Born of the Virgin Mary

The doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Jesus has become a complex subject since Biblical Critics over the last century and a half have disputed the reliability of the accounts. In this first part I shall only outline the two passages of Scripture in which the story is unfolded and leave the disputes to a future study.

What the Scriptures Say

Luke Ch 1

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

Luke wishes to make it clear to his readers that the birth of Jesus was unique. As usual, Luke is meticulous in researching and stating the facts.

Mary is a virgin.
She is "betrothed" or "pledged". That is, she is not yet married but, according to Jewish custom of the time, promised in marriage. This promise was so binding that it took a sort of divorce to annul it.
Joseph, her betrothed, is a descendant of David.

The angel tells her that she will become pregnant and bear a son.

Luke 1:31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
32 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,
33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

The child's name is to be Jesus, which means The Salvation of the LORD.
He will be called God's Son.
He will be Messiah. (An anointed King of David's line).

Mary objects that she is a virgin, so how can she become pregnant.

Luke Ch 1 v 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.
37 For nothing is impossible with God."

The fact of Mary's virginity is reiterated.
The angel tells her that this is entirely the work of God through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
The child will be holy
The child will, in fact, be the Son of God.
Nothing is impossible with God.

Matthew Ch 1

Matthew also insists on the virginity of Mary at this time.

Matthew Ch1 v 18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Matthew agrees with Luke that Mary and Joseph were, as yet, unmarried.
Mary's pregnancy is the work of the Holy Spirit.
19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Although they were not actually married the betrothal was a binding one and needed a divorce to annul it but Joseph tried to work out a way of dealing with the problem gracefully.
The angel informs him that the pregnancy is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
Mary's son is to be called Jesus because he will be the Saviour.

Matthew, being a Jew writing for a Jewish audience, desires to show that all this is in line with the prophets.

22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet:
23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."

What ever critics may say, therefore, it is evident that the writers of two of the four gospel accounts were determined to assert the belief that Mary was a virgin when she bore Jesus and that the birth of Jesus was uniquely the work of God the Father through the Holy Spirit in order to bring about the incarnation of the Son.

(All full biblical quotations in this article are taken from the New International Version and have been inserted into the text using "QuickVerse for Windows" from Parsons Technology .)