Was Jesus born of a virgin?
I tend to think not (and not just because I’m not religious).
Many Christians uncritically accept the historicity of the nativity narratives in Matthew and Luke; stories Mark, our earliest Gospel, knows nothing about. I think Matthew and Luke invented the miraculous birth stories, which was a common practice for writing about great men in history of whom birth details were not known. See, for instance, here: ** you do not have permission to see this link **
In fact, as Dr. Ehrman points out, Matthew’s nativity story of Jesus recapitulates the story of Moses, so there is reason to think it is not historical (see Ehrman, “Did Jesus Exist?”, 198-204).
Do you think the nativity stories are historical or not-historical?
What other New Testament stories do you think never happened?
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14. The trouble is, Matthew was not reading from the Hebrew text, but from the Greek version (the Septuagint, a notoriously unsatisfactory translation), where the word parthenos indeed means virgin. Had he consulted the original Hebrew, he would have found almah, a word simply meaning a young woman, without any implication of virginity.
I am a Santa Claus mythicist. I think he was worshipped as a divine being by the early Christians where he delivered presents to good little boys and girls in the celestial realm. Later he was “historicized” and then thought to be a real historical figure. I mean think about it! We don’t have any historical sources for Santa Claus at all in the first century. He doesn’t even get mentioned in Josephus! And the historical anachronisms should immediately give it away – there were no reindeer in Palestine!
Stephen said
I am a Santa Claus mythicist. I think he was worshipped as a divine being by the early Christians where he delivered presents to good little boys and girls in the celestial realm. Later he was “historicized” and then thought to be a real historical figure. I mean think about it! We don’t have any historical sources for Santa Claus at all in the first century. He doesn’t even get mentioned in Josephus! And the historical anachronisms should immediately give it away – there were no reindeer in Palestine!
Not to mention WE don’t have his birth certificate (short or long). More importantly we know every society worth that label in the ME
had Rising and Flying Philanthropists distributing toys to Children…..
Trevelyan said
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14. The trouble is, Matthew was not reading from the Hebrew text, but from the Greek version (the Septuagint, a notoriously unsatisfactory translation), where the word parthenos indeed means virgin. Had he consulted the original Hebrew, he would have found almah, a word simply meaning a young woman, without any implication of virginity.
Why? Were ppl confused and thought a young man, a goat, or tree would conceive and the point had to be clarified?
Nonsense, Spiker!
The text of Isaiah 7 flows well as a literary exposition, with the young woman naming her son Immanuel {God with us}. It wouldn’t flow properly without the mother being mentioned. Matthew fixes on the mis-translation in the LXX source as parthenos {virgin} to add a mystical element to the Jesus narrative, something that simply is not justified by the Hebrew source, even if we grant that the Jesus story recapitulates some elements of Hebrew scripture.
Trevelyan said
Nonsense, Spiker!The text of Isaiah 7 flows well as a literary exposition, with the young woman naming her son Immanuel {God with us}. It wouldn’t flow properly without the mother being mentioned. Matthew fixes on the mis-translation in the LXX source as parthenos {virgin} to add a mystical element to the Jesus narrative, something that simply is not justified by the Hebrew source, even if we grant that the Jesus story recapitulates some elements of Hebrew scripture.
Irrelevant, Trev!
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