People have constantly questioned the virgin birth of christ, often times these are people that have never read the scriptures and are going off of what they heard. Or if they have read them, they read them with the desire to disprove them.
I will be clearing up some of the questions and claims that have been raised about the virgin birth of the Messiah such as:
1- Mary was not a virgin when she had the Messiah, or was she?
2- Mary was a virgin all her life?
The scriptures are the only credible source for this topic so if you are believer or not you should stay in them. Let us start with what the prophecy says about the virgin birth of Christ:
Isaiah 7:14-17
14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
16For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
17The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
The scriptures tell us of a time that would come when a child would be born of a virgin and hes name would be called Emmanuel. We will have to examine two “key” words here which are:
Virgin and Emmanuel.
First we have to look at the word Virgin, in the Hebrew, when used in Isaiah 7:14 which is the original language that the prophecy was written in, the word is found in the concordance
Strong’s H5959 – `almah
which means
1) young woman
a) of marriageable age
b) maid or newly married, damsels
Although the word does not mean virgin literally, the word `almah is used in the scriptures notaly when suggesting that a woman is going t be married, commonly called an engagement today.
Now we can look at the word Emmanuel, to find out what it means, as this is to be the name of the child that the virgin would have:
The word in Isaiah 7:15
Strong’s H6005 – `Immanuw’el
Which literally means
“God is with us”
So what we can take from this is that the child that a promised or engaged woman would give birth to shall be a “God with us”, naturally this relates more to who the child would be than his actual name.
Before we continue it is important to understand the customs of the Hebrew women especially those that were as faithful as Mary clearly was as you will read, was that they re-frame from having and sexual relations with men before marriage, there are even customs in place for proving that a Hebrew woman had not known a man….
The fulfillment of this prophecy is clearly seen in he verses that follow
Matthew 1:18
18Now the birth of Jesus (Yashayah) Christ (Messiah) was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost
Luke 1:30-35
30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32He 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:
33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
We read here that “before they came together”, they meaning Joseph and Mary, and the “came together” meaning had sexual relations, Mary was pregnant of “the Holy Ghost”. If there is any doubt Luke 1:35 makes this even clearer.
Matthew 1:19
19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
In the verse following this, we see that Joseph at first was going to “put her away privily”, Which means Joseph was going to divorce (or break of the promise to marry her) Mary because he thought that she had slept with a another man and conceived, as any normal person would have thought.
Matthew 1:24,25
24Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
25And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS (Yashayah).
Joseph is later told in a dream that the child Mary has is from the Holy Ghost, “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost”. and then told the name that the Messiah would be called. When he awakes he accepts what he is told and stays with Mary.
Matthew 1:21
21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS (Yashayah): for he shall save his people from their sins.
As explained early the Messiahs name was not to be called Emmanuel this was clearly talking about who he would be i.e. a “God (Power) with us”. Hes name was to be called SAVIOUR, which is Yashayah in the Hebrew, and not Jesus which is a corruption of this name.
As we read on the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, is fully explained in Matthew 1:22-23, and we are made aware that the sign would be that “a young lady of marriageable age” (i.e. one that had not slept with any man) would have a child , you can compare the scriptures below.
Isaiah 7:14
14Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Matthew 1:22-23
22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
So we can conclude from this that Mary was in all likely hood a virgin in today’s sense of the word (and that is certainly what I believe) when she had the Messiah, even though the word virgin is not used in the Hebrew women would have often re-framed from sexual relations.
So this answers the virgin birth of Christ (Messiah), i.e.
1- Mary was not a virgin when she had the Messiah, or was she?
The answer is that it is highly likely she was a Virgin, i.e. no man had slept with Mary before she had the Messiah as she said in Luke 1:34 she “know not a man”, so there is no virgin birth fallacy.
The second claim is that Mary was a virgin all her life, is this true? lets see.
We can answer this question immediately just by reading the last verse in Matthew 1.
Which reads
25And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
It says Joseph “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son”, who we know is Yashayah. That means Joseph didn’t sleep with Mary until after she had given birth to the Messiah.
If Joseph didn’t sleep with Mary until after the birth of the Messiah, Mary was not a virgin her whole life because we can assume safely that Joseph did sleep with her.
Further proof that Marry was not a virgin after the birth of the Messiah can be found in the following scriptures below:
Matthew 12:46
46While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Matthew 13:55
55Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
Mark 6:3
3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
These scriptures prove clearly that Joseph fathered children with Mary, as the people knew the names of the Messiahs half brothers and sisters.
So in conclusion, Mary was not a virgin all her life, so to reverence her is un-biblical. Also the Messiah was conceived by the Holy Spirit and Joseph had no part in this. Also from Mary’s very own mouth she said that she had not known a man, and this can be used to prove she was an virgin when she conceived.
Peace.
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