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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15412-8.txt b/15412-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..743979d --- /dev/null +++ b/15412-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1579 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord, by B. W. Randolph + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord + A paper read (in substance) before the confraternity of the Holy + Trinity at Cambridge + + +Author: B. W. Randolph + +Release Date: March 19, 2005 [EBook #15412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD *** + + + + +Produced by Michael Madden + + + + + +THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD + +A PAPER READ (IN SUBSTANCE) BEFORE THE CONFRATERNITY OF +THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAMBRIDGE + +BY + +B. W. RANDOLPH, D.D. + +PRINCIPAL OF ELY THEOLOGICAL, COLLEGE + +HON, CANON OF ELY + +EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN + +Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem: non horruisti +Virginis uterum. + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co., +39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON +NEW YORK AND BOMBAY + +1903 + +WITH RESPECT AND AFFECTION TO + +VINCENT HENRY STANTON, D.D. + +ELY PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE + +UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE + +Dedisti Jesum Christum, Filium tuum +unicum, ut . . . pro nobis nasceretur +qui, operante Spiritu Sancto, verus +Homo factus est ex substantia Virginis +Marie matris sue. + +Pref. in Die Nat. Dom. + +PREFACE + +This paper was read before the S. T. C. (Sanctae Trinitatis +Confraternitas) on March 10th of this years at one of the +ordinary meetings of the Brotherhood. It is published now in +the hope that it may thus reach a wider circle. + +To suppose that any one can hold the Catholic doctrine of the +Incarnation without believing the miraculous Conception and Birth, +is, in the writer's opinion, a delusion. There is no trace in +Church History, so far as he is aware, of any believers in the +Incarnation who were not also believers in the Virgin-Birth. The +modern endeavour to divorce the one from the other appears to be +part of the attempt now being made to get rid of the miraculous +altogether from Christianity. + +Professor Harnack appears to urge us to accept the "Easter message" +while we need not, he thinks, believe the "Easter faith."* He +means apparently by this that we can deny the literal fact of +our Lord's Resurrection, while we may believe in a future life. +What St. Paul would really have said to a Christianity such as +this seems to be plain from his words to the Corinthian converts +who were denying the Resurrection in his day: "If Christ be not +risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." +(I Cor. xv. 14.) + +-- +* Harnack, What is Christianity? p. 160. +-- + +Deny the Resurrection of our Lord, and you take away the key-stone +from the Apostolic preaching, and the whole edifice falls to the +ground. Any unprejudiced reader of the sermons and speeches of +St. Peter and St. Paul in the Acts will surely recognize how true +this is. + +Similarly in regard to the human Birth of our Lord. Once admit +that He was born as other men, and the Incarnation fades away. +A child born naturally of human parents can never be God Incarnate. +There can be no new start given to humanity by such a birth. The +entail of original sin would not be cut off nor could the Christ +so born be described as the "Second Adam--the Lord from heaven." +Christians could not look to such a one as their Redeemer or +Saviour, still less as the Author to them of a new spiritual life. + +Another man would have appeared among men, giving mankind the +example of a beautiful human life, but unable in any other way +to benefit the race of men. Further, a Christ such as this would +not be a perfect character, for if the Gospels are to be believed, +He said things about Himself and made claims which no thoroughly +good man could have a right to make unless he were immeasurably +more than man. While these pages were passing through the press, +the eye of the present writer was caught by the following words +in a letter of Bishop Westcott, which seem to have a special +significance at this time:--"I tried vainly to read----'s book .... +He seems to me to deny the Virgin-Birth. In other words, he makes +the Lord a man, one man in the race, and not the new Man--the Son +of Man, in whom the race is gathered up. To put the thought in +another and a technical form, he makes the Lord's personality human, +which is, I think, a fatal error."* + +-- +* Life of Bishop Westcott, vol. ii. p. 308. +-- + +It is sometimes said, in opposition to the mystery of the +Virgin-Birth, that there is a tendency in the human mind, not +without its illustrations in history, to "decorate with legend" +the early history of great men. In reply, it may be enough here +to say that legends analogous to the pagan legends of the births +of heroes, false and absurd legends, did gather round the infancy +of Jesus Christ. The Apocryphal Gospels are full of such legends. +They tell us how the idols of Egypt fell down before Him; how His +swaddling-clothes worked miracles; and how He made clay birds +and turned boys into kids, and worked other absurd miracles +of various kinds. But there is a world of difference between these +"silly tales" and the restraint, purity, dignity, and reserve which +characterize the narratives of the first and third Evangelists. +"The distinction between history and legend," says Dr. Fairbairn, +"could not be better marked than by the reserve of the Canonical +and the vulgar tattle of the Apocryphal Gospels."* + +-- +* Quoted in Gore, Dissertations, p. 60. +-- + +I wish to take this opportunity of thanking my colleague, the +Rev. G. W. Douglas, and my friend the Rev. Canon Warner, Rector +of Stoke-by-Grantham, for their kind help in revising the +proof-sheets of this paper. + +B.W.R. + +THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, +ELY, +Feast of St. Mark, 1903. + +[Note on transliteration of Greek quotations: o = omicron +(short o); e = epsilon (short e); ô = omega (long o); +ê = eta (long e)] + +THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD + +There are two miracles confessed in every form of the Creed--the +miracle of the Conception and Birth, by which the Incarnation was +effected; and the miracle of the Resurrection. These are the +fundamental miracles, and are the battle-ground upon which the +defenders and assailants of Christianity more especially meet. + +The discussion of this most sacred subject of the Virgin-Birth of +our Lord has been forced upon us at the present time. It is +impossible to ignore it or set it aside. We must be prepared, +each of us, however much we may shrink from treading on such +sacred ground, to give a reason for the hope that is in us with +reverence and fear. + +I will ask you here and now to consider the matter briefly under +four heads. First, I will try to give the evidence for the belief +in this article of the Creed during the second century; next, I +will ask you to consider the evidence of St. Matthew and St. Luke; +thirdly, we will consider the argument e silentio on the other side; +and lastly, I will ask you to reflect on the theological aspect +of the question. + + + +THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION + +I will therefore, without any further preface, plunge into the +middle of the subject, and ask you, first of all, to consider +afresh that 'throughout the Church the statement of the belief in +the Virgin-Birth had its place from so early a date, and is +traceable along so many different lines of evidence, as to force +upon us the conclusion that, before the death of the last Apostle, +the Virgin-Birth must have been among the rudiments of the Faith +in which every Christian was initiated;' that if we believe the +Divine guidance in the Church at all, we must needs believe that +this mystery was part of "the Faith once for all delivered to +the Saints." + +Bear with me, then, while I go over the evidence of the leading +witnesses. + +1. St. Ignatius. + +He must have become Bishop of Antioch quite early in the second +century. As he passes through Asia about the year 110, he is on +his way to martyrdom, and in his Epistles he speaks emphatically +of the Virgin-Birth. + +In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he says: "Hidden from the +prince of this world were the Virginity of Mary and her +child-bearing, and likewise also the death of our Lord--three +mysteries of open proclamation, the which were wrought in +the silence of God."* + +-- +* Eph., 19. "Kai elathen ton archonta tou aionos toutou he +parthenia Marias kai ho toketos autês, homiôs kai ho thanatos +tou Kuriou; tria mustêria kraugês, hatina en hêsuchia +theou eprachthê." +-- + +In the Epistle to the Symrnaeans, he says: "I give glory to Jesus +Christ, the God who bestowed such wisdom upon you; for I have +perceived that ye are established in faith immovable... firmly +persuaded as touching our Lord, that He is truly of the race of +David according to the flesh, but Son of God by the Divine will +and power, truly born of a Virgin, and baptized by John... truly +nailed up for our sakes in the flesh, under Pontius Pilate and +Herod the tetrarch."+ + +-- ++ Smyrn., I. "Doxazô Iêsoun Christon ton theon ton houtôs humas +sophisanta; enoêsa gar humas katêrtismenous en akinêtô pistei +..., peplêrophorêmenous eis ton kurion hêmôn alêthôs onta ek +genous David kata sarka, huion theou kata thelêma kai dunamin +theou, gegenêmenon alêthôs ek parthenou, bebaptismenon hupo +Ioannou ... alêthôs epi Pontiou Pilatou kai Herôdou tetrarchou +kathêlomenon huper hêmôn en sarki." +-- + +In his Epistle to the Trallians, he writes: "Be ye deaf, therefore, +when any man Speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of +the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born."* + +-- +* Trall., 9. "kôphôthête oun, hotan humin chôris Jesou Christou +lalê tis, tou ek genous Daveid, tou ek Marias, hos alêthôs +egennêthê." +-- + +2. Aristides of Athens. + +In his Apology, written about the year 130, mentioning the +Virgin-Birth as an Integral portion of the Catholic Faith, he +writes: "The Christians trace their descent from the Lord Jesus +Christ; now He is confessed by the Holy Ghost to be the Son of +the Most High God, having come down from heaven for the salvation +of men, and having been born of a holy Virgin+ . . . He took +flesh, and appeared to men."# + +-- ++ Another reading here is "a Hebrew Virgin," and the Armenian +recension has the name "Mary." See Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, +p. 4; and Harnack's Appendix to the same work, p. 376. +# Apol., ch. xv. The quotation is from the Greek text preserved +in the History of Barlaam and Josaphat. See The Remains of the +Original Greek of the Apology of Aristides, by J. Armitage +Robinson. Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1891), vol. i. pp. 78, +79, 110. "hoi de Christianoi genealogountai apo tou Kuriou Jesou +Christou, houtos de ho huios tou theou tou hupsistou homologeitai +en Pneumati Hagio ap' ouranou katabas dia ten sôtêrian ton +anthrôpôn; kai ek parthenou hagias gennêtheis ... sapka anelabe, +kai anephanê anthpôpois." +-- + +3. Justin Martyr. + +In his Apologies and in his Dialogue with Trypho he has three +summaries of the Christian Faith, in all of which the Virgin-Birth, +the Crucifixion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension +are the chief points of belief about Christ. + +In his First Apology (written between 140 and 150) he says: "We +find it foretold in the Books of the Prophets that Jesus our Christ +should come born of a Virgin . . . be crucified and should die and +rise again, and go up to Heaven, and should both be and be called +the 'Son of God.'" * And a little later in the same work he says: +"He was born as man of a Virgin, and was called Jesus, and was +crucified, and died, and rose again, and has gone up into heaven."+ + +-- +* Apol., i. 31. "En dê tais tôn prophêtôn biblois heuromen +prokêrussomenon paraginomenon gennômenon dia parthenou . . . +stauroumenon Iesoun ton hemeteron Christon, kai apothnêskonta, +kai anegeiromenon, kai eis ouranous anerchomenon, ai huion theou +onta kai keklêmenon." ++ Apol., i. 46. "Dia parthenou anthrôpos apekuêthê, kai Iesous +epônomasthê, kai staurôtheis kai apothanôn anestê, kai +anelêluthen eis ouranon." +-- + +In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (written after the First +Apology) he says: "For through the name of this very Son of God, +who is also the First-born of every creature, and who was born of +a Virgin, and made a man subject to suffering, and was crucified +by your nation in the time of Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose +again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, every evil spirit +is exorcised and overcome and subdued."# + +-- +# Dial., 85. "kata gar tou omonatos autou toutou tou huiou tou +theou, kai prôtotokou pases ktiseôs, kai dia parthenou gennêthentos +kai pathêtou genomenou anthrôpou, kai staurôthentos epi Pontiou +Pilatou hupo tou laou humôn kai apothanontos kai anastantos ek +nekrôn, kai anabantos eis ton ouranon, pan daimonion exorkizomenon +nikatai kai hupotassetai." +-- + +4. St. Irenaeus. + +Writing not later than 190, he makes constant reference to the +Virgin-Birth as an integral portion of the Faith of Christendom. +He says: "The Church, though scattered over the whole world to +the ends of the earth, yet having received from the Apostles and +their disciples the Faith-- + + In one God the Father Almighty... + and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of + God, who was incarnate for our + salvation: and in the Holy Ghost, who + by the Prophets announced His + dispensations and His comings; and the + birth of the Virgin (kai tên ek Parthenou + gennêsin), and the Passion, and + Resurrection from the dead, and the bodily + assumption into heaven of the beloved + Jesus Christ our Lord, and His appearance + from heaven in the glory of the + Father . . . + +having received, as we said, this preaching and this Faith, the +Church, though scattered over the whole world, guards it +diligently, as inhabiting one house, and believes in accordance +with these words as having one soul and the same heart; and with +one voice preaches and teaches and hands on these things, as if +possessing one mouth. For the languages of the world are unlike, +but the force of the tradition is one and the same."* + +-- +* Contra Haeres., I. x. 1, 2. "Hê men gar Ekklêsia, kaiper kath' +holês tês oikoumenês heôs peratôn tês gês diesparmenê, para de +tôn Apostolôn kai tôn ekeivôn mathêtôn paralabousa tên eis hena +theon Patera pantokratora . . . pistin; kai eis hena Christon +Jêsoun, ton huion tou theou, ton sarkôthenta huper tês hêmteras +sôtêrias; kai eis Pneuma Hagion, to dia tôn prophêtôn kekêruchos +tas oikonomias, kai tas eleuseis, kai tên ek Parthenou gennêsin, +kai to pathos, kai tên egersin ek vekrôn, kai tên ensarkon eis +tous ournous analêpsin tou êgapêmenou Christou Iêsou tou Kuriou +hêmôn, kai tên ouranôn en tê doxê tou Patros parousian. . . . +Touto to kêrugma pareilêphuia kai tautên tên pistin, hôs +proephamen, hê Ekklêsia, kaiper en holô tô kosmô diesparmenê, +epimelôs phulassei, hôs hena oikon oikousa; kai homoiôs pisteuei +toutois, hôs mian psuchên kai tên autên echousa kardian, kai +sumphônôs tauta kêrusse kai didaskei, kai paradidôsin, hôs hen +stoma kektêmenê, kai gar hai kata ton kosmon dialektoi anomoiai, +all' hê dunamis tês paradoseôs mia kai hê autê." +-- + +He goes on to say that in this Faith agree the Churches of +Germany, Spain, Gaul, The East, Egypt, Libya, and Italy. His +words are: "No otherwise have the Churches established in Germany +believed and delivered, nor those in Spain, nor those among the +Celts, nor those in the East, nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor +those established in the central parts of the earth."+ + +-- ++ Contra Haeres., I. x. 2. "Kai oute hai en Germaniais hidrumenai +Ekklêsiai allôs pepisteukasin, ê allôs paradidoasin, oute en tais +Ibêriasis, oute en Keltois, oute kata tas anatolas, oute en +Aiguptô, oute en Libuê, oute hai kata mesa tou kosmou hidrumenai." +-- + +Again, in the same work we read of the many races of Barbarians +"who believe in Christ . . . believe in one God, the Framer of +heaven and earth and of all things that are in them, by Christ +Jesus the Son of God, who for His surpassing love's sake towards +His creatures, submitted to the birth which was of the Virgin, +Himself by Himself uniting man to God."# + +-- +# Contra Haeres., III. iv. x, 2. "Qui in Christum credunt... +in unum Deum credentes, Factorem coeli et terrae, et omnium +quae in eis sunt, per Iesum Christum Dei Filium; qui propter +eminentissimam erga figmentum Suum dilectionem, eam quae esset +ex Virgine generationem sustinuit, ipse per se hominem adunans Deo." +-- + +5. Tertullian. + +His writings represent the teaching of the Churches of Rome and +Carthage, and, writing a little later than Irenaeus (c. 200), he +assures us again and again that the Virgin-Birth is an integral +portion of the Catholic Faith. "The rule of faith," he says, "is +altogether one, alone firm and unalterable; the rule, that +is, of believing in One God Almighty, the Maker of the world; +and His Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified +under Pontius Pilate."* + +-- +* De Virg. Veland., 1. "Regula quidem fidei una omnino est, sola +immobilis et irreformabilis, credendi scilicet, in unicum Deum +Omnipotentem, mundi Conditorem; et Filium ejus Jesum Christum, +nature ex Virgine Maria, crucifixum sub Pontio Pilato." +-- + +"Now the rule of faith . . . is that whereby it is believed that +there is in any wise but one God, who by His own Word first of +all sent forth, brought all things out of nothing; that this +Word called His Son, was . . . brought down at last by the Spirit +and the power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary, made +flesh in her womb, and was born of her."+ + +-- ++ De Praescript. Haeret., cap. xiii. "Regula est autem fidei, +. . . illa scilicet qua creditur: Unum omnino Deum esse qui +universa de nihilo produxerit per Verbum suum primo omnium +demissum; id Verbum, Filium ejus appellatum .... postremo +delatum ex Spiritu Patris Dei et virtute, in Virginem Mariam, +carnem factum in utero eius, et ex ea natum." +-- + +Again, speaking of the Trinity, he writes that the Word, "by whom +all things were made, and without whom nothing was made, was sent +by the Father into a Virgin, was born of her--God and Man--Son of +man, Son of God, and was called Jesus Christ."# + +-- +# Adv, Prax., cap. ii. "Per quem omnia facta sunt, et sine quo +factum est nihil. Hunc missum a Patre in Virginem, et ex ea natum, +Hominem et Deum, Filium hominis et Filium Dei, et cognominatum +Jesum Christum." +-- + + +6. Clement. + +Clement about the year 190, and Origen about 230, represent the +great Church of Alexandria. Their testimony to the place which +the Virgin-Birth holds in the Church is clear and unhesitating. +Clement speaks of the whole dispensation as consisting in this, +"that the Son of God who made the universe took flesh and was +conceived in the womb of a Virgin . . . and suffered and +rose again."* + +-- +* Strom. vi. 15. 127. "Hêdê de kai hê oikonomia pasa hê peri tou +kuriou prophêteutheisa, parabolê hôs alêthôs phainetai tois mê +tên alêtheian egnôkosian, hot' an tis ton huion tou theou, tou +ta panta pepoiêkotos, sarka aneilêphota, kai en mêtra parthenou +kuoporêthenta . . . teponthota kei anestramenon legei." +-- + +7. Origen. + +In the De Principiis, Origen writes: "The particular points clearly +delivered in the teaching of the Apostles are as follows: First, +that there is one God, . . . then that Jesus Christ Himself who +came [into the world] was born of the Father before all creation; +that after He had been the minister of the Father in the creation +of all things--for by Him were all things made--in the last times, +emptying Himself He became man and was incarnate, although He was +God, and being made man He remained that which He was, God. He +assumed a body like our own, differing in this respect only, that +it was born of a Virgin and of the Holy Spirit."* + +-- +* De Principiis, Lib. I., Pref., 4. "Species vero eorum quae per +praedicationem apostolicam manifeste traduntur, istae sunt, Primo, +quod unus Deus est . . . tum deinde quia Jesus Christus ipse qui +venit, ante omnem creaturam natus ex Patre est. Qui cum in omnium +conditione Patri ministrasset (per ipsum enim omnia facta sunt); +novissimis temporibus se ipsum exinaniens, homo fictus incarnatus +est, cum Deus esset, et homo, factus mansit quod erat, Deus. +Corpus assumsit nostro corpori simile, eo solo differens, +quod natum ex Virgine et Spiritu Sancto est." +-- + +In his Treatise against Celsus he exclaims: "Who has not heard of +the Virgin-Birth of Jesus, of the Crucified, of His Resurrection +of which so many are convinced, and the announcement of the +judgment to come?"+ + +-- ++ Contr. Celsum, i. 7. "Tini gar lanthanei hê ek parthenou +gennêsis Iêsus kai ho estaurômenos kai hê papa pollois +pepistreumenê anastasis autou, kai hê katangellomenê krisis." +-- + +Think for a moment what all this agreement--this consensus of +tradition implies. The testimony of these writers clearly shows +that in the early part of the second century, and reaching back +to its very beginning, the Virgin-Birth formed part of the tradition +or doctrinal creed of the Church, and that this tradition was +believed to be traced back to the Apostles. It has a place in the +earliest forms of the Creed: it is insisted upon by the earliest +Apologists. It is not merely in one Church or two Churches, in one +district or in two, that this tradition is found. It is everywhere. +In East and West alike. It is so in Rome and in Gaul (by the +testimony of Irenaeus). It is in Greece (by the testimony of +Aristides). It is in Africa (by the testimony of Tertullian); +in Alexandria (by the testimony of Clement and Origen); in Asia +(by the testimony of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Ignatius); in +Palestine and Syria (by the testimony of Ignatius and Justin +Martyr). Irenaeus, if any one, should know what the Apostles +taught, for before he came to Rome he had been the pupil of +Polycarp in Asia, who had himself sat at the feet of St. John. +"Everything that we know," says Mr. Rendel Harris, "of the +Dogmatics of the early part of the second century agrees +with the belief that at that period the Virginity of Mary +was a part of the formulated Christian belief."* How could the +belief in the Virgin-Birth have taken such undisputed possession +of so many widely separated and independent Churches unless it +had had Apostolic authority?+ What other explanation can be given +for the fact? There is as complete a consensus of tradition as could +reasonably be asked for. It is impossible to imagine that the +doctrine of the Virgin-Birth can have been suddenly evolved in the +early years of the second century. The only adequate explanation is +that it was a substantial part of the Apostolic tradition. It may +be worth while here to quote the words of so distinguished a +scholar as Professor Zahn, of Erlangen. "This [the Virgin-Birth] +has been an element of the Creed as far as we can trace +it back; and if Ignatius can be taken as a witness of a +Baptismal Creed springing from early Apostolic times, certainly in +that Creed the name of the Virgin Mary already had its place .... +We may further assert that during the first four centuries of the +Church, no teacher and no religious community which can be +considered with any appearance of right as an heir of original +Christianity, had any other notion of the beginning of the [human] +life of Jesus of Nazareth .... The theory of an original +Christianity without the belief in Jesus the Son of God, born of +the Virgin, is a fiction."# + +-- +* See Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1891), vol. i. No. I, p. 25. ++ "Ecquid verisimile est, ut tot ac tantae [ecclesiae] in unam +fidem erraverint?"--Tertullian, De Praescript, cap. xxviii. +# "Dies aber ist ein Element des Symbolum gewesen, so weit +wir dasselbe zuruckverfolgen konnen; und wenn Ignatius als Zeuge +fur ein noch ateres, aus fruher apostolischer Zeit stammendes +Taufbekenntnis gelten darf, so hat auch in diesem bereits der +Name der Jungfrau Maria seine Stelle gehabt . . . Man darf ferner +behauften, dass wathrend der ersten vier Jahrhunderte der Kirche +kein Lehrer und Keine religiose Genossenschaft, welche sich mit +einigem Schein des Rechts als Erben des ursprfinglichen +Christenthums betrachten konnten, eine andere Auschauung yon dem +Lebensanfang Jesu yon Nazareth gehabt haben, als diese .... Dass +die Annahme eines ursprunglichen Christenthums ohne den Glauben +an den yon der Jungfrau geborenen Gottessohn Jesus eine Fiktion +ist."--Zahn, Das Apostolische Symbolum, pp. 55-68. +-- + +Opponents of the Virgin-Birth occur, indeed, in the person of +Cerinthus, the contemporary of St. John, and later on among the +Ebionites, mentioned by Justin Martyr.* But they reject the +Virgin-Birth, because they reject the principle of the Incarnation. +"There are no believers in the Incarnation discoverable who are not +believers in the Virgin-Birth."+ The two truths have been held +together as inseparable. There has never been any belief in the +Incarnation without its carrying with it the belief in the +Virgin-Birth. + +-- +* Dial cum Tryph., 48, 49. ++ Gore, Dissertations, p. 48. +-- + + +II + +THE GOSPELS OF ST. MATTHEW AND ST. LUKE + +But if such was the belief of Christians everywhere in the early +years of the second century, can we trace the evidence further +back? In answering this question, we are brought face to face +with the Gospels. But first it must be noted that the positive +evidence for such a subject must, in the nature of the case, be +much more limited than the evidence for the Resurrection. The +Apostles were primarily witnesses of what they themselves had seen. +There are two persons, and two only, from whom we could reasonably +expect to hear the truth about the mystery of the miraculous +Conception--Mary and Joseph; and when we open the Gospels we have, +as everybody knows, two narratives of the Nativity--St. Luke's +and St. Matthew's. + +(I) St. Luke, in describing the Nativity, is using an Aramaic +document. There is a great difference in style between the preface, +which is his own, and that of the narrative which follows. It was +an Aramaic document (as Godet, Weiss, and Dr. Sanday agree); but +more than this, as Bishop Gore has pointed out: "It breathes the +spirit of the Messianic hope, before it had received the rude and +crushing blow involved in the rejection of the Messiah."* The +Christology of the passage is pre-Christian: "He shall be great, +and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall +give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign +over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there +shall be no end."+ + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 16. ++ St. Luke i. 32, 33. +-- +"How can all this," Dr. Chase asks, "be the invention of a believer +in the Messiahship of Jesus when the Jews had rejected Him, and +when the Resurrection and Ascension had raised the conception +of His Messiahship to the height of a spiritual and universal +sovereignty? The Christology of these passages is a striking proof +of their primitive character."# It is indeed difficult to see how +men can read the Benedictus or Magnificat without realizing this. +Every verse in them is full of Jewish thought and Jewish +expressions, such as would have been impossible had they been the +inventions of a later date. + +-- +# Chase, Supernatural Elements in our Lord's Earthly Life. +-- + +That is to say, these two chapters bear traces on the face of them +of being what they profess to be--a true and genuine account of +the human Birth of Jesus Christ, received ultimately from her who +alone could be competent to give it--the Virgin-Mother herself. For +it must be Mary's account if it is genuine. It is given to us by +St. Luke, who tells us that he "had traced the course of all things +accurately from the first," and who had gathered information +concerning, be it observed, "those things which are most surely +believed among the disciples."* "It is an account," says Bishop +Gore, "which there is no evidence to show the imagination of an +early Christian capable of producing; for its consummate fitness, +reserve, sobriety, and loftiness are unquestionable. What solid +reason is there for not accepting it?"+ It is extraordinarily +difficult to imagine that St. Luke, whose accuracy and care have +been, in recent years, so severely tested and found not wanting, +should have been so careless as to append to his Gospel a spurious +account of so momentous an occurrence as the human Birth of our +Lord. "Historical accuracy is not a capricious and intermittent +impulse," writes Bishop Alexander. "It is a fixed habit of mind, +the result of a particular discipline. Historians of the school +of the author of the Acts of the Apostles are not men to build a +flamboyant portal of romance over the entrance to the austere +temple of truth."# + +-- +* St. Luke i. 1-4. ++ Gore, Dissertations, p. 18. +# Bishop Alexander's Leading Ideas of the Gospels, pp. 154, 155. +-- + +(2) The account in St. Matthew's Gospel, if genuine, must have +come from Joseph. It is his perplexities which are in question, +and Divine intimations are given to him, on three occasions, +how to act for the safety of the mother and the Child. The facts +which appear in the Third Gospel are clearly prior to those +reported in the First: the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Judaea, +her return to Nazareth, precede Joseph's discovery and dream, +which follow appropriately upon the Virgin's return. How this +account has been preserved in the First Gospel we do not know, +for we know so very little about the authorship of that Gospel; +but there is nothing at all unreasonable in Bishop Gore's +conjecture* that St. Joseph (who must have died before the public +ministry of our Lord began) left some document detailing the +circumstances of the Birth of Jesus Christ; that this document +would have been given to Mary (to vindicate, by means of it, when +occasion demanded, her own virginity), and that after Pentecost +she may have given it to the family of Joseph, the now believing +"brethren of the Lord," and from their hands it passed into those +of the author of the First Gospel. + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, pp. 28, 29. +-- + +The Evangelist dwells, as is well known, on the fulfilment of +prophecy; but in regard to the particular prophecy of Isaiah, +"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call +His name Immanuel,"* it cannot with any probability be said that +the prophecy suggested the event; for it does not seem at all +likely that there was any Jewish expectation that the Christ +should be born of a Virgin. We can understand the prophecy being +adduced in order to attest a story already current (this would be +wholly after St. Matthew's method); but the prophecy itself, with +one's eye on the Hebrew text of Isaiah,+ could scarcely have led +to the fabrication of this particular story about the Messiah's +birth. Probably the notion of a Virgin-born Messiah would have +been alien to ordinary Jewish ideas.# In any case, the Jews did not +so interpret the passage, and in fact, to quote Professor Stanton, +"It is an instance in which the principle would hold that it is +more easy to suppose the meaning of prophetic language to have +been strained to fit facts, than that facts should have been +invented to correspond with prophetic language."^ That is to say, +it is wholly reasonable and entirely in keeping with the method of +the first Evangelist, that when once he had come to know that the +Messiah had been born in Bethlehem of a Virgin-Mother, he should +have recognized in that wondrous birth the fulfilment of the ancient +prophecy of Isaiah. He would then see that whatever primary and +lesser fulfilment the words of Isaiah might have, they were only +completely fulfilled in Him who is the end of all prophecy, who was +conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary.| +-- +* Isa. vii. 14. ++ See Note at the end. +# So Dr. Chase. +^ Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah, p. 378. +| See Eck, The Incarnation, p. 87. +-- + +It is hard to bring one's self to speak of the theory put forward +by Professor Usener, in which he says that the story of the +Virgin-Birth is traceable "to a pagan substratum, and that it must +have arisen in Gentile circles."* Surely this is wholly contrary +to all probability. How can any serious student think that any but +Jewish hands could have penned the first two chapters of St. +Matthew's Gospel? "The story," says Professor Chase, "moves, like +that of St. Luke, within the circle of Eastern conceptions; it is +pre-eminently and essentially Jewish. Moreover, if time is to be +found for the complicated interaction between paganism and +Christianity which this theory involves, the First and Third +Gospels must be placed at a date which I believe is +quite untenable."+ + +-- +* Encyc. Bibl., iii. 3352. ++ Chase, Supernatural Elements in our Lord's Earthly Life, p. 21. +-- + +That there are differences and even discrepancies between the two +accounts, which are manifestly independent of one another, serves +surely to strengthen their witness to the great central fact in +which they are at one--that Christ was born of a Virgin-Mother +at Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the king. + +There appears, then, to be no reason for doubting that in St. +Luke's Gospel we have a genuine account derived from Mary herself, +and that in St. Matthew's Gospel we have an account left by +St. Joseph, "worked over by the Evangelist in view of his +predominant interest--that of calling attention to the fulfilments +of prophecies."* Wherever, therefore, these two Gospels had reached +in the second half of the first century, there the story of the +Virgin-Birth was known. If the story thus attested by the first and +third Evangelists were really a fiction, it is hard indeed to +believe that it would not have been contradicted by some who were +still living, and who knew that the story was different from that +which the Mother herself had delivered them. "If," says Dean Alford, +speaking of the Third Gospel, "not the mother of our Lord herself, +yet His brethren were certainly living; and the universal reception +of the Gospel in the very earliest ages sufficiently demonstrates +that no objection to this part of the sacred narrative had been +heard of as raised by them."+ + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 29. ++ Greek Test., vol. i. Prolog. sect. viii. p. 48. +-- + +There is no other alternative but to regard both stories as legends +independently circulated in the ancient Church. "So artificial an +explanation would probably have found little favour with scholars +if there had been no miracle to suggest it. It is too commonly +assumed that evidence which would be good under ordinary +circumstances is bad where the supernatural is involved."* + +Certainly it would seem to be in a high degree improbable that +two such accounts as those of the Birth of Jesus Christ which we +have in these two Gospels should be the work of forgers; and this +improbability is further heightened when we compare them with the +legendary accounts of His infancy which were actually current in +the early centuries.+ + +-- +* Swete, Church Congress Report (1902), p. 163. ++ See Preface, p. xi. +-- + + + +III + +THE SILENCE OF OTHER NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS + +What are the objections brought against all this evidence? The main +objection is the silence of the other writers of the New Testament. +To reply-- + +(I) First, we may surely ask--Why should they mention it? This sort +of argument from silence is most precarious. Are we to infer that +because there is no mention of the Cross or the Crucifixion in the +Epistles of St. James or of St. Jude, that it was unknown to this +group of writers, and that they were unaware of the manner of +Christ's Death? + +"We might much more naturally infer it than we may infer that +the Virgin-Birth was unknown because St. James speaks of Christ's +Death, and it would therefore have been quite natural for him to +speak of the exact mode of it, whereas our Lord's Birth is very +seldom referred to in the New Testament, and when it is referred +to it would not have aided the argument, or been at all to the +point to mention how that Birth was brought about."* + +-- +* A. J. Mason, in the Guardian, November 19, 1902. +-- + +Or, because St. John omits all mention of the institution of the +Holy Eucharist, are we to suppose that he knew nothing of that +Sacrament? + +(2) The subject of the Virgin-Birth was not one which the Apostles +would be likely to dwell on much. They were above all witnesses of +what they had seen and heard. They come before us insisting, +therefore, on what they could themselves personally +attest--especially on the Resurrection. They had seen and heard +the risen Christ, and the Resurrection was at once a vindication +of His Messianic claims, and a manifestation of the dignity of +His Person. "This praeternatural fact, the fulfilment of the +'sign'+ which He had Himself promised, a fact concerning the +reality of which they offered themselves as witnesses, would carry +with it a readiness to accept a fact like the Virgin-Birth, +concerning which the same sort of evidence was not possible."^ + +-- ++ St. John ii. 18, 19; St. Matt. xii. 40. +^ Hall, The Virgin-Mother, p. 215. +-- + +Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, belief in His Life, in +His Death, in His miracles, in His Resurrection,--these came first, +and these were the subjects of Apostolic preaching,* and belief +in His Virgin-Birth (ultimately attested by Mary and Joseph) +easily followed. + +-- +* Acts i. 22; ii. 32. +-- + +It is instructive in this connection to draw attention to the Acts +of the Apostles. As every one knows, it is St. Luke's second +volume--the Third Gospel being his first. Now, the Gospel begins +with the account of Christ's miraculous Conception and Birth, but +there is no reference to these mysteries in the rest of the Gospel +or in the Acts. "The reason for the silence in the Acts is the same +as for the silence in the subsequent chapters of the Gospel. The +Jews had to learn the meaning of the Person of Christ from His own +revelation of Himself in His words and works. To have begun with +proclaiming the story of His miraculous Birth would have created +prejudice and hindered the reception of that revelation. + +"Similarly, in the Acts, both Jews and Gentiles had first to learn +in the experience of the life of the Church what Jesus had done and +said. Only when they had learned that, was it time to go on and ask +who He was and whence He came."+ + +The same point is illustrated by St. Mark's silence. "Had he given +any account of our Lord's early years, there would be some ground +for pitting him (so to speak) against St. Matthew and St. Luke."^ +But this Gospel begins, as every one knows, with the public +ministry of our Lord. It is, in fact, the Gospel which reflects +the oral teaching and preaching of St. Peter, and so it begins +naturally enough at the point where that Apostle first came in +contact with Christ. + +-- ++ Rackham, Acts of the Apostles, p. lxxiv. +^ Hall, The Virgin-Mother, p. 217. +-- + +(3) If in these writers of the New Testament expressions had been +used inconsistent with the Virgin-Birth, it would be a very +serious matter: but what are the facts? In the few cases where +the Birth is mentioned, there is nothing said which implies that +His Birth in the flesh was analogous in all respects to ours. + +Consider St. John's Gospel. The silence on the Virgin-Birth can +occasion, one would think, no real difficulty. His Gospel is a +supplementary record, and he does not, for the most part, repeat +historical statements already made by the other Evangelists. It +seems altogether impossible to suppose that St. John was ignorant +of the Virgin-Birth. Ignatius, who was Bishop of Antioch quite at +the beginning of the second century, and therefore only a few +years after the writing of this Gospel, calls it (the +Virgin-Birth) a mystery of open proclamation in the Church. +(Eph., 19.) Indeed, on any theory of the date or authorship of +this Gospel, there is every reason for believing that the +Virgin-Birth was, at the time it was compiled, part and parcel of +the tradition of the Church. But when St. John does speak of the +Incarnation, in the prologue to his Gospel, when he says, "The +Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," (St. John i. 14.) there +is nothing in these words to suggest anything inconsistent with +the miraculous story related by St. Matthew and St. Luke. In fact, +we may say more than this. We may say that his teaching about the +Pre-existent Divine Logos who "was made flesh, and dwelt among +us," is felt to be a natural explanation of St. Matthew's +narrative as well as of St. Luke's; for, as we shall see, it is +the question of the Divine Pre-existence of the Logos on which the +reasonableness of the doctrine of the Virgin-Birth really turns. +St. John does, in fact, in connection with this mystery of the +Virgin-Birth, what he does in the case of Baptism and the Holy +Eucharist, "he supplies the justifying principle--in this case the +principle of the Incarnation--without supplying what was +already current and well known, the record of the fact."* + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 8, seq. +-- + +And it may be added, further, that Mary's word at Cana of Galilee: +"They have no wine," and her subsequent order to the servants: +"Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it," (St. John ii. 3, 5.) +are a clear indication that in the view of St. John she regarded +Him as a miraculous Person, and expected of Him miraculous action.+ +I think that, in regard to the Gospels, their relationship to +one another may be summed up in the words of Bishop Alexander: +"The fact of the Incarnation is recorded by St. Matthew and +St. Luke; it is assumed by St. Mark; the idea which vitalizes +the fact is dominant in St. John."^ + +-- ++ Gore, loc. cit. +^ Bishop Alexander's Leading Ideas, Introd., p. xxiv. +-- + +Consider next St. Paul's references to the Incarnation:-- + +"God sent forth His Son, born of a woman." (Gal. iv. 4) He does +not say, "born of human parents." + +"His Son our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according +to the flesh." (Rom. i. 3.) + +"Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with +God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form +of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 6, 7.) + +These are the passages in which St. Paul refers to the Birth of +Jesus Christ. Not one of them is inconsistent with the fact that +He was born of a Virgin. But one can say more than this. Every +one of these passages infers that He who was born in time had +existed before. They either assert or imply a Divine pre-existence. +He who was "made in the likeness of men" was already pre-existent +in the "form of God," and was, in fact, "equal with God." This +being the case, does it not prepare us for the further truth that, +when He entered into the conditions of human life, He entered it +not in all respects like us? I should mar if I ventured to +abbreviate Dr. Mason's admirable words, in which he presses +this argument-- + +"Like causes produce like effects. In similar circumstances, you +may expect the same forces to operate in the same way. But when +some new force is introduced, you cannot expect the same results. +The Birth of Christ, if He is what all the writers of the New +Testament believed Him to be, was necessarily unlike ours in that +one great respect. We had no existence before we were born, +however poets and poetical philosophers may play with the notion. +But the New Testament writers believed that He whom we know as +Jesus Christ was living with a full, vigorous, personal life for +ages before He appeared in the world as man. They maintained that +He was present and active in the making of the world, and +immanent in the development of human history, which formed +a new beginning at His Birth. They said He was God, the Only +Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who came down from heaven, +and voluntarily entered into the conditions of human life. Admit +the possibility that they were right, and you will no longer +ask that His mode of entrance into our conditions should be +in all things like our own. If you acknowledge that Jesus Christ +was Divine first and became human afterwards, you cannot but say +with St. Ambrose, when you hear that He was born of a Virgin: +'Talis decet partus Deum'--a birth of that kind is befitting to +one who is God. We do not--no one ever did--believe Christ to be +God because He was born of a Virgin; that is not the order of +thought [and we have seen that it was certainly not the order of +Apostolic preaching]; but we can recognize that if He was God, it +was not unnatural for Him to be so born. No sound genuine +historical criticism can deny that the Virgin-Birth was part of +the Creed of Primitive Christianity, and that nothing that can be +truly called science can object to that belief, unless it starts +with the assumption, which, of course, it cannot even attempt to +prove, that Christ was never more than man."* + +Similarly Professor Stanton: "The chief ground on which thoughtful +Christian believers are ready to accept it [the miraculous Conception] +is that, believing in the personal indissoluble union between God and +man in Jesus Christ, the miraculous Birth of Jesus Christ is the only +fitting accompaniment for this unions and, so to speak, the natural +expression of it in the order of outward effects."+ + +-- +* Guardian, November 19, 1902. ++ Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah p. 376. +-- + + +IV + +OUR LORD AS THE SECOND ADAM + +But we may surely go further than this, and say that, in regard to +St. Paul, his language as to the Second Adam seems to necessitate +the Virgin-Birth. In St. Paul's view there are, so to speak, only +two men: "The first man is of the earth earthy; the second man is +the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. xx. 47.)--a new starting-point for +humanity. This doctrine of the Second Adam, of this fresh start +given to the human race by Jesus Christ, would seem to require His +Birth of a Virgin, for the Virgin-Birth is bound up with any really +Catholic notion of the Incarnation. For what is the Catholic +doctrine of Incarnation? Do we mean by Incarnation that on an +already existing human being there descended in an extraordinary +measure the Divine Spirit, so that He was by moral association so +closely allied to God that He might be called God? Do we mean that +some preminent saint, called Jesus, responded with such "signal +readiness" to the Divine Voice, "and realized more worthily than +any other man 'the Divine idea' of human excellence, so that to Him, +by a laxity of phrase not free from profaneness, men might thus +ascribe a so-called 'moral Divinity'"? Then, I say quite freely, +if that is what we mean, that the Virgin-Birth is, so far as we can +see, an altogether gratuitous addition, an unnecessary miracle. That +is, so far as I can understand it, the idea of Incarnation +entertained by moderns who reject or question the Catholic Faith. + +But let me say as clearly as possible that this is not, and never +has been, what the Christian Church means by Incarnation. The New +Testament does not tell us of a deified man: no, we begin with a +Divine Person. "The 'I' in Him, His very self, is Divine, not +human; yet has He condescended to take our humanity into union +with His Divine Person, to assume it as His own." He who was from +all eternity a single Divine Person took upon Him our nature, and +was "made man;" and if this be so, what other entrance into +our condition is imaginable save that which we confess in the +Creed--that He was "conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the +Virgin Mary"? "The Creeds pass immediately from confessing Jesus +Christ to be 'the only Son of God' to the fact that He was 'born +of the Virgin Mary,' and neither of those articles of the Catholic +Faith can be abandoned without disturbing the foundations of +the other."* + +-- +* Swete, Church Congress Report (1901), p. 164. +-- + +If Christ was born naturally of human parents, He must, one would +think, have taken to Himself a human personality; He must have +existed in two persons as well as in two natures. But what we are +to insist on in thinking of and teaching this mystery is this +truth of the single Divine Personality of our Lord. The old +Nestorian heresy (with certain important modifications) is +being resuscitated among us. Nestorianism, new and old, begins +from below, and speaks of a man who by moral "association" +became "Divine;" it speaks, that is to say, of a deified man. +The Christian Faith begins from above-it speaks of Him who from +all eternity was God, taking upon Him our flesh. He took upon Him +our nature, but He did not assume a human personality. He wrapped +our human nature round His own Divine Person. On the Nestorian +theory, God did but benefit one man by raising him to a unique +dignity; on the Catholic theory, He benefitted the race of men, +by raising human nature into union with His Divine Person. + +Those who speak, somewhat incautiously surely, of Incarnation, +while they deny or question the Virgin-Birth, should be asked to +consider what they say and to reflect what their words imply. A +man born naturally of human parents but taken up, on account of +a wonderfully high moral character, into close union with God, +can never differ in kind from any saint. He can never benefit +the race of men save by way of example. His death can never +effect our redemption, for it does not differ in kind from the +death of a martyr. Being only a great saint himself, he cannot +represent mankind either on the Cross or before the Throne. One +man has been assumed into heaven. But this is wholly a different +thing from the Faith of Christendom, which is that God has taken +human nature into union with His Divine Person, in that nature +God died upon the Cross, and in that nature He pleads before the +Throne for the race of men. It is because Christ's Person is Divine, +that His life means to us Christians what it does. + +"No person," says Hooker, "was born of the Virgin but the Son of +God, no person but the Son of God baptized, the Son of God +condemned, the Son of God and no other person crucified; which one +only point of Christian belief, the infinite worth of the Son of +God, is the very ground of all things believed concerning life +and salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as man +in our behalf."* "That," says Bishop Andrewes, "which setteth the +high price upon this sacrifice is this, that He which offereth +it to God is God."+ + +-- +* Eccl. Pol., v. 52. 3. ++ Second Sermon on the Passion. +-- + +"Marvel not," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, "if the whole world +has been redeemed; for He who has died for us is no mere man, +but the Only Begotten Son of God."^ "Christ," says St. Cyril +of Alexandria, "would not have been equivalent [as a sacrifice] +for the whole creation, nor would He have sufficed to redeem the +world, nor have laid down His life by way of price for it, and +poured forth for us His precious Blood, if He be not really the +Son, and God of God." # + +-- +^ Catech., xiii. 2. +# De Sancta Trinitate, dial. A. (quoted Liddon, B. L., p. 477). +-- + +How different is all this from the language of those who would +deny or question the Virgin-Birth! With them the Resurrection is +denied as a literal fact; the whole meaning of the Atonement as +being a real sacrifice for sin, a real propitiation, is +eviscerated of its meaning, and is reduced to a moral appeal to +man; and finally, we find that whereas Christians have been +thinking and speaking of Christ as truly God, who in becoming man +"did not abhor the Virgin's womb," modern writers really mean a +very good man who does not, however, differ in kind but only in +excellence of degree from any saint; and by Incarnation they mean +that moral union which a good man has with God, only illustrated +in the case of Christ in an altogether unique degree. If, +however, the Incarnation be what Christendom believes it to have +been; if the Son of God did really take flesh in the womb of Mary, +and became man, not by assuming a human personality, but by +assuming human nature, by entering into human conditions of +life,--it is indeed difficult to imagine any other way of such an +Incarnation save by way of the Virgin-Birth, by which the entail +of original sin was cut off, and humanity made a fresh start in +the Eternal Person of the Second Adam. And if He is indeed +sinless, the sinless Example, the sinless Sacrifice, how +could He be otherwise born? Adam, at his fall, passed on to the +human race a vitiated nature, which we all share--a nature +biassed in a wrong direction. It descended--this vitiated +nature--from father to son to all generations of men. If this +entail of original sin was to be cut off, if there was really to +be a new Adam, a second start for the human race, how could it +be contrived otherwise than by a Virgin-Birth? The Son of Mary +was indeed wholly human--completely man--but "in Him humanity +inherited no part of that bad legacy which came across the +ages from the Fall."* + +When a modern writer says, "We should not now, h priori, expect +that the Incarnate Logos would be born without a human father,"+ +we may reply that we are hardly in a position to expect anything +a priori in the matter; but when once we have learnt that this +Incarnate Logos was to be the Second Head of the human race--the +sinless Son of Man--and that in Him humanity was to make a fresh +start, it is indeed difficult to see how this could be without +the miracle of the Virgin-Birth. + +-- +* Liddon, Christmas Sermons, p. 97. ++ See Contentio Veritatis, p. 88. +-- + +I should like to say, in conclusion, that I cannot disguise my +conviction that just as in the early days we find no denial of +the Virgin-Birth except among those who denied and objected to +the principle of the Incarnation (on the ground, apparently, of +the essential evil of matter), so, conversely, that the attempt +now being made (or the suggestion put forward) to separate the +Incarnation and the Virgin-Birth will prove to be an +impossibility. Once reject the tradition of the Virgin-Birth, +and the Incarnation will go with it. For a few years, indeed, +men will use the old language, the word "Incarnation" will be on +their lips; but it will be found before long that by that term +they do not mean God manifest in human flesh, but they mean a man +born naturally of human parents, who most clearly manifested to +men the Christian idea of a perfect human character. Such a +conception as this brings no solace to human hearts. No saint, +however great, could be our Saviour; no saint could have atoned +for sin; and assuredly no saint could be to any of us the source +of our new life--the well-spring and fountain of Divine grace. + + +NOTE ON ISAIAH VII. 14 + +THE word for "the Virgin" in the Hebrew text is ha-almah. It is +an ambiguous word, and does not necessarily imply, though it +certainly does not necessarily exclude, the idea of virginity. +Etymologically it means puella nubilis--a maiden of marriageable age. + +In four* out of six other places in the Old Testament where it is +employed, it is used of virgins. Its use in the two other passages+ +is doubtful, but does not with any certainty imply virginity. + +-- +* Gen. xxiv. 43; Exod. ii. 8; Ps. lxviii. 25; Cant. i. 3. ++ Prov. xxx. x 9; Cant. vi. 8. +-- + +The Septuagint translators, some two hundred years before Christ, +translated the word hê parthenos. + +Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, in the second century of our +era (apparently in order to vitiate the Christian appeal to +this passage), translated the word neanis. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord, by B. W. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord + A paper read (in substance) before the confraternity of the Holy + Trinity at Cambridge + + +Author: B. W. Randolph + +Release Date: March 19, 2005 [EBook #15412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD *** + + + + +Produced by Michael Madden + + + + + +THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD + +A PAPER READ (IN SUBSTANCE) BEFORE THE CONFRATERNITY OF +THE HOLY TRINITY AT CAMBRIDGE + +BY + +B. W. RANDOLPH, D.D. + +PRINCIPAL OF ELY THEOLOGICAL, COLLEGE + +HON, CANON OF ELY + +EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN + +Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem: non horruisti +Virginis uterum. + +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co., +39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON +NEW YORK AND BOMBAY + +1903 + +WITH RESPECT AND AFFECTION TO + +VINCENT HENRY STANTON, D.D. + +ELY PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE + +UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE + +Dedisti Jesum Christum, Filium tuum +unicum, ut . . . pro nobis nasceretur +qui, operante Spiritu Sancto, verus +Homo factus est ex substantia Virginis +Marie matris sue. + +Pref. in Die Nat. Dom. + +PREFACE + +This paper was read before the S. T. C. (Sanctae Trinitatis +Confraternitas) on March 10th of this years at one of the +ordinary meetings of the Brotherhood. It is published now in +the hope that it may thus reach a wider circle. + +To suppose that any one can hold the Catholic doctrine of the +Incarnation without believing the miraculous Conception and Birth, +is, in the writer's opinion, a delusion. There is no trace in +Church History, so far as he is aware, of any believers in the +Incarnation who were not also believers in the Virgin-Birth. The +modern endeavour to divorce the one from the other appears to be +part of the attempt now being made to get rid of the miraculous +altogether from Christianity. + +Professor Harnack appears to urge us to accept the "Easter message" +while we need not, he thinks, believe the "Easter faith."* He +means apparently by this that we can deny the literal fact of +our Lord's Resurrection, while we may believe in a future life. +What St. Paul would really have said to a Christianity such as +this seems to be plain from his words to the Corinthian converts +who were denying the Resurrection in his day: "If Christ be not +risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." +(I Cor. xv. 14.) + +-- +* Harnack, What is Christianity? p. 160. +-- + +Deny the Resurrection of our Lord, and you take away the key-stone +from the Apostolic preaching, and the whole edifice falls to the +ground. Any unprejudiced reader of the sermons and speeches of +St. Peter and St. Paul in the Acts will surely recognize how true +this is. + +Similarly in regard to the human Birth of our Lord. Once admit +that He was born as other men, and the Incarnation fades away. +A child born naturally of human parents can never be God Incarnate. +There can be no new start given to humanity by such a birth. The +entail of original sin would not be cut off nor could the Christ +so born be described as the "Second Adam--the Lord from heaven." +Christians could not look to such a one as their Redeemer or +Saviour, still less as the Author to them of a new spiritual life. + +Another man would have appeared among men, giving mankind the +example of a beautiful human life, but unable in any other way +to benefit the race of men. Further, a Christ such as this would +not be a perfect character, for if the Gospels are to be believed, +He said things about Himself and made claims which no thoroughly +good man could have a right to make unless he were immeasurably +more than man. While these pages were passing through the press, +the eye of the present writer was caught by the following words +in a letter of Bishop Westcott, which seem to have a special +significance at this time:--"I tried vainly to read----'s book .... +He seems to me to deny the Virgin-Birth. In other words, he makes +the Lord a man, one man in the race, and not the new Man--the Son +of Man, in whom the race is gathered up. To put the thought in +another and a technical form, he makes the Lord's personality human, +which is, I think, a fatal error."* + +-- +* Life of Bishop Westcott, vol. ii. p. 308. +-- + +It is sometimes said, in opposition to the mystery of the +Virgin-Birth, that there is a tendency in the human mind, not +without its illustrations in history, to "decorate with legend" +the early history of great men. In reply, it may be enough here +to say that legends analogous to the pagan legends of the births +of heroes, false and absurd legends, did gather round the infancy +of Jesus Christ. The Apocryphal Gospels are full of such legends. +They tell us how the idols of Egypt fell down before Him; how His +swaddling-clothes worked miracles; and how He made clay birds +and turned boys into kids, and worked other absurd miracles +of various kinds. But there is a world of difference between these +"silly tales" and the restraint, purity, dignity, and reserve which +characterize the narratives of the first and third Evangelists. +"The distinction between history and legend," says Dr. Fairbairn, +"could not be better marked than by the reserve of the Canonical +and the vulgar tattle of the Apocryphal Gospels."* + +-- +* Quoted in Gore, Dissertations, p. 60. +-- + +I wish to take this opportunity of thanking my colleague, the +Rev. G. W. Douglas, and my friend the Rev. Canon Warner, Rector +of Stoke-by-Grantham, for their kind help in revising the +proof-sheets of this paper. + +B.W.R. + +THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, +ELY, +Feast of St. Mark, 1903. + +[Note on transliteration of Greek quotations: o = omicron +(short o); e = epsilon (short e); o = omega (long o); +e = eta (long e)] + +THE VIRGIN-BIRTH OF OUR LORD + +There are two miracles confessed in every form of the Creed--the +miracle of the Conception and Birth, by which the Incarnation was +effected; and the miracle of the Resurrection. These are the +fundamental miracles, and are the battle-ground upon which the +defenders and assailants of Christianity more especially meet. + +The discussion of this most sacred subject of the Virgin-Birth of +our Lord has been forced upon us at the present time. It is +impossible to ignore it or set it aside. We must be prepared, +each of us, however much we may shrink from treading on such +sacred ground, to give a reason for the hope that is in us with +reverence and fear. + +I will ask you here and now to consider the matter briefly under +four heads. First, I will try to give the evidence for the belief +in this article of the Creed during the second century; next, I +will ask you to consider the evidence of St. Matthew and St. Luke; +thirdly, we will consider the argument e silentio on the other side; +and lastly, I will ask you to reflect on the theological aspect +of the question. + + + +THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION + +I will therefore, without any further preface, plunge into the +middle of the subject, and ask you, first of all, to consider +afresh that 'throughout the Church the statement of the belief in +the Virgin-Birth had its place from so early a date, and is +traceable along so many different lines of evidence, as to force +upon us the conclusion that, before the death of the last Apostle, +the Virgin-Birth must have been among the rudiments of the Faith +in which every Christian was initiated;' that if we believe the +Divine guidance in the Church at all, we must needs believe that +this mystery was part of "the Faith once for all delivered to +the Saints." + +Bear with me, then, while I go over the evidence of the leading +witnesses. + +1. St. Ignatius. + +He must have become Bishop of Antioch quite early in the second +century. As he passes through Asia about the year 110, he is on +his way to martyrdom, and in his Epistles he speaks emphatically +of the Virgin-Birth. + +In the Epistle to the Ephesians, he says: "Hidden from the +prince of this world were the Virginity of Mary and her +child-bearing, and likewise also the death of our Lord--three +mysteries of open proclamation, the which were wrought in +the silence of God."* + +-- +* Eph., 19. "Kai elathen ton archonta tou aionos toutou he +parthenia Marias kai ho toketos autes, homios kai ho thanatos +tou Kuriou; tria musteria krauges, hatina en hesuchia +theou eprachthe." +-- + +In the Epistle to the Symrnaeans, he says: "I give glory to Jesus +Christ, the God who bestowed such wisdom upon you; for I have +perceived that ye are established in faith immovable... firmly +persuaded as touching our Lord, that He is truly of the race of +David according to the flesh, but Son of God by the Divine will +and power, truly born of a Virgin, and baptized by John... truly +nailed up for our sakes in the flesh, under Pontius Pilate and +Herod the tetrarch."+ + +-- ++ Smyrn., I. "Doxazo Iesoun Christon ton theon ton houtos humas +sophisanta; enoesa gar humas katertismenous en akineto pistei +..., peplerophoremenous eis ton kurion hemon alethos onta ek +genous David kata sarka, huion theou kata thelema kai dunamin +theou, gegenemenon alethos ek parthenou, bebaptismenon hupo +Ioannou ... alethos epi Pontiou Pilatou kai Herodou tetrarchou +kathelomenon huper hemon en sarki." +-- + +In his Epistle to the Trallians, he writes: "Be ye deaf, therefore, +when any man Speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of +the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born."* + +-- +* Trall., 9. "kophothete oun, hotan humin choris Jesou Christou +lale tis, tou ek genous Daveid, tou ek Marias, hos alethos +egennethe." +-- + +2. Aristides of Athens. + +In his Apology, written about the year 130, mentioning the +Virgin-Birth as an Integral portion of the Catholic Faith, he +writes: "The Christians trace their descent from the Lord Jesus +Christ; now He is confessed by the Holy Ghost to be the Son of +the Most High God, having come down from heaven for the salvation +of men, and having been born of a holy Virgin+ . . . He took +flesh, and appeared to men."# + +-- ++ Another reading here is "a Hebrew Virgin," and the Armenian +recension has the name "Mary." See Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, +p. 4; and Harnack's Appendix to the same work, p. 376. +# Apol., ch. xv. The quotation is from the Greek text preserved +in the History of Barlaam and Josaphat. See The Remains of the +Original Greek of the Apology of Aristides, by J. Armitage +Robinson. Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1891), vol. i. pp. 78, +79, 110. "hoi de Christianoi genealogountai apo tou Kuriou Jesou +Christou, houtos de ho huios tou theou tou hupsistou homologeitai +en Pneumati Hagio ap' ouranou katabas dia ten soterian ton +anthropon; kai ek parthenou hagias gennetheis ... sapka anelabe, +kai anephane anthpopois." +-- + +3. Justin Martyr. + +In his Apologies and in his Dialogue with Trypho he has three +summaries of the Christian Faith, in all of which the Virgin-Birth, +the Crucifixion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension +are the chief points of belief about Christ. + +In his First Apology (written between 140 and 150) he says: "We +find it foretold in the Books of the Prophets that Jesus our Christ +should come born of a Virgin . . . be crucified and should die and +rise again, and go up to Heaven, and should both be and be called +the 'Son of God.'" * And a little later in the same work he says: +"He was born as man of a Virgin, and was called Jesus, and was +crucified, and died, and rose again, and has gone up into heaven."+ + +-- +* Apol., i. 31. "En de tais ton propheton biblois heuromen +prokerussomenon paraginomenon gennomenon dia parthenou . . . +stauroumenon Iesoun ton hemeteron Christon, kai apothneskonta, +kai anegeiromenon, kai eis ouranous anerchomenon, ai huion theou +onta kai keklemenon." ++ Apol., i. 46. "Dia parthenou anthropos apekuethe, kai Iesous +eponomasthe, kai staurotheis kai apothanon aneste, kai +aneleluthen eis ouranon." +-- + +In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (written after the First +Apology) he says: "For through the name of this very Son of God, +who is also the First-born of every creature, and who was born of +a Virgin, and made a man subject to suffering, and was crucified +by your nation in the time of Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose +again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, every evil spirit +is exorcised and overcome and subdued."# + +-- +# Dial., 85. "kata gar tou omonatos autou toutou tou huiou tou +theou, kai prototokou pases ktiseos, kai dia parthenou gennethentos +kai pathetou genomenou anthropou, kai staurothentos epi Pontiou +Pilatou hupo tou laou humon kai apothanontos kai anastantos ek +nekron, kai anabantos eis ton ouranon, pan daimonion exorkizomenon +nikatai kai hupotassetai." +-- + +4. St. Irenaeus. + +Writing not later than 190, he makes constant reference to the +Virgin-Birth as an integral portion of the Faith of Christendom. +He says: "The Church, though scattered over the whole world to +the ends of the earth, yet having received from the Apostles and +their disciples the Faith-- + + In one God the Father Almighty... + and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of + God, who was incarnate for our + salvation: and in the Holy Ghost, who + by the Prophets announced His + dispensations and His comings; and the + birth of the Virgin (kai ten ek Parthenou + gennesin), and the Passion, and + Resurrection from the dead, and the bodily + assumption into heaven of the beloved + Jesus Christ our Lord, and His appearance + from heaven in the glory of the + Father . . . + +having received, as we said, this preaching and this Faith, the +Church, though scattered over the whole world, guards it +diligently, as inhabiting one house, and believes in accordance +with these words as having one soul and the same heart; and with +one voice preaches and teaches and hands on these things, as if +possessing one mouth. For the languages of the world are unlike, +but the force of the tradition is one and the same."* + +-- +* Contra Haeres., I. x. 1, 2. "He men gar Ekklesia, kaiper kath' +holes tes oikoumenes heos peraton tes ges diesparmene, para de +ton Apostolon kai ton ekeivon matheton paralabousa ten eis hena +theon Patera pantokratora . . . pistin; kai eis hena Christon +Jesoun, ton huion tou theou, ton sarkothenta huper tes hemteras +soterias; kai eis Pneuma Hagion, to dia ton propheton kekeruchos +tas oikonomias, kai tas eleuseis, kai ten ek Parthenou gennesin, +kai to pathos, kai ten egersin ek vekron, kai ten ensarkon eis +tous ournous analepsin tou egapemenou Christou Iesou tou Kuriou +hemon, kai ten ouranon en te doxe tou Patros parousian. . . . +Touto to kerugma pareilephuia kai tauten ten pistin, hos +proephamen, he Ekklesia, kaiper en holo to kosmo diesparmene, +epimelos phulassei, hos hena oikon oikousa; kai homoios pisteuei +toutois, hos mian psuchen kai ten auten echousa kardian, kai +sumphonos tauta kerusse kai didaskei, kai paradidosin, hos hen +stoma kektemene, kai gar hai kata ton kosmon dialektoi anomoiai, +all' he dunamis tes paradoseos mia kai he aute." +-- + +He goes on to say that in this Faith agree the Churches of +Germany, Spain, Gaul, The East, Egypt, Libya, and Italy. His +words are: "No otherwise have the Churches established in Germany +believed and delivered, nor those in Spain, nor those among the +Celts, nor those in the East, nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor +those established in the central parts of the earth."+ + +-- ++ Contra Haeres., I. x. 2. "Kai oute hai en Germaniais hidrumenai +Ekklesiai allos pepisteukasin, e allos paradidoasin, oute en tais +Iberiasis, oute en Keltois, oute kata tas anatolas, oute en +Aigupto, oute en Libue, oute hai kata mesa tou kosmou hidrumenai." +-- + +Again, in the same work we read of the many races of Barbarians +"who believe in Christ . . . believe in one God, the Framer of +heaven and earth and of all things that are in them, by Christ +Jesus the Son of God, who for His surpassing love's sake towards +His creatures, submitted to the birth which was of the Virgin, +Himself by Himself uniting man to God."# + +-- +# Contra Haeres., III. iv. x, 2. "Qui in Christum credunt... +in unum Deum credentes, Factorem coeli et terrae, et omnium +quae in eis sunt, per Iesum Christum Dei Filium; qui propter +eminentissimam erga figmentum Suum dilectionem, eam quae esset +ex Virgine generationem sustinuit, ipse per se hominem adunans Deo." +-- + +5. Tertullian. + +His writings represent the teaching of the Churches of Rome and +Carthage, and, writing a little later than Irenaeus (c. 200), he +assures us again and again that the Virgin-Birth is an integral +portion of the Catholic Faith. "The rule of faith," he says, "is +altogether one, alone firm and unalterable; the rule, that +is, of believing in One God Almighty, the Maker of the world; +and His Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified +under Pontius Pilate."* + +-- +* De Virg. Veland., 1. "Regula quidem fidei una omnino est, sola +immobilis et irreformabilis, credendi scilicet, in unicum Deum +Omnipotentem, mundi Conditorem; et Filium ejus Jesum Christum, +nature ex Virgine Maria, crucifixum sub Pontio Pilato." +-- + +"Now the rule of faith . . . is that whereby it is believed that +there is in any wise but one God, who by His own Word first of +all sent forth, brought all things out of nothing; that this +Word called His Son, was . . . brought down at last by the Spirit +and the power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary, made +flesh in her womb, and was born of her."+ + +-- ++ De Praescript. Haeret., cap. xiii. "Regula est autem fidei, +. . . illa scilicet qua creditur: Unum omnino Deum esse qui +universa de nihilo produxerit per Verbum suum primo omnium +demissum; id Verbum, Filium ejus appellatum .... postremo +delatum ex Spiritu Patris Dei et virtute, in Virginem Mariam, +carnem factum in utero eius, et ex ea natum." +-- + +Again, speaking of the Trinity, he writes that the Word, "by whom +all things were made, and without whom nothing was made, was sent +by the Father into a Virgin, was born of her--God and Man--Son of +man, Son of God, and was called Jesus Christ."# + +-- +# Adv, Prax., cap. ii. "Per quem omnia facta sunt, et sine quo +factum est nihil. Hunc missum a Patre in Virginem, et ex ea natum, +Hominem et Deum, Filium hominis et Filium Dei, et cognominatum +Jesum Christum." +-- + + +6. Clement. + +Clement about the year 190, and Origen about 230, represent the +great Church of Alexandria. Their testimony to the place which +the Virgin-Birth holds in the Church is clear and unhesitating. +Clement speaks of the whole dispensation as consisting in this, +"that the Son of God who made the universe took flesh and was +conceived in the womb of a Virgin . . . and suffered and +rose again."* + +-- +* Strom. vi. 15. 127. "Hede de kai he oikonomia pasa he peri tou +kuriou propheteutheisa, parabole hos alethos phainetai tois me +ten aletheian egnokosian, hot' an tis ton huion tou theou, tou +ta panta pepoiekotos, sarka aneilephota, kai en metra parthenou +kuoporethenta . . . teponthota kei anestramenon legei." +-- + +7. Origen. + +In the De Principiis, Origen writes: "The particular points clearly +delivered in the teaching of the Apostles are as follows: First, +that there is one God, . . . then that Jesus Christ Himself who +came [into the world] was born of the Father before all creation; +that after He had been the minister of the Father in the creation +of all things--for by Him were all things made--in the last times, +emptying Himself He became man and was incarnate, although He was +God, and being made man He remained that which He was, God. He +assumed a body like our own, differing in this respect only, that +it was born of a Virgin and of the Holy Spirit."* + +-- +* De Principiis, Lib. I., Pref., 4. "Species vero eorum quae per +praedicationem apostolicam manifeste traduntur, istae sunt, Primo, +quod unus Deus est . . . tum deinde quia Jesus Christus ipse qui +venit, ante omnem creaturam natus ex Patre est. Qui cum in omnium +conditione Patri ministrasset (per ipsum enim omnia facta sunt); +novissimis temporibus se ipsum exinaniens, homo fictus incarnatus +est, cum Deus esset, et homo, factus mansit quod erat, Deus. +Corpus assumsit nostro corpori simile, eo solo differens, +quod natum ex Virgine et Spiritu Sancto est." +-- + +In his Treatise against Celsus he exclaims: "Who has not heard of +the Virgin-Birth of Jesus, of the Crucified, of His Resurrection +of which so many are convinced, and the announcement of the +judgment to come?"+ + +-- ++ Contr. Celsum, i. 7. "Tini gar lanthanei he ek parthenou +gennesis Iesus kai ho estauromenos kai he papa pollois +pepistreumene anastasis autou, kai he katangellomene krisis." +-- + +Think for a moment what all this agreement--this consensus of +tradition implies. The testimony of these writers clearly shows +that in the early part of the second century, and reaching back +to its very beginning, the Virgin-Birth formed part of the tradition +or doctrinal creed of the Church, and that this tradition was +believed to be traced back to the Apostles. It has a place in the +earliest forms of the Creed: it is insisted upon by the earliest +Apologists. It is not merely in one Church or two Churches, in one +district or in two, that this tradition is found. It is everywhere. +In East and West alike. It is so in Rome and in Gaul (by the +testimony of Irenaeus). It is in Greece (by the testimony of +Aristides). It is in Africa (by the testimony of Tertullian); +in Alexandria (by the testimony of Clement and Origen); in Asia +(by the testimony of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Ignatius); in +Palestine and Syria (by the testimony of Ignatius and Justin +Martyr). Irenaeus, if any one, should know what the Apostles +taught, for before he came to Rome he had been the pupil of +Polycarp in Asia, who had himself sat at the feet of St. John. +"Everything that we know," says Mr. Rendel Harris, "of the +Dogmatics of the early part of the second century agrees +with the belief that at that period the Virginity of Mary +was a part of the formulated Christian belief."* How could the +belief in the Virgin-Birth have taken such undisputed possession +of so many widely separated and independent Churches unless it +had had Apostolic authority?+ What other explanation can be given +for the fact? There is as complete a consensus of tradition as could +reasonably be asked for. It is impossible to imagine that the +doctrine of the Virgin-Birth can have been suddenly evolved in the +early years of the second century. The only adequate explanation is +that it was a substantial part of the Apostolic tradition. It may +be worth while here to quote the words of so distinguished a +scholar as Professor Zahn, of Erlangen. "This [the Virgin-Birth] +has been an element of the Creed as far as we can trace +it back; and if Ignatius can be taken as a witness of a +Baptismal Creed springing from early Apostolic times, certainly in +that Creed the name of the Virgin Mary already had its place .... +We may further assert that during the first four centuries of the +Church, no teacher and no religious community which can be +considered with any appearance of right as an heir of original +Christianity, had any other notion of the beginning of the [human] +life of Jesus of Nazareth .... The theory of an original +Christianity without the belief in Jesus the Son of God, born of +the Virgin, is a fiction."# + +-- +* See Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1891), vol. i. No. I, p. 25. ++ "Ecquid verisimile est, ut tot ac tantae [ecclesiae] in unam +fidem erraverint?"--Tertullian, De Praescript, cap. xxviii. +# "Dies aber ist ein Element des Symbolum gewesen, so weit +wir dasselbe zuruckverfolgen konnen; und wenn Ignatius als Zeuge +fur ein noch ateres, aus fruher apostolischer Zeit stammendes +Taufbekenntnis gelten darf, so hat auch in diesem bereits der +Name der Jungfrau Maria seine Stelle gehabt . . . Man darf ferner +behauften, dass wathrend der ersten vier Jahrhunderte der Kirche +kein Lehrer und Keine religiose Genossenschaft, welche sich mit +einigem Schein des Rechts als Erben des ursprfinglichen +Christenthums betrachten konnten, eine andere Auschauung yon dem +Lebensanfang Jesu yon Nazareth gehabt haben, als diese .... Dass +die Annahme eines ursprunglichen Christenthums ohne den Glauben +an den yon der Jungfrau geborenen Gottessohn Jesus eine Fiktion +ist."--Zahn, Das Apostolische Symbolum, pp. 55-68. +-- + +Opponents of the Virgin-Birth occur, indeed, in the person of +Cerinthus, the contemporary of St. John, and later on among the +Ebionites, mentioned by Justin Martyr.* But they reject the +Virgin-Birth, because they reject the principle of the Incarnation. +"There are no believers in the Incarnation discoverable who are not +believers in the Virgin-Birth."+ The two truths have been held +together as inseparable. There has never been any belief in the +Incarnation without its carrying with it the belief in the +Virgin-Birth. + +-- +* Dial cum Tryph., 48, 49. ++ Gore, Dissertations, p. 48. +-- + + +II + +THE GOSPELS OF ST. MATTHEW AND ST. LUKE + +But if such was the belief of Christians everywhere in the early +years of the second century, can we trace the evidence further +back? In answering this question, we are brought face to face +with the Gospels. But first it must be noted that the positive +evidence for such a subject must, in the nature of the case, be +much more limited than the evidence for the Resurrection. The +Apostles were primarily witnesses of what they themselves had seen. +There are two persons, and two only, from whom we could reasonably +expect to hear the truth about the mystery of the miraculous +Conception--Mary and Joseph; and when we open the Gospels we have, +as everybody knows, two narratives of the Nativity--St. Luke's +and St. Matthew's. + +(I) St. Luke, in describing the Nativity, is using an Aramaic +document. There is a great difference in style between the preface, +which is his own, and that of the narrative which follows. It was +an Aramaic document (as Godet, Weiss, and Dr. Sanday agree); but +more than this, as Bishop Gore has pointed out: "It breathes the +spirit of the Messianic hope, before it had received the rude and +crushing blow involved in the rejection of the Messiah."* The +Christology of the passage is pre-Christian: "He shall be great, +and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall +give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign +over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there +shall be no end."+ + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 16. ++ St. Luke i. 32, 33. +-- +"How can all this," Dr. Chase asks, "be the invention of a believer +in the Messiahship of Jesus when the Jews had rejected Him, and +when the Resurrection and Ascension had raised the conception +of His Messiahship to the height of a spiritual and universal +sovereignty? The Christology of these passages is a striking proof +of their primitive character."# It is indeed difficult to see how +men can read the Benedictus or Magnificat without realizing this. +Every verse in them is full of Jewish thought and Jewish +expressions, such as would have been impossible had they been the +inventions of a later date. + +-- +# Chase, Supernatural Elements in our Lord's Earthly Life. +-- + +That is to say, these two chapters bear traces on the face of them +of being what they profess to be--a true and genuine account of +the human Birth of Jesus Christ, received ultimately from her who +alone could be competent to give it--the Virgin-Mother herself. For +it must be Mary's account if it is genuine. It is given to us by +St. Luke, who tells us that he "had traced the course of all things +accurately from the first," and who had gathered information +concerning, be it observed, "those things which are most surely +believed among the disciples."* "It is an account," says Bishop +Gore, "which there is no evidence to show the imagination of an +early Christian capable of producing; for its consummate fitness, +reserve, sobriety, and loftiness are unquestionable. What solid +reason is there for not accepting it?"+ It is extraordinarily +difficult to imagine that St. Luke, whose accuracy and care have +been, in recent years, so severely tested and found not wanting, +should have been so careless as to append to his Gospel a spurious +account of so momentous an occurrence as the human Birth of our +Lord. "Historical accuracy is not a capricious and intermittent +impulse," writes Bishop Alexander. "It is a fixed habit of mind, +the result of a particular discipline. Historians of the school +of the author of the Acts of the Apostles are not men to build a +flamboyant portal of romance over the entrance to the austere +temple of truth."# + +-- +* St. Luke i. 1-4. ++ Gore, Dissertations, p. 18. +# Bishop Alexander's Leading Ideas of the Gospels, pp. 154, 155. +-- + +(2) The account in St. Matthew's Gospel, if genuine, must have +come from Joseph. It is his perplexities which are in question, +and Divine intimations are given to him, on three occasions, +how to act for the safety of the mother and the Child. The facts +which appear in the Third Gospel are clearly prior to those +reported in the First: the Annunciation, Mary's visit to Judaea, +her return to Nazareth, precede Joseph's discovery and dream, +which follow appropriately upon the Virgin's return. How this +account has been preserved in the First Gospel we do not know, +for we know so very little about the authorship of that Gospel; +but there is nothing at all unreasonable in Bishop Gore's +conjecture* that St. Joseph (who must have died before the public +ministry of our Lord began) left some document detailing the +circumstances of the Birth of Jesus Christ; that this document +would have been given to Mary (to vindicate, by means of it, when +occasion demanded, her own virginity), and that after Pentecost +she may have given it to the family of Joseph, the now believing +"brethren of the Lord," and from their hands it passed into those +of the author of the First Gospel. + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, pp. 28, 29. +-- + +The Evangelist dwells, as is well known, on the fulfilment of +prophecy; but in regard to the particular prophecy of Isaiah, +"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call +His name Immanuel,"* it cannot with any probability be said that +the prophecy suggested the event; for it does not seem at all +likely that there was any Jewish expectation that the Christ +should be born of a Virgin. We can understand the prophecy being +adduced in order to attest a story already current (this would be +wholly after St. Matthew's method); but the prophecy itself, with +one's eye on the Hebrew text of Isaiah,+ could scarcely have led +to the fabrication of this particular story about the Messiah's +birth. Probably the notion of a Virgin-born Messiah would have +been alien to ordinary Jewish ideas.# In any case, the Jews did not +so interpret the passage, and in fact, to quote Professor Stanton, +"It is an instance in which the principle would hold that it is +more easy to suppose the meaning of prophetic language to have +been strained to fit facts, than that facts should have been +invented to correspond with prophetic language."^ That is to say, +it is wholly reasonable and entirely in keeping with the method of +the first Evangelist, that when once he had come to know that the +Messiah had been born in Bethlehem of a Virgin-Mother, he should +have recognized in that wondrous birth the fulfilment of the ancient +prophecy of Isaiah. He would then see that whatever primary and +lesser fulfilment the words of Isaiah might have, they were only +completely fulfilled in Him who is the end of all prophecy, who was +conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary.| +-- +* Isa. vii. 14. ++ See Note at the end. +# So Dr. Chase. +^ Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah, p. 378. +| See Eck, The Incarnation, p. 87. +-- + +It is hard to bring one's self to speak of the theory put forward +by Professor Usener, in which he says that the story of the +Virgin-Birth is traceable "to a pagan substratum, and that it must +have arisen in Gentile circles."* Surely this is wholly contrary +to all probability. How can any serious student think that any but +Jewish hands could have penned the first two chapters of St. +Matthew's Gospel? "The story," says Professor Chase, "moves, like +that of St. Luke, within the circle of Eastern conceptions; it is +pre-eminently and essentially Jewish. Moreover, if time is to be +found for the complicated interaction between paganism and +Christianity which this theory involves, the First and Third +Gospels must be placed at a date which I believe is +quite untenable."+ + +-- +* Encyc. Bibl., iii. 3352. ++ Chase, Supernatural Elements in our Lord's Earthly Life, p. 21. +-- + +That there are differences and even discrepancies between the two +accounts, which are manifestly independent of one another, serves +surely to strengthen their witness to the great central fact in +which they are at one--that Christ was born of a Virgin-Mother +at Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the king. + +There appears, then, to be no reason for doubting that in St. +Luke's Gospel we have a genuine account derived from Mary herself, +and that in St. Matthew's Gospel we have an account left by +St. Joseph, "worked over by the Evangelist in view of his +predominant interest--that of calling attention to the fulfilments +of prophecies."* Wherever, therefore, these two Gospels had reached +in the second half of the first century, there the story of the +Virgin-Birth was known. If the story thus attested by the first and +third Evangelists were really a fiction, it is hard indeed to +believe that it would not have been contradicted by some who were +still living, and who knew that the story was different from that +which the Mother herself had delivered them. "If," says Dean Alford, +speaking of the Third Gospel, "not the mother of our Lord herself, +yet His brethren were certainly living; and the universal reception +of the Gospel in the very earliest ages sufficiently demonstrates +that no objection to this part of the sacred narrative had been +heard of as raised by them."+ + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 29. ++ Greek Test., vol. i. Prolog. sect. viii. p. 48. +-- + +There is no other alternative but to regard both stories as legends +independently circulated in the ancient Church. "So artificial an +explanation would probably have found little favour with scholars +if there had been no miracle to suggest it. It is too commonly +assumed that evidence which would be good under ordinary +circumstances is bad where the supernatural is involved."* + +Certainly it would seem to be in a high degree improbable that +two such accounts as those of the Birth of Jesus Christ which we +have in these two Gospels should be the work of forgers; and this +improbability is further heightened when we compare them with the +legendary accounts of His infancy which were actually current in +the early centuries.+ + +-- +* Swete, Church Congress Report (1902), p. 163. ++ See Preface, p. xi. +-- + + + +III + +THE SILENCE OF OTHER NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS + +What are the objections brought against all this evidence? The main +objection is the silence of the other writers of the New Testament. +To reply-- + +(I) First, we may surely ask--Why should they mention it? This sort +of argument from silence is most precarious. Are we to infer that +because there is no mention of the Cross or the Crucifixion in the +Epistles of St. James or of St. Jude, that it was unknown to this +group of writers, and that they were unaware of the manner of +Christ's Death? + +"We might much more naturally infer it than we may infer that +the Virgin-Birth was unknown because St. James speaks of Christ's +Death, and it would therefore have been quite natural for him to +speak of the exact mode of it, whereas our Lord's Birth is very +seldom referred to in the New Testament, and when it is referred +to it would not have aided the argument, or been at all to the +point to mention how that Birth was brought about."* + +-- +* A. J. Mason, in the Guardian, November 19, 1902. +-- + +Or, because St. John omits all mention of the institution of the +Holy Eucharist, are we to suppose that he knew nothing of that +Sacrament? + +(2) The subject of the Virgin-Birth was not one which the Apostles +would be likely to dwell on much. They were above all witnesses of +what they had seen and heard. They come before us insisting, +therefore, on what they could themselves personally +attest--especially on the Resurrection. They had seen and heard +the risen Christ, and the Resurrection was at once a vindication +of His Messianic claims, and a manifestation of the dignity of +His Person. "This praeternatural fact, the fulfilment of the +'sign'+ which He had Himself promised, a fact concerning the +reality of which they offered themselves as witnesses, would carry +with it a readiness to accept a fact like the Virgin-Birth, +concerning which the same sort of evidence was not possible."^ + +-- ++ St. John ii. 18, 19; St. Matt. xii. 40. +^ Hall, The Virgin-Mother, p. 215. +-- + +Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, belief in His Life, in +His Death, in His miracles, in His Resurrection,--these came first, +and these were the subjects of Apostolic preaching,* and belief +in His Virgin-Birth (ultimately attested by Mary and Joseph) +easily followed. + +-- +* Acts i. 22; ii. 32. +-- + +It is instructive in this connection to draw attention to the Acts +of the Apostles. As every one knows, it is St. Luke's second +volume--the Third Gospel being his first. Now, the Gospel begins +with the account of Christ's miraculous Conception and Birth, but +there is no reference to these mysteries in the rest of the Gospel +or in the Acts. "The reason for the silence in the Acts is the same +as for the silence in the subsequent chapters of the Gospel. The +Jews had to learn the meaning of the Person of Christ from His own +revelation of Himself in His words and works. To have begun with +proclaiming the story of His miraculous Birth would have created +prejudice and hindered the reception of that revelation. + +"Similarly, in the Acts, both Jews and Gentiles had first to learn +in the experience of the life of the Church what Jesus had done and +said. Only when they had learned that, was it time to go on and ask +who He was and whence He came."+ + +The same point is illustrated by St. Mark's silence. "Had he given +any account of our Lord's early years, there would be some ground +for pitting him (so to speak) against St. Matthew and St. Luke."^ +But this Gospel begins, as every one knows, with the public +ministry of our Lord. It is, in fact, the Gospel which reflects +the oral teaching and preaching of St. Peter, and so it begins +naturally enough at the point where that Apostle first came in +contact with Christ. + +-- ++ Rackham, Acts of the Apostles, p. lxxiv. +^ Hall, The Virgin-Mother, p. 217. +-- + +(3) If in these writers of the New Testament expressions had been +used inconsistent with the Virgin-Birth, it would be a very +serious matter: but what are the facts? In the few cases where +the Birth is mentioned, there is nothing said which implies that +His Birth in the flesh was analogous in all respects to ours. + +Consider St. John's Gospel. The silence on the Virgin-Birth can +occasion, one would think, no real difficulty. His Gospel is a +supplementary record, and he does not, for the most part, repeat +historical statements already made by the other Evangelists. It +seems altogether impossible to suppose that St. John was ignorant +of the Virgin-Birth. Ignatius, who was Bishop of Antioch quite at +the beginning of the second century, and therefore only a few +years after the writing of this Gospel, calls it (the +Virgin-Birth) a mystery of open proclamation in the Church. +(Eph., 19.) Indeed, on any theory of the date or authorship of +this Gospel, there is every reason for believing that the +Virgin-Birth was, at the time it was compiled, part and parcel of +the tradition of the Church. But when St. John does speak of the +Incarnation, in the prologue to his Gospel, when he says, "The +Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," (St. John i. 14.) there +is nothing in these words to suggest anything inconsistent with +the miraculous story related by St. Matthew and St. Luke. In fact, +we may say more than this. We may say that his teaching about the +Pre-existent Divine Logos who "was made flesh, and dwelt among +us," is felt to be a natural explanation of St. Matthew's +narrative as well as of St. Luke's; for, as we shall see, it is +the question of the Divine Pre-existence of the Logos on which the +reasonableness of the doctrine of the Virgin-Birth really turns. +St. John does, in fact, in connection with this mystery of the +Virgin-Birth, what he does in the case of Baptism and the Holy +Eucharist, "he supplies the justifying principle--in this case the +principle of the Incarnation--without supplying what was +already current and well known, the record of the fact."* + +-- +* Gore, Dissertations, p. 8, seq. +-- + +And it may be added, further, that Mary's word at Cana of Galilee: +"They have no wine," and her subsequent order to the servants: +"Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it," (St. John ii. 3, 5.) +are a clear indication that in the view of St. John she regarded +Him as a miraculous Person, and expected of Him miraculous action.+ +I think that, in regard to the Gospels, their relationship to +one another may be summed up in the words of Bishop Alexander: +"The fact of the Incarnation is recorded by St. Matthew and +St. Luke; it is assumed by St. Mark; the idea which vitalizes +the fact is dominant in St. John."^ + +-- ++ Gore, loc. cit. +^ Bishop Alexander's Leading Ideas, Introd., p. xxiv. +-- + +Consider next St. Paul's references to the Incarnation:-- + +"God sent forth His Son, born of a woman." (Gal. iv. 4) He does +not say, "born of human parents." + +"His Son our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according +to the flesh." (Rom. i. 3.) + +"Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with +God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form +of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 6, 7.) + +These are the passages in which St. Paul refers to the Birth of +Jesus Christ. Not one of them is inconsistent with the fact that +He was born of a Virgin. But one can say more than this. Every +one of these passages infers that He who was born in time had +existed before. They either assert or imply a Divine pre-existence. +He who was "made in the likeness of men" was already pre-existent +in the "form of God," and was, in fact, "equal with God." This +being the case, does it not prepare us for the further truth that, +when He entered into the conditions of human life, He entered it +not in all respects like us? I should mar if I ventured to +abbreviate Dr. Mason's admirable words, in which he presses +this argument-- + +"Like causes produce like effects. In similar circumstances, you +may expect the same forces to operate in the same way. But when +some new force is introduced, you cannot expect the same results. +The Birth of Christ, if He is what all the writers of the New +Testament believed Him to be, was necessarily unlike ours in that +one great respect. We had no existence before we were born, +however poets and poetical philosophers may play with the notion. +But the New Testament writers believed that He whom we know as +Jesus Christ was living with a full, vigorous, personal life for +ages before He appeared in the world as man. They maintained that +He was present and active in the making of the world, and +immanent in the development of human history, which formed +a new beginning at His Birth. They said He was God, the Only +Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who came down from heaven, +and voluntarily entered into the conditions of human life. Admit +the possibility that they were right, and you will no longer +ask that His mode of entrance into our conditions should be +in all things like our own. If you acknowledge that Jesus Christ +was Divine first and became human afterwards, you cannot but say +with St. Ambrose, when you hear that He was born of a Virgin: +'Talis decet partus Deum'--a birth of that kind is befitting to +one who is God. We do not--no one ever did--believe Christ to be +God because He was born of a Virgin; that is not the order of +thought [and we have seen that it was certainly not the order of +Apostolic preaching]; but we can recognize that if He was God, it +was not unnatural for Him to be so born. No sound genuine +historical criticism can deny that the Virgin-Birth was part of +the Creed of Primitive Christianity, and that nothing that can be +truly called science can object to that belief, unless it starts +with the assumption, which, of course, it cannot even attempt to +prove, that Christ was never more than man."* + +Similarly Professor Stanton: "The chief ground on which thoughtful +Christian believers are ready to accept it [the miraculous Conception] +is that, believing in the personal indissoluble union between God and +man in Jesus Christ, the miraculous Birth of Jesus Christ is the only +fitting accompaniment for this unions and, so to speak, the natural +expression of it in the order of outward effects."+ + +-- +* Guardian, November 19, 1902. ++ Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah p. 376. +-- + + +IV + +OUR LORD AS THE SECOND ADAM + +But we may surely go further than this, and say that, in regard to +St. Paul, his language as to the Second Adam seems to necessitate +the Virgin-Birth. In St. Paul's view there are, so to speak, only +two men: "The first man is of the earth earthy; the second man is +the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. xx. 47.)--a new starting-point for +humanity. This doctrine of the Second Adam, of this fresh start +given to the human race by Jesus Christ, would seem to require His +Birth of a Virgin, for the Virgin-Birth is bound up with any really +Catholic notion of the Incarnation. For what is the Catholic +doctrine of Incarnation? Do we mean by Incarnation that on an +already existing human being there descended in an extraordinary +measure the Divine Spirit, so that He was by moral association so +closely allied to God that He might be called God? Do we mean that +some preminent saint, called Jesus, responded with such "signal +readiness" to the Divine Voice, "and realized more worthily than +any other man 'the Divine idea' of human excellence, so that to Him, +by a laxity of phrase not free from profaneness, men might thus +ascribe a so-called 'moral Divinity'"? Then, I say quite freely, +if that is what we mean, that the Virgin-Birth is, so far as we can +see, an altogether gratuitous addition, an unnecessary miracle. That +is, so far as I can understand it, the idea of Incarnation +entertained by moderns who reject or question the Catholic Faith. + +But let me say as clearly as possible that this is not, and never +has been, what the Christian Church means by Incarnation. The New +Testament does not tell us of a deified man: no, we begin with a +Divine Person. "The 'I' in Him, His very self, is Divine, not +human; yet has He condescended to take our humanity into union +with His Divine Person, to assume it as His own." He who was from +all eternity a single Divine Person took upon Him our nature, and +was "made man;" and if this be so, what other entrance into +our condition is imaginable save that which we confess in the +Creed--that He was "conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the +Virgin Mary"? "The Creeds pass immediately from confessing Jesus +Christ to be 'the only Son of God' to the fact that He was 'born +of the Virgin Mary,' and neither of those articles of the Catholic +Faith can be abandoned without disturbing the foundations of +the other."* + +-- +* Swete, Church Congress Report (1901), p. 164. +-- + +If Christ was born naturally of human parents, He must, one would +think, have taken to Himself a human personality; He must have +existed in two persons as well as in two natures. But what we are +to insist on in thinking of and teaching this mystery is this +truth of the single Divine Personality of our Lord. The old +Nestorian heresy (with certain important modifications) is +being resuscitated among us. Nestorianism, new and old, begins +from below, and speaks of a man who by moral "association" +became "Divine;" it speaks, that is to say, of a deified man. +The Christian Faith begins from above-it speaks of Him who from +all eternity was God, taking upon Him our flesh. He took upon Him +our nature, but He did not assume a human personality. He wrapped +our human nature round His own Divine Person. On the Nestorian +theory, God did but benefit one man by raising him to a unique +dignity; on the Catholic theory, He benefitted the race of men, +by raising human nature into union with His Divine Person. + +Those who speak, somewhat incautiously surely, of Incarnation, +while they deny or question the Virgin-Birth, should be asked to +consider what they say and to reflect what their words imply. A +man born naturally of human parents but taken up, on account of +a wonderfully high moral character, into close union with God, +can never differ in kind from any saint. He can never benefit +the race of men save by way of example. His death can never +effect our redemption, for it does not differ in kind from the +death of a martyr. Being only a great saint himself, he cannot +represent mankind either on the Cross or before the Throne. One +man has been assumed into heaven. But this is wholly a different +thing from the Faith of Christendom, which is that God has taken +human nature into union with His Divine Person, in that nature +God died upon the Cross, and in that nature He pleads before the +Throne for the race of men. It is because Christ's Person is Divine, +that His life means to us Christians what it does. + +"No person," says Hooker, "was born of the Virgin but the Son of +God, no person but the Son of God baptized, the Son of God +condemned, the Son of God and no other person crucified; which one +only point of Christian belief, the infinite worth of the Son of +God, is the very ground of all things believed concerning life +and salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as man +in our behalf."* "That," says Bishop Andrewes, "which setteth the +high price upon this sacrifice is this, that He which offereth +it to God is God."+ + +-- +* Eccl. Pol., v. 52. 3. ++ Second Sermon on the Passion. +-- + +"Marvel not," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, "if the whole world +has been redeemed; for He who has died for us is no mere man, +but the Only Begotten Son of God."^ "Christ," says St. Cyril +of Alexandria, "would not have been equivalent [as a sacrifice] +for the whole creation, nor would He have sufficed to redeem the +world, nor have laid down His life by way of price for it, and +poured forth for us His precious Blood, if He be not really the +Son, and God of God." # + +-- +^ Catech., xiii. 2. +# De Sancta Trinitate, dial. A. (quoted Liddon, B. L., p. 477). +-- + +How different is all this from the language of those who would +deny or question the Virgin-Birth! With them the Resurrection is +denied as a literal fact; the whole meaning of the Atonement as +being a real sacrifice for sin, a real propitiation, is +eviscerated of its meaning, and is reduced to a moral appeal to +man; and finally, we find that whereas Christians have been +thinking and speaking of Christ as truly God, who in becoming man +"did not abhor the Virgin's womb," modern writers really mean a +very good man who does not, however, differ in kind but only in +excellence of degree from any saint; and by Incarnation they mean +that moral union which a good man has with God, only illustrated +in the case of Christ in an altogether unique degree. If, +however, the Incarnation be what Christendom believes it to have +been; if the Son of God did really take flesh in the womb of Mary, +and became man, not by assuming a human personality, but by +assuming human nature, by entering into human conditions of +life,--it is indeed difficult to imagine any other way of such an +Incarnation save by way of the Virgin-Birth, by which the entail +of original sin was cut off, and humanity made a fresh start in +the Eternal Person of the Second Adam. And if He is indeed +sinless, the sinless Example, the sinless Sacrifice, how +could He be otherwise born? Adam, at his fall, passed on to the +human race a vitiated nature, which we all share--a nature +biassed in a wrong direction. It descended--this vitiated +nature--from father to son to all generations of men. If this +entail of original sin was to be cut off, if there was really to +be a new Adam, a second start for the human race, how could it +be contrived otherwise than by a Virgin-Birth? The Son of Mary +was indeed wholly human--completely man--but "in Him humanity +inherited no part of that bad legacy which came across the +ages from the Fall."* + +When a modern writer says, "We should not now, h priori, expect +that the Incarnate Logos would be born without a human father,"+ +we may reply that we are hardly in a position to expect anything +a priori in the matter; but when once we have learnt that this +Incarnate Logos was to be the Second Head of the human race--the +sinless Son of Man--and that in Him humanity was to make a fresh +start, it is indeed difficult to see how this could be without +the miracle of the Virgin-Birth. + +-- +* Liddon, Christmas Sermons, p. 97. ++ See Contentio Veritatis, p. 88. +-- + +I should like to say, in conclusion, that I cannot disguise my +conviction that just as in the early days we find no denial of +the Virgin-Birth except among those who denied and objected to +the principle of the Incarnation (on the ground, apparently, of +the essential evil of matter), so, conversely, that the attempt +now being made (or the suggestion put forward) to separate the +Incarnation and the Virgin-Birth will prove to be an +impossibility. Once reject the tradition of the Virgin-Birth, +and the Incarnation will go with it. For a few years, indeed, +men will use the old language, the word "Incarnation" will be on +their lips; but it will be found before long that by that term +they do not mean God manifest in human flesh, but they mean a man +born naturally of human parents, who most clearly manifested to +men the Christian idea of a perfect human character. Such a +conception as this brings no solace to human hearts. No saint, +however great, could be our Saviour; no saint could have atoned +for sin; and assuredly no saint could be to any of us the source +of our new life--the well-spring and fountain of Divine grace. + + +NOTE ON ISAIAH VII. 14 + +THE word for "the Virgin" in the Hebrew text is ha-almah. It is +an ambiguous word, and does not necessarily imply, though it +certainly does not necessarily exclude, the idea of virginity. +Etymologically it means puella nubilis--a maiden of marriageable age. + +In four* out of six other places in the Old Testament where it is +employed, it is used of virgins. Its use in the two other passages+ +is doubtful, but does not with any certainty imply virginity. + +-- +* Gen. xxiv. 43; Exod. ii. 8; Ps. lxviii. 25; Cant. i. 3. ++ Prov. xxx. x 9; Cant. vi. 8. +-- + +The Septuagint translators, some two hundred years before Christ, +translated the word he parthenos. + +Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, in the second century of our +era (apparently in order to vitiate the Christian appeal to +this passage), translated the word neanis. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord, by B. W. 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