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Christmas & Virgin Birth

Tags:  Chanukkah, Christmas, Isaac, Mary, miraculous birth, perpetual virginity, virgin birth

During the Christmas season, the majority of our brothers and sisters in Messiah honor His birth. Even for those of us who are keeping Chanukkah, the Christmas season inevitably turns one's mind back to the nativity stories as we hear strains of carols come drifting through the air:

"Round yon virgin mother and child, Holy Infant, so tender and mild."

I have often wondered exactly what a "round yon virgin" is. Turns out that the word "yon" is a short form of "yonder." So the song is saying that "all is calm and all is bright around that yonder virgin, mother and child."

Was the yonder virgin really a virgin though? As is well known, the later Church began to venerate Mary (Miriam) and ascribe perpetual virginity to her. She became the icon of celibacy. Church apologists explained that Joseph, her husband, never consummated his marriage with her. The siblings of Yeshua introduced in the Gospels were explained away as children of Joseph from a previous marriage, or in other traditions, as cousins. Developing Christianity did everything possible to preserve the image of the ever chaste, pure and unsullied virgin Mary.

The Miriam of the Gospels, however, did not remain a virgin after the birth of Yeshua. (One might suppose that this is obvious simply from a physiological perspective. After the child passes through the birth canal, there can be no more talk about physical virginity. To solve this dilemma, though, the church created a new version of the story whereby, at the time of birth, the infant Savior teleported from her womb right into her arms, thereby preserving her virginal state.)

The Gospel of Matthew, however, makes it explicitly clear that the Round Yon Virgin did not remain a Round Yon Virgin after the birth of Yeshua. Instead, Matthew tells us that her husband Joseph "kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son" (Matthew 1:25).

The Greek behind Matthew 1:25 actually uses a very Hebraic idiom for sexual relations. It says, "[Joseph] did not know her till she brought forth her son."

In biblical Hebrew, for a man to "know" his wife is to have sexual relations with her. Hence we read, "Now the man had relations with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth" (Genesis 4:1, NASB). The actual Hebrew says, "And the man KNEW Eve his wife, and she conceived..." Therefore, we could translate Matthew 1:25 as follows:

Joseph did not have sexual relations with her until after she had given birth to her son ... (Matthew 1:25)

The clear implication is that after the birth of Yeshua, she and Joseph had a normal marriage relationship. Prior to the birth of the child, though, they did not. Prior to the birth of Yeshua, she was a virgin.

Why did Messiah need to be born of a virgin? Perhaps He did not, but He was because she was. According to the undisputed testimony of Matthew and Luke, Miriam conceived and gave birth as a virgin.

Critics sometimes suggest that the virgin birth is an invention of the later church. Others point to pagan antecedents such as the Olympian gods copulating with humans to produce demi-gods like Hercules. But that would mean that the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are also inventions of the later church or pagan interpolators. The Gospel of Matthew is the product of an early community of Jewish believers who remained devoutly Jewish. The Gospel of Luke was written by Luke the traveling companion of Paul. These were not Hellenized redactionists trying to retrofit the Gospel to Roman society. Neither were they pagans.

They wrote the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (like all the Gospels) to establish the messiahship of Yeshua. Given that purpose, would it benefit their case to fabricate the virgin the birth? It would not. Not in a Jewish venue. If anything, it would raise questions about the authenticity of their claims. It would have been to the advantage of the Gospel writers to suppress such information as they struggled against mainstream Judaism to prove the legitimacy of Yeshua's claim to the messianic title. Matthew and Luke would not have fabricated material which would weaken the that claim in the eyes of the larger Jewish community. The only explanation for Matthew and Luke to include the narratives about the virgin birth is that they are true.

What does the virgin birth really prove? Consider the following excerpts from Torah Club:

Many children in the Bible are born in a miraculous manner. Sarah is the first of several barren women who miraculously conceive and give birth to sons. The Bible intends for us to regard a miraculous birth as evidence that God has set aside that child for some great purpose. When a barren woman gives birth to a son, a miracle has occurred. Obviously God has singled out that child from children born in an ordinary manner. From conception and birth, the child born of a barren woman is 'supernatural.'

The miraculous conception and birth of the Master serves the same function. Even more incredible than a barren woman conceiving and giving birth is a virgin conceiving and giving birth. The purpose of the virgin-birth narrative is to show us that Messiah is exceptional in God's plan. He is not just another human being. Like Isaac, He is a select child of God with a great destiny before Him. In fact, just as the miracle of His conception far exceeds that of Isaac's conception, so too Messiah's purpose and destiny far exceeds that of Isaac.

The actual intention of the story [of the virgin birth is the same as that of Isaac's], only amplified. If an impossible conception by a barren mother marks her child for a great and divinely ordained destiny, how much more so does a conception through a virgin!

On the night that the Master was conceived, there must have been some complaining going on in other places. I think there was come complaining in Hebron at the Machphelah. It may have sounded like this:

'Miriam's mother Sarah rose up to complain: "King of the Universe! Is there favor shown here? Abraham and I sought to have a baby for many decades and we waited more than half a century before you gave to us the son you promised! But this daughter of mine bears the promised son though she has 'never known a man'" (Luke 1:34)? Miriam's mother Rivkah rose up to complain: "King of the Universe! Is there favor shown here? Isaac stood opposite praying to the LORD on behalf of me, because I was barren for twenty years before you heard our prayer and I was able to conceive and bear him sons! But this daughter of mine is 'found to be with child before they came together'" (Matthew 1:18). Rachel (calling from Ephratah) and her mother Leah (calling from Machphelah) rose up to complain: "King of the Universe! Is there favor shown here? We strove with one another to bear sons for our husband and bartered for his bed with mandrakes! Now this daughter of ours conceives and bears a without a single mandrake or bridal week, for 'He had no union with her!'" (Matthew 1:25). How did the Holy One, Blessed be He, answer the mothers? He told them, "Look into it? Is it not written, 'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (Isaiah 7:14) ? Behold, I have made this one yours as well, for he is to be called "God with us."'

In summary, if we choose to dismiss the virgin birth as a fiction of later church redaction, we are obligated to regard two out of four Gospels as illegitimate. We are obligated to dismiss the earliest written strata of documentary evidence left by the first believers. Why stop there? Isn't it a little bit hard to believe that He really, physically rose from the dead too? Doesn't that whole resurrection thing and ascension thing sound a little suspicious? If we are going to question the legitimacy of the virgin birth narratives, why believe the Gospels at all?

At FFOZ, we believe that Yeshua is more than just a righteous, first century rabbi. We believe that He is the One born of a woman, born of a virgin, crucified and risen on the third day, the Son of God. In short, we believe that the "Round Yon Virgin" conceived in a miraculous manner without human agency and gave birth to the Word made Flesh.

D. Thomas Lancaster
(Originally posted Tevet 6, 5767)

About the Author: D. Thomas Lancaster is Director of Education at First Fruits of Zion, and regular contributor to Messiah Journal. He is the author of the Torah Club programs, and the books Grafted In, Restoration and King of the Jews