Considering the importance of the Virgin Mary in Christianity, the historian is struck by the scarcity of supporting evidence in the New Testament. St Paul never speaks of the virginal conception. All we learn from him is that Jesus had a Jewish mother. The few gospel allusions to Jesus' family in the accounts of his public life describe him as the son of Joseph and Mary, who had four more sons and several daughters. James, head of the Jerusalem church, is called "the brother of the Lord" and "the brother of Jesus surnamed the Christ" by Paul and the contemporaneous Jewish historian Josephus.
Outside the infancy narratives, it is never suggested that Jesus was not Joseph's real son and the full brother of James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Nor does the New Testament ever state that Mary remained a virgin. In fact, Matthew seems to contradict this when reporting that Joseph abstained from "knowing" her until the birth of Jesus. The earliest source of Mary's lasting virginity is the legendary first gospel of James. From its late-second-century non-Jewish author derives also the tale that Joseph was old, a widower whose children from a former marriage were known as Jesus' brothers and sisters.
The doctrine of the virginal pregnancy is based on the accounts in Matthew and Luke. Mark and John ignore his infancy. Not even Matthew and Luke show any awareness in their chronicle of Jesus' public life of the details listed about his birth: miraculous conception, Roman census, star, magi. The infancy narratives are best understood as late additions to Matthew and Luke.
In Luke the virginal conception was announced to a girl on the point of marrying Joseph. Mary was baffled. How could she become a mother before they had come together? One may wonder whether her astonishment resulted from the knowledge that, not having reached the age of puberty, she was not yet ready for motherhood, for virgin in Jewish parlance could designate a girl too physically immature to conceive. The angel, in his answer, seems to argue that God could allow the pre-pubertal Mary to conceive just as he had caused the post-menopausal Elizabeth to become pregnant. Again in Jewish parlance, a married woman past child-bearing age was a virgin for a second time.
In some ancient Greek, Latin and Aramaic manuscripts, Matthew specifically asserts the paternity of Joseph: "Jacob begot Joseph, and Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed, begot Jesus." The same claim was made by the ancient Jewish-Christian community of the Ebionites. Finally, hostile Jewish and pagan gossip rumoured that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, and that his father was Panthera, a Roman soldier. This theory often features among feminist interpretations of the gospels.
Let us discard the extremes. Luke and Matthew stress that Jesus' conception by a virgin through the Holy Spirit outshines all other miraculous conceptions in the Bible. By placing their wonderful infancy narratives at the beginning, Matthew and Luke intended to intimate to their gentile audience that Jesus was not only the Messiah, but also God's son, not just figuratively in the Jewish sense, but really by nature. As for the role of Mary in worship, believers who are happy to base their faith on unwritten traditions can easily accommodate Marian cult with the rest of their Christianity. Indeed, the idea of a loving maternal hand suitably counterbalances for them the intimidating image of the severe male heavenly judge.
· Geza Vermes is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at Oxford. His latest book is The Nativity: History and Legend (Penguin £7.99)
Face to faith
Geza Vermes
Outside the infancy narratives, it is never suggested that Jesus was not Joseph's real son and the full brother of James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Nor does the New Testament ever state that Mary remained a virgin. In fact, Matthew seems to contradict this when reporting that Joseph abstained from "knowing" her until the birth of Jesus. The earliest source of Mary's lasting virginity is the legendary first gospel of James. From its late-second-century non-Jewish author derives also the tale that Joseph was old, a widower whose children from a former marriage were known as Jesus' brothers and sisters.
The doctrine of the virginal pregnancy is based on the accounts in Matthew and Luke. Mark and John ignore his infancy. Not even Matthew and Luke show any awareness in their chronicle of Jesus' public life of the details listed about his birth: miraculous conception, Roman census, star, magi. The infancy narratives are best understood as late additions to Matthew and Luke.
In Luke the virginal conception was announced to a girl on the point of marrying Joseph. Mary was baffled. How could she become a mother before they had come together? One may wonder whether her astonishment resulted from the knowledge that, not having reached the age of puberty, she was not yet ready for motherhood, for virgin in Jewish parlance could designate a girl too physically immature to conceive. The angel, in his answer, seems to argue that God could allow the pre-pubertal Mary to conceive just as he had caused the post-menopausal Elizabeth to become pregnant. Again in Jewish parlance, a married woman past child-bearing age was a virgin for a second time.
In some ancient Greek, Latin and Aramaic manuscripts, Matthew specifically asserts the paternity of Joseph: "Jacob begot Joseph, and Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed, begot Jesus." The same claim was made by the ancient Jewish-Christian community of the Ebionites. Finally, hostile Jewish and pagan gossip rumoured that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, and that his father was Panthera, a Roman soldier. This theory often features among feminist interpretations of the gospels.
Let us discard the extremes. Luke and Matthew stress that Jesus' conception by a virgin through the Holy Spirit outshines all other miraculous conceptions in the Bible. By placing their wonderful infancy narratives at the beginning, Matthew and Luke intended to intimate to their gentile audience that Jesus was not only the Messiah, but also God's son, not just figuratively in the Jewish sense, but really by nature. As for the role of Mary in worship, believers who are happy to base their faith on unwritten traditions can easily accommodate Marian cult with the rest of their Christianity. Indeed, the idea of a loving maternal hand suitably counterbalances for them the intimidating image of the severe male heavenly judge.
· Geza Vermes is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at Oxford. His latest book is The Nativity: History and Legend (Penguin £7.99)