S2: E3: Does The Virgin Birth Matter?
S2: Kingdom, Culture, and Theology
E3: Does the Birth Matter?
Is it true and does it matter?
During this Christmas season, over 2.2 billion people will be hearing sermons and singing songs that proclaim Christ was actually born of a virgin called Mary.[1] Added to this global figure are those who only attend a church service at Christmas, and maybe Easter. So, it may be more accurate to say about 4 billion will hear about the virgin called Mary and sing about it. That’s more than half the world’s population! What you have started to read in this blog is not only a popular subject during this season, it is the most contested one in the gospel narrative today: the virgin birth of Christ.
An example of this was set by the late David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham (1984-1994) as the first senior Anglican clergyman who said, “I wouldn't put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if he wanted. But I don't think he did.”[2] Also, two of the most influential New Testament scholars of the twentieth century - Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmann – proposed the virgin birth was a myth.[3] Today, there is an increasing belief among contemporary church leaders and scholars that the virgin birth has no effect on someone becoming a Christian. I strongly disagree.
Let’s go back to hearing Christmas sermons and singing songs.
Two of the most popular songs we sing are Away in a Manger (Kilpatrick and Murray 1882) and Silent Night (Gruber and Mohr 1818).[4] I love both of them. However, there are two lines from each respective song that somehow dehumanize Christ: “no crying he makes”, and “all is calm”. First, am I to believe that when Christ was born, he did not make any noise in those first few hours? After my three children were born, they screamed after taking their first breath, and I am sure I did when I was born. Second, am I also to believe that the night Christ was born was actually calm? Bethlehem was so busy that night the only room was a stable (Luke 2:7). The night was anything but silent, and the stable was probably full of the modes of transportation from the preferred guests lodging at the inn.
Admittedly, I’m raising trivial matters, and I am looking forward to singing these two wonderful songs over the Christmas season. Nevertheless, it does shed light on what we believe (or what the authors and composers believed) and how we image these beliefs in our minds as we hear sermons and sing our Christmas songs.
Beliefs tend to erode in subtle ways. For example, in his book Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, Rob Bell states, “What if someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births?”[5]
Bell believes the virgin birth has no effect on someone becoming a Christian. Again, I strongly disagree. Before I get to that, I must oppose Bell’s statement that other god’s – like Mithra and Dionysian - had virgin births. No, they did not.
Mithra was a popular Roman god. In his First Apology, Justin Martyr (100-165) notes how worshippers in Mithraism tended to imitate the Christian faith. One such imitation was the bread and wine of Communion.[6] However, the mythical story of Mithra shows that he was born from a rock, not a virgin. Likewise, the mythical Greek god called Dionysus was born when the immortal Zeus disguised himself as a human man and impregnated Semele, a mere mortal.[7] Again, Bell is not correct by paralleling the mythical stories of Mithra and Dionysus with the birth of Christ. Look, even Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) from Star Wars had no father, but in the saga of George Lucas, Skywalker was a mysterious conception not a virgin one.
What about real characters from history?
It is said of Plato that he was the result of a union between the Greek mythical god Apollo and the delightful human lady called Perictione, but Plato makes no such claim about himself. Apollo was also involved with another human lady called Olympias who gave birth to Alexander the Great. However, King Philip of Macedon was Alexander’s father. And, though Julius Caesar claimed to be a god, Gaius and Aurelia were his parents. The same can be said for Buddha and many more.
Two things emerge from these examples. First, all of them follow after the gospel narrative. So, it is not possible that the gospel narrative borrowed the idea of a virgin birth from pre-existing stories like these. It is a unique element of the gospel narrative. Admittedly, Plato and others preceded the birth of Christ, but what I’m talking about is the idea of their virgin birth first recorded long after their deaths. Second, historical accounts of a virgin birth by mythical characters involved the act of sexual intercourse. This is not the case for Mary, as we see in the narrative:
“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her (Luke 1:26-38 NIV).
I want to suggest four reasons why the virgin birth is essential to the gospel narrative (as the resurrection is essential, but I will get to that at Easter). Therefore, essential to someone becoming a Christian.
First, the enduring narrative.
There is a great deal left out of the gospel narrative concerning the first thirty years of Christ’ life. While there is an episode during his twelfth year (Luke 2:41-52), the next episode is where John the Baptist points him out as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). The only thing we have between the age of twelve and thirty are two summary statements. The first is made by Luke about Christ at the age of twelve, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52 NIV). Undoubtedly, Luke must have sat down with Mary as a first-hand eyewitness and listened to her story of how Christ was conceived, and what followed (Luke 1:1-4)
The second is made by God when Christ was baptized by John, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17 NIV). Whatever happened between twelve and thirty we do not know, but God was pleased. What we do know is that Luke and Matthew wrote explicitly about the incarnation of Christ as the virgin birth. Two millennia of Christians in every culture, in all places, have believed in the virgin birth because the gospel narrative is explicit about that fact. To think otherwise is simply arrogant in any field, academic, philosophical, and historical.
Second, understanding the word “virgin”.
Both Matthew and Luke were clearly convinced that Mary was a virgin at the time of conceiving Christ. In a dream one night, the angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph and explained what was happening with Mary. Matthew writes, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’” (Matthew 1:23 NIV). The prophet that Matthew refers to is Isaiah. He wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 NIV).
Luke writes, “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27 NIV). Luke then quotes Mary in her reply to the angel Gabriel, “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34 NIV).
My question is this: how was the word “virgin” originally used by Isaiah, Matthew, Luke – and by default – Mary? The Hebrew word for virgin that Isaiah used was halalmah with a wide semantic rage that includes “young woman” but does not exclude “virgin”. The word halalmah is used nine times throughout the Old Testament in the context of “a young woman who has not had sexual intercourse”. The Hebrew word for virgin used elsewhere in the Old Testament is bibtuleha explicitly meaning someone who has not has sexual intercourse. More importantly, when the 72 Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek in the third century (called the Septuagint), they translated halalmah with the Greek word parthénos that explicitly means someone who has not had sexual intercourse. The 72 Jewish scholars would not have used an explicit word like parthénos if they understood Isaiah 7:14 as nothing more than a young woman.
Third, the divinity and humanity of Christ.
Anything, and I mean anything that exempts Christ from being fully human makes his death on the cross as the sacrifice for all sin a complete fraud. The emphasis that Matthew and Luke place on the virgin birth is simply that – Mary was a virgin and Christ was born vaginally like any other human baby. There are some who deify the birth of Christ as a miraculous c-section but there is no evidence for this. Gabriel, or any other angel, did not visit the stable and perform surgery.
We do not know how the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. The conception of Christ was miraculous. It was certainly not like the mythical characters of Apollo and Zeus who took on the form of men to conceive with mere mortals. Conception in Mary was void of sexual intercourse or any form of eroticism. The Holy Spirit simply conceived in Mary (not with Mary), and it was so, or as Mary herself said, ““I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38 NIV). This is an essential part of the narrative that points to the divinity of Christ as the Son of God.
Mary carried Christ in her womb for nine months like any other mother. Think about the Genesis narrative for a moment. “To the woman [Eve] he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children” (Genesis 3:16 NIV). Mary was not exempt from this, which points to the humanity of Christ as the Son of Man. Virgin and birth were necessary for the complete divinity and humanity of Christ.
Fourth, the matter of sin.
Like two bookends, Adam was the first man, and Christ was the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). Because the first man sinned, the last Adam had to be without sin, or we would have no hope. Scripture tells us that Christ was without sin (Hebrews 4:14). Now, every human father brings into the world children who inherit the father’s sinful nature (Hebrews 7:26-27). We may not fully understand this, but the history of human beings is not on a trajectory of improvement. We cannot sophisticate ourselves out of sin. Scripture also tells us, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5 NIV). Joseph could not possibly have been the biological father of Christ, neither was Mary attacked by a wayward young man as some have claimed, and then blocked it out of her mind. It does matter that Christ was not conceived by Larry (Rob Bell), but that the Holy Spirit conceived him in Mary’s womb. Only Christ could say, “Surely I was not sinful at birth, not sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
Without the virgin birth, we would have no hope in life; and when we die, we would have no hope of resurrection; there would be no salvation, covenant of peace, and mediator of that covenant who imputes righteousness in us; and we would never be justified before God.
It matters that Christ was born of the virgin called Mary. Even though I still have my doubts about no crying or a silent night, when we sing these songs at church services in a chorus of 4 billion people, let’s allow the theology of the virgin birth to go deeper in our thinking and worship.
[1] The Pew Research (2019) states there are a little over 2.2 billion people in the world today that identify as Christian.
[2] The Daily Telegraph. Obituary. September 4, 2016.
[3] Albert Mohler. “Can a Christian Deny the Virgin Birth?” December 5, 2007.
[4] The Gallop Poll (2019) states both songs are not only the most popular, but also the most recorded by artists.
[5] Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishers), 2005, 26.
[6] Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Ante-Nicene Fathers: The
Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325. Volume I—The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus. (Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson Publishers), 1999, 185.
[7] Stephen Fry. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Penguin Books), 2017.