VIRGIN
BIRTH

See also: Bible, Inspiration of

Gabriel’s statement: “You will be with child and give birth to a son.”

Luke 1:31

Mary’s response: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Luke 1:34

Gabriel’s answer: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

Luke 1:35

Matthew’s comment: “All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet [Isaiah 7:14]: ‘The virgin will be with child.’”

Matthew 1:22–23

I have put no emphasis on the virgin birth in the course of this chapter. This is not because I do not believe in it, for I do; but because, as I understand it, the account of Christ’s miraculous birth was given in the Gospels for the sake of those who had already come to believe in him and who wished to know the facts, but was never used as a means of evoking faith in those who were not yet convinced on other grounds as to who he was. After all, a virgin birth would be possible without any implications of deity.

J. N. D. Anderson

I believe in … Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary …

Apostles’ creed

We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God of the substance of the father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world.

Athanasian Creed

It would be improper in the light of our knowledge of genetics and embryology to say virgin births can never happen.

Professor R.J. Berry

We all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ…begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer…

Chalcedonian Definition

The entire Gospel stands or falls on the virgin birth.

David Cloud

He came from God, all the apostles believed, in a sense in which no other came; does it not follow that he came in a way in which no other came?

James Denney

While I most certainly believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, I do not find anywhere in the New Testament that this particular belief is necessary for personal salvation.

Billy Graham

The Virgin Mary, being obedient to his word, received from an angel the glad tidings that she would bear God.

Irenaeus of Lyons

The virginal conception was understood from the very beginning as a statement about God and about Jesus, and only secondarily about Mary.

Graham Leonard

Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary.

Philip Melanchthon

God could have become incarnate without being born of a virgin … So it is possible to believe that Jesus is the Son of God without accepting the Virgin Birth.

Keith Ward, Oxford University theologian