew words בתולה (bethulah) and עלמה (`almah), most commentators interpret betulah as meaning a virgin,[38] and `almah as meaning a nubile young woman.[39] In regular narrative, `almah denotes youth explicitly, virginity is suggested only loosely and implicitly. Hence, some have argued that, strictly speaking, the youth of a mother, not virginity, was all that was suggested by Isaiah.

Some have argued, on the contrary, that bethulah does not necessarily indicate virginity and that `almah does mean a virgin.[40] While in modern Hebrew usage bethulah is used to mean a virgin, in Biblical Hebrew it is found in Genesis 24:16 followed by the statement "and no man had known her", which, it is claimed, would be unnecessary if the word bethulah itself conveyed this information. Another argument is based on Joel 1:8, where bethulah is used of a widow; but it is not certain that here it referred to a woman who had had sexual relations, since marriage was considered to begin with betrothal, some time before cohabitation began. As for the word `almah, this same minority view holds that the young women to whom it was applied in the Old Testament were all in fact virgins.

In an Ugaritic tablet, the words in that language cognate to bethulah and `almah are both used in relation to the goddess Anath who by union with the male lunar deity was to bear a son.[41]. The Aramaic counterpart of bethûlah was used of married women. The same holds for other cognate languages, "there is in fact no word for 'virgin' in Sumerian or Akkadian."[42]

Comparison of Isaiah and pre-biblical literature

The poetic or elevated prose context of the Isaiah prophecy,[43] lends itself to comparison with pre-biblical literature of similar genre in cognate languages, for establishing the semantic domain of its vocabulary. Semitic poetry is characterized by synonymous parallelism, that is, instead of the rhyming common in European verse of recent centuries, couplets are often formed by using near-synonyms. Cyrus H. Gordon considers a poetic passage in Ugaritic, a north-west Semitic language neighbour to Hebrew.

It all boils down to this: the distinctive Hebrew word for 'virgin' is betulah, whereas `almah means a 'young woman' who may be a virgin, but is not necessarily so. The aim of this note is rather to call attention to a source that has not yet been brought into the discussion. From Ugarit of around 1400 B.C. comes a text celebrating the marriage of the male and female lunar deities. It is there predicted that the goddess will bear a son ... The terminology is remarkably close to that in Isaiah 7:14. However, the Ugaritic statement that the bride will bear a son is fortunately given in parallelistic form; in 77:7 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew `almah 'young woman' [>Glmh<]; in 77:5 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew betulah 'virgin' [>btlt<]. Therefore, the New Testament rendering of `almah as 'virgin' for Isaiah 7:14 rests on the older Jewish interpretation, which in turn is borne out for precisely this annunciation formula by a text that is not only pre-Isaianic but is pre-Mosaic in the form that we now have it on a clay tablet.[44][45]

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The argument that Old Testament prophecies of the virgin birth of Jesus were what inspired seemingly similar pagan myths was made by Justin Martyr in The First Apology of Justin, written in the second century. He made this argument also in his Dialog with Trypho, in which he debates with a Jew called Trypho:

"Be well assured, then, Trypho," I continued, "that I am established in the knowledge of and faith in the Scriptures by those counterfeits which he who is called the Devil is said to have performed among the Greeks; just as some were wrought by the Magi in Egypt, and others by the false prophets in Elijah's days. For when they tell that Bacchus, son of Jupiter, was begotten by Jupiter's intercourse with Semele, and that he was the discoverer of the vine; and when they relate, that being torn in pieces, and having died, he rose again, and ascended to heaven; and when they introduce wine into his mysteries, do I not perceive that the Devil has imitated the prophecy announced by the patriarch Jacob, and recorded by Moses?"[46]

Some writers point out that if in fact the writer of Isaiah intended to borrow the idea of a virgin birth from an older pagan tradition, we might expect to find Isaiah using more explicit language to indicate that a virgin was meant[citation needed]. Others says that, if Isaiah had borrowed the story from pagans, he might be expected to speak in the same way as the pagans. This is the view of "the scholar quoted", who notes a "remarkable" similarity of the Ugaritic and the Hebrew. It is also said[citation needed] that Isaiah may speak the same way as the pagans simply because he came from a similar sociological and semantic context, and that, if Isaiah's prophecy came directly from God, he had no tradition to conform to, and could have expanded the meaning to make it completely unambiguous, and accordingly it could be argued that his not making it unambiguous is a difficulty for certain interpretations of the text, though the ambiguity could be seen as being intended, if one supposes that God had a dual purpose for the text: to serve one function in Isaiah's time and another function later. Isaiah's prophecy departs from the Ugaritic version of the predicted birth by having the female human, whereas in the Ugaritic culture, the virgin was another deity, on par with the male, a departure that would in any case be necessary, since Judaism has only one deity, spoken of as male. Isaiah departs much further still from the Ugaritic story by not attributing the forthcoming birth to sexual union on the part of any deity, male or female.

Pseudepigrapha

The Christian pseudepigraphon Ascension of Isaiah (probably of the first half of second century) has a narrative of the virgin birth of Jesus (AI 11:8). The narrative of the virgin nativity of Jesus can be found also in many Infancy Gospels, for instance the Gospel of James (probably about 150). A somewhat similar story concerning Melchizedek can be found in the Exaltation of Melchizedek, the last section of the Second Book of Enoch considered by some an addition, see also Melchizedek in the Second Book of Enoch.

Other miraculous births

Main articles: Miraculous birth and List of virgin births

Outside the Bible, legendary heroes and even actual kings are frequently portrayed as offspring of gods. Both Pharaohs and Roman emperors were considered gods, the latter being considered in Rome itself as divinized only after death. Extra-biblical birth narratives typically involve sexual intercourse, sometimes involving rape or deceit, by a god in human or animal form — for example, the stories of Leda, Europa or the birth of Hercules. However, an example of a story where the woman's physical virginity is explicitly maintained by the god who impregnates her by artificial insemination is found in a Hindu Purana. "The sun-god said: O beautiful Pṛthā, your meeting with the demigods cannot be fruitless. Therefore, let me place my seed in your womb so that you may bear a son. I shall arrange to keep your virginity intact, since you are still an unmarried girl."[47] Zoroastrianism also holds that the end-of-time Saoshyant (literally, "saviour") will be miraculously conceived by a virgin who has swum in a lake where Zoroaster's seed is preserved.[48]

The birth narrative of Jesus is distinctive in that it speaks of the Holy Spirit, not of male seed, as the active agent in his conception.[49]

Some have tried to demonstrate Christian dependence on a Roman mystery cult called Mithraism, which was established prior to Christianity. Early reconstructions of the Mithras legend proposed, from Persian sources, that he might have been born of the union of Mother Earth and Ahuramazda, however the theory has not endured. Carvings illustrating the legend reinforce documentary sources that focus on Mithras being born purely from rock (saxigenus),[50] as Athena, the daughter of Zeus and Metis,[51] sprang from the forehead of Zeus.

Celebration

Main article: Christmas

Christians celebrate the conception of Jesus on 25 March[52] (Lady Day) and his birth at Christmas (25 December) or Epiphany (6 January). Among the many traditions associated with Christmas are the construction of cribs and the performance of re-enactments of elements of the story in the Gospels of the birth of Jesus.

There has been debate about the reason why Christians came to choose the 25 December date to celebrate the birth of Jesus. One theory is that they did so in order to oppose the existing winter-solstice feast of the Natalis Solis Invicti (Birthday of the Unconquered Sun) by celebrating on that date the birth of the "Sun of Righteousness".[53] Another tradition derived the date of Christmas from that of the Annunciation, the virginal conception of Jesus.[53] Since this was supposed to have taken place on 14 Nisan in the Jewish calendar, calculated to have been either 25 March or 6 April, it was believed that the date of Christ's birth will have been nine months later.[54] A tractate falsely attributed to John Chrysostom argued that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25 March, a computation also mentioned by Saint Augustine of Hippo.[53]

The future parents of Mary, Joachim and Anne meet, after being miraculously informed that they are to have a child. Painting by Giotto di Bondone.

Immaculate Conception distinct from virginal conception

Main article: Immaculate Conception

The virginal conception of Jesus by Mary is often mistakenly confused with the Roman Catholic Church teaching of her "Immaculate Conception", namely Mary's conception by her mother in the normal way, but free from original sin. The Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception has been defined as follows: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."[55]

Parthenogenesis vs. Virgin Birth

In Christian belief, the virgin birth of Jesus was not a case of parthogenesis (the scientific name for virgin birth), such as occurs naturally in some species, and has been artificially induced even in mammals, but generally produces only female offspring.[56] Like the story of Jesus' resurrection, the conception of Jesus is seen as a strictly miraculous occurrence, not explainable as a natural process, no matter how exceptional, or as a scientific achievement.[57][58] In fact, scientists believe that not even the most advanced techniques could induce parthenogenesis in humans, especially for producing male offspring.[59][60][61][62] On the other hand, it is perfectly possible for a virgin (a woman with no sexual experience) to give a birth, either by artificial insemination, or by embryo transfer. Though never recorded in a human, parthenogensis is scientifically possible, as observed in the Cnemidophorus neomexicanus. None of these processes corresponds to Christian belief about Mary's virginal conception of Jesus.

Gallery of art

Holy Doors, St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, twelfth century

Mosaic by Pietro Cavallini in Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome, c. 1291

Icon at Ohrid, early fourteenth century

Icon at Patmos, seventeenth century

Painting by Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

Fresco in the Pantheon, Rome, attributed to Melozzo da Forlì, fifteenth century

Fresco in the cathedral of Spoleto, Filippo Lippi, mid-fifteenth century

Painting by Pietro Perugino, c. 1489

Painting by Sandro Botticelli, 1489-90

Painting by El Greco, c. 1560-1565

Painting by Mikhail Nesterov, Russia, nineteenth century

Painting by Joakim Skovgaard, Copenhagen, 1897

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Virgin Birth" britannica.com Retrieved October 22, 2007.
  2. ^ Matthew 1:18
  3. ^ Luke 1:26-35
  4. ^ Lateran Council of 649, canon 3, quoted in Denzinger, 256
  5. ^ Cathechism of the Catholic Church, 484-486 and 496-498
  6. ^ Confused Christology: Is Jesus the Son of the Holy Spirit?
  7. ^ John Paul II, 10 July 1996, 3
  8. ^ Matthew 1:22-23
  9. ^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-10-280290-3), article Virgin Birth of Christ
  10. ^ Qur'an 3:47, 3:59, 66:12.
  11. ^ Qur'an 2:87, 2:253, 3:45, 4:157, 4:171, 5:46, 5:72, 5:75, 5:112, 5:114, 5:116, 9:31, 43:57, 61:6, 61:14.
  12. ^ The original Greek text, which has "ἐξ ἧς" (feminine singular), shows that the phrase "of whom" refers to Mary, not to Joseph or to Mary and Joseph together (Matthew 1:16
  13. ^ "In three details he departs from the LXX form of Isa 7:14 ... (1) the use of hexei rather than lēpsetai; (2) thethird person plural 'they will call', rather than 'you [sing.] will call'; (3) the supplied interpretation of Emmanuel as 'God with us'" (Raymond E. Brown: The Birth of the Messiah [ISBN 0-385-05405-X], p. 150)
  14. ^ 19:36&verse={{{3}}}&src=! John 19:36 {{{3}}}, referring to Numbers 9:12 and perhaps also, in the Septuagint translation, Exodus 12:46
  15. ^ a b c d Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
  16. ^ Geoffrey Bromiley, 1995, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 9780802837844 page 991
  17. ^ Samuel Lachs, 1987, A rabbinic commentary on the New TestamentKTAV Press, ISBN 9780881250893 page 5
  18. ^ Geoffrey Ashe, 1988 The Virgin Routledge Press ISBN 9781850631002 page 49
  19. ^ Eugene Laverdiere, 2006, The Annunciation to Mary Liturgy Training Press ISBN 9781568545578 page 48
  20. ^ Gresham Machen, 1987, Virgin Birth of Christ Ingram Press ISBN 9780227676301 page 252
  21. ^ Robert Gromacki, 2002, The Virgin Birth Kragel ISBN 9780825427466 page 202
  22. ^ Brown, Raymond E., The Birth of the Messiah. Doubleday & Company. 1977, Appendix V: The Charge of Illegitimacy
  23. ^ Ranke-Heinemann, Uta. Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. Garden City: Doubleday, 1990. ISBN 0385265271.
  24. ^ Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah 1977 ISBN 0-385-05405-X, p. 535
  25. ^ Refuting Missionaries Hayyim ben Yehoshua
  26. ^ Older English translations used "made" as a translation of "γενόμενον" (having become, having come to be). This is probably due to the influence of Latin, which, having no word for "to become" uses "to be made" (fieri, passive of facere) in its place, as in John 1:14, where "ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο" (the Word became flesh) appears in Latin as "verbum caro factum est" (the Word was made flesh).
  27. ^ Bible Studies at the Moorings; Forerunner Commentary
  28. ^ Genealogy of Jesus Christ
  29. ^ Foreunner Commentary
  30. ^ For instance, Raymond E. Brown, in The Birth of the Messiah, pages 26-28
  31. ^ Acts 2:23, 2:32, 3:14-15, 4:10, 10:39-40, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
  32. ^ R. H. Jarrell, 'The Birth Narrative as Female Counterpart to Covenant', Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 26 (2002): 3–18.
  33. ^ Mark G. Brett, 'Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible', in John William Rogerson and others (eds), The Bible in Ethics: The Second Sheffield Colloquium, (Sheffield: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1995), p. 137.
  34. ^ Messiah Truth – Counter-Missionary Education
  35. ^ http://en.allexperts.com/q/Catholics-955/Jesus-vs-Isaiah-Chapter-1.htm retrieved 30 Jan 2009
  36. ^ http://en.allexperts.com/q/Catholics-955/Jesus-vs-Isaiah-Chapter-1.htm retrieved 30 Jan 2009
  37. ^ John 19:36
  38. ^ Brown Driver Briggs (BDB) reads bethulah simply as unqualified reference to a "virgin", listing all 50 attestations, p. 143.
  39. ^ BDB reads `almah, generally "ripe sexually; maid or newly married", listing all 8 attestations: Gn 24:43; Ex 2:8; Ps 68:26; Pr 30:19; SS 1:3,6; Is 7:14; 1 Ch 15:20 (p. 761).
  40. ^ James D. Price
  41. ^ "From Ugarit of around 1400 B.C. comes a text celebrating the marriage of the male and female lunar deities. It is there predicted that the goddess will bear a son ... The terminology is remarkably close to that in Isaiah 7:14. However, the Ugaritic statement that the bride will bear a son is fortunately given in parallelistic form; in 77:7 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew `almah 'young woman' [>Glmh<]; in 77:5 she is called by the exact etymological counterpart of Hebrew betulah 'virgin' [>btlt<]" (Charles Lee Feinberg, 'The Virgin Birth in the Old Testament and Isaiah 7:14,' Bibliotheca Sacra 119 (1962): 251-258).
  42. ^ Gordon J. Wenham, 'Betulah "A Girl of Marriageable Age"', Vetus Testamentum 22 (1972): 326-348.
  43. ^ Most modern translations of the Bible indent sections considered poetry by their translation committees. Isaiah, Jeremiah and the majority of minor prophets, are highly poetic.
  44. ^ Cyrus H. Gordon, "`Almah in Isaiah 7:14", Journal of Bible and Religion 21 (1953): 106 [emphasis original].
  45. ^ Gordon is cited in several articles, one being Charles Lee Feinberg, 'The Virgin Birth in the Old Testament and Isaiah 7:14,' Bibliotheca Sacra 119 (1962): 251-258.
  46. ^ "Chapter LXIX.—The devil, since he emulates the truth, has invented fables about Bacchus, Hercules, and Æsculapius". http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.iv.lxix.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
  47. ^ Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 9.24.34, trans. by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
  48. ^ World Mythology Dictionary; Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.
  49. ^ Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35.
  50. ^ MJ Vermaseren, Mithras, the Secret God, (London, 1963). See also Farvardyn.com.
  51. ^ {http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/BirthAthena.html The Birth of Athena]; Greek Goddess Athena
  52. ^ The Julian Calendar 25 March corresponds at present to 8 April in the Gregorian Calendar.
  53. ^ a b c Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Christmas
  54. ^ Procter and Frere's New History of the Book of Common Prayer (see The Date of Christmas and Epiphany)
  55. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 491.
  56. ^ Parthenogenic Komodo dragons produce only male offspring (National Geographic News: Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas -- By Komodo Dragon).
  57. ^ God's Way of Acting
  58. ^ The Virgin Birth of Our Lord (Anglican)
  59. ^ Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas - By Komodo Dragon
  60. ^ Female sharks capable of virgin birth - Science - MSNBC.com
  61. ^ American Bioethics Advisory Commission
  62. ^ A human parthenogenetic chimaera. [Nat Genet. 1995] - PubMed Result

Further reading

External links

Gabriel announces Mary's motherhood to Jesus Life of Jesus: Conception of Jesus
Preceded by Gabriel announces John's birth to Zechariah  New Testament   Events Followed by Mary visits Elizabeth
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