Did Matthew Invent the Virgin Birth?

A popular misconception about the Nativity

The virginal conception is only weakly attested within the New Testament. It is found nowhere in Paul, in our earliest gospel, Mark, or the fourth gospel, John.

Where and when then did the idea that Jesus was born of a virgin arise?

One proposal which is popular online is that Matthew can be credited with this theological innovation. Reading the Greek text of Isaiah, this is what he found:

‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel’ (7:14)

Yet there is a fly in the ointment. In the Hebrew original, it does not explicitly say that a virgin will conceive. The word there is almah, which could refer to a young woman or a maiden, not a virgin or betulah.

Thus it is said that Matthew, reading a Greek translation of the Hebrew Isaiah, concocted the idea of a virgin birth based on a mistranslation; he mistook Isaiah’s ‘young woman’ for a ‘virgin’, and so created the myth of the virginal conception.

This theory has been popularised, among others, by Richard Dawkins. In The God Delusion, he notes that “this one translator’s slip was to be wildly inflated and give rise to the whole preposterous legend of Jesus’ mother being a virgin!”

And it is not only polemicists who have made this argument. When Hebrew Bible Professor, Francesca Stravrakapoulou, was asked on day-time television what biblical literalists should do with this striking piece of information, she replied, “Learn Hebrew!” I suspect that she would wish to say the same to Matthew himself.

To lay my own cards on the table, I do not think that Isaiah 7:14 is a predictive prophecy of the Christ. It is widely agreed that the young woman is serving as a ‘sign’ is her own generation. This is not to say that Christians cannot read the ‘young woman/virgin’ in reference to Mary, but only that it was not in Isaiah’s mind.

Moreover, it does not seem to me that the Isaiah passage is referring to a woman who is a virgin at the moment of conception. There is no indication that young women will conceive in anything but the normal way. The reason why it is a sign to Ahaz is not because of the supernatural mode of conception, but because of its timing.

Isaiah goes on immediately to say: “He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.” This timing is the the force of the ‘sign’ the child will be to Ahaz.

Nevertheless, following other mainstream scholars (e.g. Goodacre here), I am highly suspicious of the narrative that Matthew has fabricated the virginal conception on the basis of this verse. In this piece, I want to explain to explain three reasons why.

Does Matthew Narrate a Virgin Birth?

My first quibble with the idea that Matthew invented the virginal birth on the basis of Isaiah is that there is not a consensus that Matthew does narrate a virgin birth.

Remarkably, aside from his quotation of Isaiah 7:14, Matthew tells us very little about how Mary conceived Jesus. He notes that the birth was ‘from the Holy Spirit’, yet to an ancient Jewish reader, this would not necessarily imply the non-involvement of a human father. He also notes that Joseph did not have relations with Mary until after she had given birth – yet this simply confirms expectations surrounding marriage.

There is therefore a minority reading of Matthew’s text that Matthew does not actually make clear that Mary was a virgin. According to this reading, the reason why Matthew is interested in Isaiah 7:14 is not because it describes a parthenos giving birth. Rather, his interest lies in the term Emmanuel, which he translates as ‘God with us’ and returns to in an inclusio at the end of his gospel (cf. 28:20). In quoting Isaiah, Matthew is setting us up to see Jesus as God’s presence throughout his narrative.

On this minority reading, Matthew would be read something like this: Mary is found to be pregnant with Jesus from someone unknown; Joseph (rightly) wants to divorce her, but is assured that it is ‘through the Holy Spirit’ that she has conceived – that God has done a work in her life – and therefore Joseph continues his marital plans.