The document discusses the Christian doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It provides biblical references and prophecies that are cited as evidence for believing Jesus was born of a virgin. It also addresses objections that claim the virgin birth story was borrowed from pagan myths or that the relevant passages have been misinterpreted. The document examines both sides of the debate in a thorough but balanced manner.

1. I BELIEVE in Godthe Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
The Creed
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
I BELIEVE in the VIRGIN to
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he
shall come
BIRTH
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

2. I BELIEVE in Godthe Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen

3. Key Question…
―Was Jesus Born of a Virgin?‖
…and why does it matter?
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

4. Was Jesus Born of a Virgin?
―most Christians in all the churches in the world
confess as they recite the Apostles' Creed that
Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Now...modern
Christians completely discount the historicity of
the virgin birth and understand it in a figurative
sense… The tomb was full and the manger empty‖
-Gerd Luedemann, German NT scholar
―those first disciples … when they thought about
his coming they were sure that he came specially
from God … they associated with God's special
influence and intention in his birth … but they
phrased it in terms of a biological miracle that our
modern minds cannot use.―
- Harry Fosdick, 20th century pastor
A December 2008 Harris poll found 61% of Americans believe in the virgin birth
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

5. Does the Virgin Birth Matter?
―What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real,
earthly, biological father named Larry and archaeologists find Larry's tomb
and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin
birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to
appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionyslan religious cults that were
hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what
if as you study the origin of the word virgin, you discover that the word virgin
in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then
you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could
mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being
quot;born of a virginquot; also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the
first time she had intercourse? What if that spring was seriously questioned?
Could a person keep jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you
still be a Christian?‖
- Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

6. Prophecies of the Virgin Birth
―The Lord God said to the serpent,
―Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the
field; On your belly you will go, And
dust you will eat All the days of your
life; And I will put enmity Between
you and the woman, And between
your seed and her seed; He shall
bruise you on the head, And you shall
bruise him on the heel.‖quot;
(Genesis 3:14-15)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

7. Prophecies of the Virgin Birth
quot;Then he said, ―Listen now, O
house of David! Is it too slight a
thing for you to try the patience
of men, that you will try the
patience of my God as well?
―Therefore the Lord Himself
will give you a sign: Behold, a
virgin will be with child and bear
a son, and she will call His name
Immanuel.quot;(Isaiah 7:13-14)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

8. quot; Clearly, somebody went seeking in the Old
Testament for a text that could be interpreted as
prophesying a virginal conception, even if such was
never its original meaning. Somebody had already
decided on the transcendental importance of the adult
Jesus and sought to retroject that significance on to
the conception and birth itself.‖
-John Crossan, Member of Jesus Seminar
commenting on Isaiah 7:14 and Christ
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

9. Does Isaiah 7:14 Speak of Christ?
Plural, referring to Davidic House
―Therefore the Lord Himself
will give you a sign: Behold, a
virgin will be with child and bear
a son, and she will call His name
Immanuel.quot;(Isaiah 7:14)
―almah‖: a marriageable girl; a young
woman until the birth of her first child.
Four uses in OT (Gen 24:43, Ex. 2:8,
Prov 30:19, Is 7:14): all refer to a woman
who has not known a man.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

10. Does Isaiah 7:14 Speak of Christ?
As many Biblical prophecies do, this
had a near and distant fulfillment. A
son was born to Ahaz: Hezekiah who
would sit on the throne in Judah (and
not someone from the immediately
threatening enemies). But the distant
fulfillment spoke of a miraculous birth
(there is nothing special about a virgin
becoming pregnant by normal means)
– the coming Messiah. As good a
king as Hezekiah was, he was not
referred to as ‗God with us‘.
Note some scholars think the birth
was Isaiah‘s son.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

11. Does Isaiah 7:14 Speak of Christ?
When the Septuagint (the Greek
translation of the Hebrew Old
Testament) was written, the authors
(non-Christian) used the word
―parthenos‖ in Is. 7:14. That word
has a very specific meaning: ‗one who
has never engaged in sexual
intercourse‘.
Some argue that the Hebrew word
―betulah‖ would have been used
(which can mean virgin), yet Joel 1:8
speaks of a ‗betulah‘ mourning for the
husband of her youth.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

12. Prophecies of the Messiah‘s Birth
―The scepter shall not
depart from Judah, Nor
the ruler‘s staff from
between his feet, Until
Shiloh comes, And to him
shall be the obedience of
the peoples.‖
(Genesis 49:10)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

13. Prophecies of Messiah‘s Birth
quot;For a child will be born to us, a son
will be given to us; And the
government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase
of His government or of peace, On
the throne of David and over his
kingdom, To establish it and to
uphold it with justice and
righteousness From then on and
forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of
hosts will accomplish this.‖
(Isaiah 9:6-7)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

14. Prophecies of Messiah‘s Birth
―But as for you,
Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the
clans of Judah, From you
One will go forth for Me
to be ruler in Israel. His
goings forth are from long
ago, From the days of
eternity.‖
(Micah 5:2)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

15. quot;The charge of contemporary feminists, then, is
not that the image of the Virgin Mary is
unimportant or irrelevant, but that it contributes
to and is integral to the oppression of women.―
- Jane Schaberg
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

16. The Virgin Birth in the New Testament
―Jacob was the father of Joseph
the husband of Mary, by whom
Jesus was born, who is called the
Messiah.‖
(Matthew 1:16)
The word is feminine, singular,
indicating that Jesus was born of
Mary only and not of Mary and
Joseph.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

17. The Virgin Birth in the New Testament
―Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had
been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be
with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous
man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But
when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in
a dream, saying, ―Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as
your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
―She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His
people from their sins.‖ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by
the Lord through the prophet: ―Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall
bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,‖ which translated means,
―God with us.‖quot;(Matthew 1:18-23)
Virgin: ―Parthenos‖
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

18. ―How can this be, since I am a virgin?‖
- Luke 1:26-34
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

19. The Virgin Birth in the New Testament
quot; Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ―Get up! Take the
Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I
tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy
Him.‖‖
(Matthew 2:13)
quot;―Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land
of Israel; for those who sought the Child‘s life are dead.‖‖
(Matthew 2:20)
Jesus is always associated with Mary, but is never referred to
Joseph‘s son.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

20. The Virgin Birth in the New Testament
quot;―But as it is, you are seeking to kill
Me, a man who has told you the
truth, which I heard from God; this
Abraham did not do. ―You are
doing the deeds of your father.‖
They said to Him, ―We were not
born of fornication; we have one
Father: God.‖‖
(John 8:40-41)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

21. The Virgin Birth in the New Testament
quot;But when the fullness of the
time came, God sent forth His
Son, born of a woman, born
under the Law,‖
(Galatians 4:4)
In the Jewish patriarchal
culture, one was begotten by a
father, not the mother
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

22. Fulfillment of Genesis 49:10
―The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler‘s staff from between
his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the
peoples.‖
Josh McDowell, in his book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, points out that quot;the first visible
sign of the beginning of the removal of the scepter from Judah came about when Herod the
Great, who had no Jewish blood, succeeded the Maccabean princes who belonged to the tribe of
Levi and who were the last Jewish kings to reign in Jerusalem.‖ The crucial turning point came
soon after Herod's death when, in about 7 AD, the Romans removed the power of the
Sanhedrin Council in Judah to pronounce the death penalty. Thus the scepter (the supreme
judicial power) passed from Judah.
There is a notation about this in the Talmud (the Jewish oral tradition). The Talmud states that
on this occasion the members of the Sanhedrin were overtaken by quot;a general consternation.quot;
Incredibly, it is further recorded that they quot;covered their heads with ashes and their bodies with
sackcloth, exclaiming: 'Woe unto us, for the scepter has departed from Judah, and the Messiah
has not come!‗‖What they did not realize was that Jesus the Messiah had been born around 4
BC during the last years of Herod (Matthew 2:1). So quot;Shilohquot; had arrived shortly before the
scepter departed — just as prophesied!
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

23. The Virgin Myth – A Pagan Myth?
―The notion that Jesus had no human father because
he was the son of God … was originally a pagan
notion.‖
-Robert J. Miller, Born Divine
Horus Mithras Attis Krishna Dionysus Perseus
Skeptics claim all had virgin births…
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

24. The Virgin Myth – A Pagan Myth?
• Horus – Conceived of Isis and Osiris
• Mithras – Born/emerged out of a rock
• Attis - Nana puts fruit in her lap that came from a
tree started by Zeus‘ ―seed‖ and conceives
• Krishna – Born from Devaki after hairs of Vishnu
placed in her womb
• Dionysus – Only found in post-Christian sources
• Perseus – Danae impregnated by Zeus who assumed
the form of a shower of gold
Jesus virgin birth remains unique in history
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

25. Justin Martyr‘s Accommodation
―And if we even affirm that He was born of a virgin,
accept this in common with what you accept of
Perseus.‖
- Justin Martyr, First Apology
Argumentum ad hominem
―You hold‖, Justin says to his pagan detractors, ―that the virgin
birth of Christ is unbelievable; well, is it any more unbelievable
than the stories that you believe of Perseus?‖
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

26. So What?
…and why all the hostility?
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

27. Question: What one person would
you most like to interview?
Answer: ―Jesus Christ.‖
Question: What one question
would you ask Him?
Answer: ―I would like to ask Him if
He was indeed virgin-born. The
answer to that question would
define history for me.‖
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

28. Man Created in God‘s Image
quot;Then God said, ―Let Us make
man in Our image, according to
Our likeness; and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky and over the cattle
and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creeps on
the earth.‖ God created man in
His own image, in the image of
God He created him; male and
female He created them.―
(Genesis 1:26-27)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

29. Man Created in Man‘s Image
quot;When Adam had lived one
hundred and thirty years, he
became the father of a son in his
own likeness, according to his
image, and named him Seth.‖
(Genesis 5:3)
quot;Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, And in sin my mother
conceived me.‖
(Psalm 51:5)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

30. Jesus Escaped Sin via Virgin Birth
quot;Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned …—
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who
had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him
who was to come…For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much
more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus
Christ, abound to the many…For if by the transgression of the one, death
reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of
grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus
Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation
to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted
justification of life to all men. For as through the one man‘s disobedience the
many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many
will be made righteous.‖
(Romans 5:12-19)
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

31. quot;if the Bible is regarded as being wrong in
what it says about the birth of Christ, then
obviously the authority of the Bible in any
high sense, is gone.quot;
- J. Gresham Machen, The Virgin Birth
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

32. Apologetic Points of Virgin Birth
• Refutes Deism – God intervened in history
• Supports Miracles – A God who supernaturally
acted
• Refutes Gnosticism – Perfect Spirit wedded to a
perfect physical body
• Supports Christ‘s Uniqueness – He is not simply a
good and moral man
Admitting the virgin birth means admitting the Lordship of Christ
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

33. Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of the virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel,
Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory
to the newborn King.
The Creed – I Believe in the Virgin Birth

34. I BELIEVE in Godthe Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only
The Creed
Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose
again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
I BELIEVE in the VIRGIN to
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he
shall come
BIRTH
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy
catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen