I am happy to announce that I will be presenting and recording a Chrismas-season lecture “Other Virgin Births in Antiquity,” on December 14, 8:00-9:30 ET. The lecture is not connected with the blog per se, except in sofar as y’all as blog members may well be particularly interested. You can find out about it, along with other lectures and courses that are available here: Online Courses by Dr. Bart Ehrman (10% Off First Order):
This is how I’m describing the lecture in my announcement of the course in other venues.
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Other Virgin Births in Antiquity
Bart D. Ehrman
Jesus of Nazareth was not the only miracle-working Son of God known to the ancient world. Others were also said to heal the sick, cast out demons, control the weather, raise the dead, and ascend to heaven.
But were any of these others born of a virgin?
Search the Internet and you’ll find a definitive answer: Yes. But ask an expert who has actually studied the ancient sources and … and what will you learn?
That is the topic I will address in a special Christmas-season lecture, “Other Virgin Births in Antiquity.” Here are some off the key issues:
- What does it mean to say that someone was born of a virgin? It’s obvious, right? Wrong.
- Apart from Jesus, who else in the ancient world was said (literally) to have a god for his father but a mortal for his mother?
- Was this a widespread notion in Greek and Roman antiquity?
- What specifically do our sources say about the miraculous births of such famous figures as Hercules, Romulus, Alexander the Great, Apollonius of Tyana, and others?
- Were their mothers virgins? If so, what makes Jesus different? If not, why would Christians come up with the radical idea of a virgin birth?
Following the lecture will be a live 30-minute Q&A with the audience. I’m expecting some hot questions.
I hope you can come!
I’m assuming you’re going to tell us there were other virgin births in antiquity, so my question. Since there were no OGYNs in those days, how did “they” verify the mothers were virgins? How do we know those who make the claim are telling the truth?
Ah, if that’s waht you’re assuming you’d better come to the lecture. (But in answer to your question, it was not difficult to determine if a woman’s hymen was broken)
Many biblical stories seem to be cover-ups for difficult realities. For example, the children of Israel, a modest,insignificant people of farmers, beduin, slaves, constantly invaded by Egypt -later Assyria- sees itself, perhaps under Levitical inspiration,as a special people, chosen by God, with a sacred mission. A feeling of superiority ensues,born of the miserable reality of their true situation. Perhaps a straightforward example of psychological compensation , and of group cohesion around this new dignified identity.
I tend to think similarly of Mary’s virginity. She found herself with child before she wed. How? By whom? There is a farfetched theory, impossible to prove of course, that she was raped by a Roman soldier.Her future and the future of her child would have been ghastly under ancient Israel’s code.Enter Joseph, who inexplicably is able to save her. From then on, the wicked tongues perpetuated the gossipy tale, murmuring that it was not known who Jesus’ father was. Thus the zeal to transform such reprehensible reality into a holy, supernatural, blessed explanation.
It may explain also why Jesus was so obsessed with a heavenly father, to compensate for the doubts about his earthly father.Jesus’ childhood must have been searing and lonely.He didn’t fit.
Yup the story could be found in both Jewish and pagan circles. And, well, made it into the Life of Brian….
Since I’v not struck by a french rationalistic wave, I can easliy appreciate the myths for what it is. In ancient time, these myths was perhaps understood differntly from how we percieve all through more rationalistc glasses.
I suspect that the virgin Mary story might have to be understood in a more metaprorical/symbolic sense as for example a position John Shelby Spong takes, and also Marina Warner in “Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary. I’m not able to dismiss such a notion since (just as an example) this is not mentioned by Paul (the first major author of Jesus) and the last gospel (John) never even knew about it or not even bothered to mention it in the relationship of Jesus’ divinitey or his “signs” as it is called in the Gospel of John.
But still, turning my head into an ancient literaly understanding of storis, which I understand myths is an important part of our conceptual understanding. Even when I re read the Republic by Plato a month ago, I noticed Sokrates at the end said “”the myth “would save us” where reasoning and arguments are noe presvasive enough. Well, for me it is at least a dimentional element in my way of understanding.
I’m really looking forward to watching it some time soon!
I hope the webinar mentions the Aural Tradition:
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2017/03/the-conception-of-christ-through-ear-of.html
Didn’t mention it, but you find it portrayed in a number of medieval paintings (a beam of light coming from a dove/Spirit to Mary’s ear)!