The Virgin Birth Story in Matthew

Christian ministers all over the world will soon be retelling the story of the virgin birth of Jesus. It is an incredible and a beautiful story. It is told in the first two chapters of Matthew, and in Luke 1:5 through 2:40. Please read the versions in both gospels. Comparing them provides important insights.

The story in Matthew makes the assumption that Mary and Joseph live in Bethlehem, that Bethlehem was their only residence. The couple is engaged in the story, but before they are married Mary somehow becomes impregnated by the Holy Spirit. After Jesus is born, a special star rises in the east to lead wise men to the birthplace so that they can pay homage to Jesus. This star wanders around the universe.

Rumors of the birth of a Jewish king deeply worries Herod. He in fact becomes so threatened by these rumors that he orders all male children within the Bethlehem area to be killed. To escape this danger, an angel instructs Joseph to take his family to Egypt. Eventually the family leaves Egypt for Nazareth in Galilee, refusing to return to Bethlehem because of fear of Herod’s successor.

There are several historical problems with this story. The first is that it only appears in Matthew. If the gospels really were eyewitness accounts, I can’t believe that the other writers, eyewitnesses, would have missed these incredible events—wandering stars, visits by wise men, and the death of all those children. It is also important to note that Roman and Palestinian historians of the period missed these events.

The second problem is that Matthew’s story differs from Luke’s. There are in fact no similarities between the stories except for the characters. The Luke story begins by linking together the births of Jesus and John the Baptist. No similar attempt is made in Matthew. In Luke, Mary and Joseph reside in Nazareth; but, due to a worldwide census ordered by Caesar Augustus, they travel to Bethlehem because Joseph was born there. While there, Jesus is born in a stable and visited by shepherds. After the birth and Jesus’ consecration in the Temple, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus return to Nazareth. There is no mention of a wandering star, the visit of wise men, a trip to Egypt, or the murder of all those children. At minimum, one story must be wrong.

Also troubling, these stories only appear in Matthew and Luke. Paul sells the Christian story to the Gentile world, and makes no reference to a virgin birth. Can you imagine a great salesman ignoring one of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal? If God was the biological father of Jesus, Paul would have made that claim in every letter he wrote.

In addition, Mark and John do not contain virgin birth stories. John in fact strongly implies that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus (see John 6: 42-43). The same implication is found in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. Joseph is listed in each one as the father of Jesus. It is through the bloodline of Joseph that Jesus is linked to the house of David.

Most historians of the first century Christian period agree that Jesus was born in Nazareth. Why then do Matthew and Luke put this birth in Bethlehem? Simply because the prophet Micah predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2). The Jews believed that the Jewish scriptures were far more than an historical record of God’s involvement with the people of Israel. They were also a blueprint for the future. In this sense, these scriptures were about the coming Messiah. If Jesus was indeed the long awaited Jewish Messiah, he would be born in Bethlehem. Matthew and Luke invented stories to solve this problem.

The authors of Matthew and Luke also use these fictional stories to describe the identity of Jesus. That is what ancient biographies do. The genealogy in Matthew (1:1) points out that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, descending from David and Abraham to whom the messianic promises were made. Matthew also uses his virgin birth story to introduce the idea that Jesus can best be understood as the new Moses, which is the subject of next week’s blog. In a future blog, I will demonstrate how Luke uses his virgin birth story to introduce his ideas about the identity of Jesus.