DAY THIRTEEN: The Virgin Conception

For today's post, I will simply refer you to an extended quote from Tom Wright's excellent little commentary, Luke for Everyone*. A central truth in Luke 1.26-38 is that of Jesus' virginal conception. I doubt that this teaching can be stated more simply or clearly than Wright does here:

"Let's begin with the obvious point: The story makes it clear that Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb before she had had any sexual relations. Many people today find this impossible to believe, but they often think that this difficulty has only arisen in modern times, because of all we now know about the precise mechanics of conception and birth. Not so. The ancient world didn't know about X chromosomes and Y chromosomes but they knew as well as we do that babies were the result of sexual intercourse, and that people who claimed to be pregnant by other means might well be covering up up a moral and social offence. Yet Mary's story is told by both Luke and Matthew, in versions so different that they can hardly be dependent on one another; in other words, the story seems to have been widely known in the very early church, rather than being a fantasy invented several generations after the fact. Why would these two writers, and devout Jewish Christian congregations that passed on such stories, have done so, giving hostages to fortune in this way, unless they had good reason to suppose that they were true?

"It's important to stress that the story says nothing about Mary remaining a virgin after Jesus' birth. That's a much later idea. Nor does it say anything about the goodness or badness of sexual identity or sexual relations. Whatever Luke (and Matthew) are trying to say with this story, they aren't saying that virginity is a morally better state than marriage. They are simply reporting that Jesus did not have a father in the ordinary way, and that this was because Mary had been given special grace to be the mother of God's incarnate self."

With God's people over all the centuries, we confess: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary...


*Book information: Luke for Everyone, by Tom Wright, Westminster John Knox Press/SPCK. Copyright 2001, 2004 Nicholas Thomas Wright.