It is not quite the most controversial verse in the Bible, but Luke 1:35 comes close. Mary has just replied to the angel Gabriel’s statement that she will be the mother of the Messiah with a question of her own: “How shall this be,” she says in the words of the King James Version, “seeing I know not a man?”
Don’t worry about that, says the angel. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
In other words, Jesus would be born of a virgin, a woman who had not, in the biblical sense, known a man.
I only say this is not the most controversial verse in the Bible because the Virgin Birth of Jesus is one of the points on which Muslims and Christians agree. In verse 21 of Sura 19 in the Quran, the angel tells Mary that although she has not known a man (verse 18) yet God will give her a child. Between the estimated 2.1 billion Christians and the 1.5 billion Muslims out a total estimated global population of 6.8 billion, there are an awful lot of people who believe this — although of course not all Christians nor all Muslims accept the idea that their respective scriptures are literally true.
But even if both the Quran and the New Testament agree on this point, the idea of the Virgin Birth is one of the most controversial and confusing theological concepts around, and a Yuletide blog which didn’t take on the topic wouldn’t be doing its job. So: what does this concept mean, and why do Christians care?
Maybe the first point to clear up is this: the Virgin Birth and the Immaculate Conception are not the same thing. The Virgin Birth is simply the idea that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born and that Jesus had no earthly father. The Immaculate Conception is the idea that Mary herself was born without original sin. Until the last three more skeptical centuries, the doctrine of the Virgin Birth had been accepted by virtually all Christian churches and theologians going back to Biblical times; the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, widely discussed and debated for many centuries, was officially proclaimed to be a doctrine of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Other major denominations do not accept this idea as official doctrine, although it is easy to find Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Christians who are in broad sympathy with the idea.
From the earliest times people have raised the obvious questions about the Virgin Birth. A claim that Jesus was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier Pantherus has been making the rounds since at least 180 AD; it has recently been revived by the film director Paul Verhoeven. I’m not holding my breath for a ‘scientific’ resolution of this question; I am not sure in any case how you would check for God’s DNA in a paternity test. People have to make their own decisions about what to believe based on the evidence that already exists. I would only observe that if you believe (as I do) that God made the universe and everything in it, and if you believe that he upholds the universe and cares about the well being of each individual person, then to reject the Virgin Birth as a physcial impossibility seems a little forced. Swallowing camels and choking on gnats, as Jesus might put it. But that’s me: this is exactly the kind of question that everyone needs to face on his or her own.
In any case, for convinced Christians and curious non-Christians alike the question at hand isn’t really can we prove that the Virgin Birth did or did not occur; the question is what does the doctrine mean to those who hold it? Why do Christians think this is an important idea? There are, I think, two main points that the doctrine makes: one about Jesus and one about Mary as an individual and more broadly about women.
About Jesus, the meaning of the doctrine seems pretty clear. The story is in the gospels not to cover up some scandal about Mary’s pregnancy; if that were the case the gospel writers could have simply called Jesus the son of Joseph and pointed to the fact that Joseph accepted him as such. Son of Joseph, son of David, Messiah: that is all you would have needed. By going further and making the outrageous and inherently doubtful claim that Jesus’ mother was a virgin, the gospels stress that this particular baby was unique. He wasn’t like all the other babies; he had a special relationship with God from the start. At various points during his life, Jesus would talk about this unique relationship and later theologians would make it a centerpiece of their reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ life and career. But the gospels go out of their way from the start to make the assertion that Jesus was not just another baby in a manger. Jesus isn’t important just because he had a special message, the gospels are telling us. He is important because he is a special person. The gospels say nothing about what Jesus looked like; we don’t know anything at all about how tall he was, what color his hair and his eyes were, whether he looked more like James Dean or Chris Farley. But they do tell us, in the strongest, most expressive way possible, that while Jesus was a human baby with a human Mom, he was also something more, something else.
The gospels are also making a point about Mary and through her about women in general. Ancient Christian writers frequently referred to Mary as the Second Eve. The first Eve, as just about everyone knows even today, was Adam’s wife. She yielded to the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden to disobey God and taste the forbidden fruit. Adam went on and tasted it for himself; ever since then men have been blaming women for all the trouble in the world. For millennia men have used the Biblical story and similar stories and folk tales to justify the second-class status to which women have been historically relegated in much of the world.
The figure of the Virgin Mary marks a turning point. She is the Second Eve, the one who said ‘yes’ to God when he asked him to be the mother of his son. When God really needed help, he went to a woman, not to a man. And the woman said ‘yes,’ and out of her faith and obedience came the salvation of the world.
Seen from this angle, the biblical insistence on Mary’s virginity highlights her autonomy and underlines the vital role she played. At this critical moment in world history, she didn’t act with a man or through a man. She didn’t stand by her man; she wasn’t a ‘helpmeet.’ God came to her as a person, and she responded in dignity and freedom.
The message is or ought to be clear. I will come back to the Virgin Mary later; she’s one of the great enigmas of the Christian religion for many contemporary Americans and it’s hard for many of us to see just what she means or can mean to people today. But for now, on this third day of Christmas, it’s enough to understand that when Christians say that Jesus was born of a virgin, there are two main points they are making: that Jesus is the son of God, and that the free choice of a strong and faithful woman opened the door to salvation for the whole human race.
Chapter 3: V 59- AL-E-IMRAN (THE FAMILY OF ‘IMRAN) – (from Quran)
Truly, the likeness of (prophet) Jesus with Allah (God), is as the likeness of Adam, he created him from dust then he said to him “be” and he was. (59)
Chapter 19: V 16-21 & 35 – MARYAM (MARY) – from Quran
And mention in the book, Mary, how she withdrew from her people to an eastern place and she took a veil apart from them; (16)
We sent to her our angel (Gabriel) in the resemblance of a perfect human. (17)
(and when she saw him) she said: ‘I take refuge in the merciful from you! If you are fearful. ‘(18)
‘I am the messenger of your lord, ‘ he replied, ‘and have come to give you a pure boy. ‘(19)
‘How shall I bear a son, ‘ she answered, ‘when I am not touched by a human and not unchaste? ‘(20)
“Even so” he replied, “as such your lord has said: ‘easy it is for me. And we shall make him a sign to mankind and a mercy from us. It is a matter decreed.’” (21)
It is not for Allah to take a son! Exaltations to him! When he decrees a thing he only says: ‘be, ‘ and it is. (35)
URL: http://www.parsquran.com/data/show.php?quantity=&lang=eng&sura=19&ayat=21&user=eng&tran=1
[...] and the predicted Messiah; Islam has no trouble with the idea that he was born of a virgin, and the Virgin Mary is a popular and well respected figure for [...]
You’ve forgot another, very important thread in the string of belief in the Virgin Birth: sex is bad, so Jesus could not have been born thereby. Though attitudes have changed more recently, traditionally the larger Churches have accepted the view that physical desire were inherently sinful, that it is an attribute of Man’s fallen state, and that the ideal marriage were a celibate one (hence the Catholic teaching that Joseph _never_ knew Mary, ever). Though not in the arguments of the better theologians, on the popular level I think there was a great connexion between the sinfulness of sex and Original Sin, that sex was the sinful transmitter of that dubious malady.
Though I am against a modern tendency to worship sex (one should not worship anything, viz sub re. camels) and expect far too much from it and associated love, I find your not mentioning this a bit of a whitewash…no, not just a bit, I think it deceptive. You should no more deny that Christianity went well with the doctrine of the Virgin Birth because large chunks of it hated sex than a good Jew should deny that God commanded his ancestors to slaughter entire peoples and their cattle, or a good Muslim that Islam’s spread was strongly aided by the Sword.
I’ll admit that 1.) I am not a camel-swallower, but that it seems to me that 2.) a virgin birth is a gnat only in comparison with a camel.
Is your Messiah a real or counterfeit Messiah?
My Messiah is the same Messiah that is related to King David (of the Davidic Covenant); and the Messiah who walked with and taught the Apostles of Yeshua The Christ . My Messiah is 100 % human and 100 % God; whereas most Christians really only believe in a Messiah that is 50% human and 50% God (and they don’t even realize it)!!!
The Jews know that their Messiah is a blood relative of King David and of the tribe of Judah. The “Seed” of David reference in the Bible refers to a human male producing children. The Creator God only gives the responsibility for human reproduction to Adam & Eve and their descendants (which including you and me) to thousands of generations and God doesn’t change or alter the law of human reproduction, not even for the Messiah (especially since the Bible says that the Messiah is like us physically—but sinless).
I now know that Joseph’s “Seed” is what caused Mary to be pregnant with the child Jesus. If Joseph isn’t the biological father, then Joseph adopting Jesus isn’t going to make Jesus related to King David or his descendants. In the same way Sarah adopting the child that Abraham fathered, didn’t make him the child of God’s Promise, but only a child of passion and lust. Isaac was the child of promise and not his older half-brother.
Christians will state that Jesus is 100% God and 100% human. And that Jesus has a body “Just like ours”. I am pretty sure that the person reading this letter has a human mother and a human father who God used to give them life (which makes me like the person who is reading this letter). If you are born of a virgin, you are not “just like me” !!! If Joseph didn’t get Mary pregnant then Jesus is 50% human because of Mary; and Jesus is 50% God because of God.
When we humans are conceived, God puts a human “CREATED SPIRIT” in the unborn children that we are. When Jesus was conceived by Joseph and Mary, God did something different to THEIR child; instead of putting a human “created spirit” in Jesus, God puts His own Spirit into the child Jesus!!! Which means Jesus now has a 100% human body (because of Joseph’s seed and Mary’s womb) and 100% God, because there is “no” human “created spirit” of a person in Jesus, but only the “Spirit of God”!!!
God destroyed ancient Israel because of their unbelief, killing the prophets of God and killing their Promised Messiah and ours! I realize that all humans ever born, are responsible for the death of the Messiah; but God chose Israel to be the Spiritual leaders to instruct and guide us to know and serve the One True Living God of this world.
It appears that modern day Israel also isn’t able to grasp the concept of a ruling King and suffering servant Messiah. I understand why the Jews reject the Christian Messiah. The Jews know that the Promised Messiah is a blood relative of King David. If they had computers and DNA testing back thousands of years ago, and you tested King David, his son, grandson and all others in his family tree, including Joseph, Mary and Jesus; in a court of law it can be proved scientifically that Jesus is LITERALLY of the seed of David. Not a step-child of Joseph (and therefore half human and not biologically related to King David through Joseph).
Recently I was writing to a Jewish Christian I know, and I stated that after the virgin birth that I believe that Joseph and Mary had a “Normal” marriage like other married couples (companionship, sex and children) and therefore she didn’t stay a virgin her whole life, as is taught by some people.
I was surprised to hear that this Jewish Christian stated that the doctrine of the virgin birth was added to scripture at a time in history after all the apostles, their children and grandchildren are all dead and before the Protestant Reformation happened. Paul stated that after his death that wolves would come in and not spare the flock. I use to think that the Jews were being stubborn and rebellious for not accepting the Messiah Jesus Christ. But it turns out that the Christian dogma is what the Jews are rejecting.
The Apostle Paul wrote 13 books in the New Testament. Paul was the Theologian type and he never mentioned the virgin birth. Luke was a physician and wouldn’t be qualified to teach Theology. Of all the miracles that Paul writes about, “you would think” that he would mention it as the greatest miracle of “motherhood” and just as exciting, dramatic and important as the raising of the dead!!! Not even Jesus mentioned a supposed virgin birth, or a “perpetual” virgin Mary. His silence screams deception.
Adam, Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Paul the Apostle, King David, Judas, Joseph, Mary, and you and me have been deceived by self, Satan and others. Promoting the virgin birth will get you a bad grade in a Logic 101 class, and reveal you are spiritually blind to the truth that Satan has lied to our Christian leaders throughout history.
The concept of a virgin or non-virgin birth of the Promised Messiah is conflicting and antithetical to each other. If you have a personal relationship with and commitment to Jesus Christ, your opinion of the virgin / or non-virgin birth does not affect your salvation.
May we be more concerned about knowing the TRUTH and less concerned about defending our religious traditions that make us feel insecure, and fearful if we question there validity: And presuming we are sinning against God if we change our opinion on how the Messiah became human.
John 8: 36
Sincerely,
Arthur Trafford
Yahya(John the Baptist)the son of Zacharias is the father of Isa ( Jseus).