Why Jesus Had to Be Born of a Virgin
It’s Christmastime again; the time where (some of us) remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The narrative is all-too-familiar: a young virgin is espoused to a young man but before they were actually married (as we westerners conceive of marriage, that is), the young girl is found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. His birth was first announced by angels to shepherds in fields nearby; a couple of years later, some wise guys came trekking across the desert to worship the child, and to bring him an interesting assortment of gifts.
We commemorate the annual event through the signing of ages-old songs called “carols” with such lyrics as:
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace— Silent Night
So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby;
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.— What Child Is This?
Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.— Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
That Jesus was the “offspring of a virgin’s womb” is almost cliché in the western world, and as my late mentor, Ken Hutcherson (who died ten years ago today, incidentally), used to say “Familiarity breeds ignorance.” Have you ever stopped to ask, “Why did Jesus have to be born of a virgin?”Just two nights ago, I posed this question to a large group of teenagers from our church who were meeting in our home.
“Because Scripture prophesied it,” was the first, and arguably best response. Indeed, Isaiah 7:14, written some 700 years before Christ’s birth, foretold the event in no uncertain terms. The virgin birth would be a sign to us that God’s long-awaited deliverer had come to earth. But there’s a whole lot more to this than many people realize. God didn’t just give Isaiah an arbitrary prophecy to deliver to the people of Judah; God actually orchestrated history such that He made it so that the absolutely impossible had to happen.
Recognizing the Messiah
Throughout the Old Testament, God gave His people signposts along the way so that they would know for certain when the promised Messiah had come. The first such signpost appears in the third chapter of the Bible:
The Seed of a Woman
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.”
— Genesis 3:15
Do you see it? Do you see the virgin birth here? If you started reading at Genesis 1:1, this would not likely strike you as a remarkable passage. After all, every man is born of a woman, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is context.
Pull up a concordance and look at the places where “seed” is used to refer to offspring; note from whom the seed is said to come:
Genesis 9:9 — Abraham
Genesis 12:7 — Abraham
Genesis 13:15, 16 — Abraham
Genesis 15:3, 5, 13, 18 — Abraham
Genesis 16:10 — Hagar (Abraham’s mistress)
Genesis 17:7–10, 12 — Abraham
Genesis 17:19 — Isaac
Genesis 19:34 — Lot’s daughters
Genesis 21:12–13, 17, 18 — Abraham
Genesis 24:7 — Abraham
Genesis 24:60 — Rebekah
Genesis 26:3, 4, 24 — Isaac
Genesis 28:13, 14 — Jacob
This list is far from comprehensive—this is just the tip of the iceberg—but hopefully it gives you enough visibility into what’s going on. Israel was very much a patriarchal culture; so aside from a sprinkling of “seed” referencing women, the overwhelming majority of those bearing “seed” are men. The genealogies of Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 especially drive this point home. After reading through the entire Old Testament, our perspective on Genesis 3:15, at the very least, should be “There’s something special going on here.”
The promise of the Messiah was not given to Adam—it was given to Eve, and to one of her seed.
The Seed of Abraham
In Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, God promised Abraham that “all nations would be blessed through [Abraham}.” Note that this isn’t just talking about his physical descendants, but rather all the nations. That tells you something—it’s not all about biology, but we would know the Messiah because He would be descended from Abraham.
The Seed of Isaac
Genesis 21:12 shows us that of Abraham’s two sons (Ishmael and Isaac), the firstborn was not to be the ancestor of the Messiah, but rather the second-born child—the son of the promise, Isaac. So the Messiah could not have come from the Arabs.
The Seed of Jacob (Israel)
Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob, and once again, the firstborn did not receive the blessing of being the ancestor of the Messiah (because he sold his birthright to Jacob for a pot of stew). So, the Messiah would not be an Edomite, He would be an Israelite.
Of the Tribe of Judah
Of Israel’s (Jacob’s) twelve sons, it was not the firstborn who inherited the blessing of being the ancestor of the Messiah. No, it was his fourth-born son by Leah (Genesis 35:23), from whom the “scepter shall not depart” (Genesis 49:10).
Of the House of David
When Saul, the first king of Israel forfeited his throne, God chose the youngest of Jesse’s eight songs to be His anointed over the nation of Israel (Jeremiah 23:5).
Note what God told Samuel to say to David:
And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” — 2 Samuel 7:16
And how about what God had to say through the prophet Jeremiah:
For thus says Yahweh, ‘David shall not have a man cut off from sitting on the throne of the house of Israel; — Jeremiah 33:17 (see also Jeremiah 33:20–22)
So far, God has shown us in His Word that the Messiah must be a virgin-born descendant of Abraham (making him a Hebrew, since Abraham was a descendant of Eber…Genesis 11:16–26), a descendant of Israel (making him an Israelite), and a descendant of Judah (making him a Jew). The Messiah would furthermore be a King, since He would be descended from David.
Oh yeah, and the Messiah also had to be a descendant of Solomon (2 Samuel 7:12, 13; remember that Solomon built the temple that David designed).
Now pay attention, because things are going to start to get really interesting.
Matthew’s Genealogy
Matthew wrote his gospel to demonstrate that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, the rightful heir to the throne of Israel. To prove that Jesus was the promised one, he traces his genealogy back to Abraham, the man of promise. To prove that He was the rightful heir to the throne of Israel, he includes David’s lineage in the middle of his list of names. Picking up with David, here’s what we see:
David
Solomon
Rehoboam
Abijah
Asa
Jehoshaphat
Joram
Ahaziah*
Joash*
Amaziah*
Jotham
Ahaz
Hezekiah
Manasseh
Amon
Josiah
Jehoiakim (Eliakim)**
Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, Coniah) <== STOP. WAT?
Shealtiel
Zerubbabel
Abihud
Eliakim
Azor
Zadok
Achim
Eliud
Eleazar
Matthan
Jacob
Joseph
Jesus?
Notes:
* Omitted from Matthew 1, see 1 Chronicles 3:11, 12
** Omitted from Matthew 1, see 2 Chronicles 36:4
I’m sure you noticed #18, Jeconiah, aka Jehoiachin, or Coniah. This guy breaks the whole genealogy—he makes it impossible for Christ to have been the biological son of Joseph (#30). Why? Because of what God said through Jeremiah:
Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?Or is he an undesirable vessel?
Why have he and his seed been hurled out
And cast into a land that they had not known?
O land, land, land,
Hear the word of Yahweh!
Thus says Yahweh,
‘Write this man down childless,
A man who will not succeed in his days;
For no man of his seed will succeed
Sitting on the throne of David
Or ruling again in Judah.’”
— Jeremiah 22:28–30
So how is it that Jesus can claim the throne of Israel when he’s a descendant of Coniah, whose line was cut off?
Luke’s Genealogy
Luke, a gentile disciple of Christ who wrote to his predominately Greek audience, wrote his gospel to demonstrate that Jesus is the “perfect man” (which was kind of a big deal in first century Greek culture). To demonstrate that Jesus is fully man, Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam. It’s not necessary, for our purposes here, to enumerate all 42 names between David and Joseph (Mary’s husband), but here are a few of note:
David
Nathan
[…snip…]
Levi
Matthat
Eli
Joseph
Jesus?
Whoa! Wait a minute! What’s going on here? Matthew said that Jesus was the descendant of David through Solomon, but Luke says that he’s descended from David through Nathan. Have we unearthed a contradiction in the Scriptures?
Uhhh, no. Nice try, though. Remember, every person born on this planet has two parents—a mother and a father.
Resolving the Dilemma
Matthew’s genealogy traces Jesus’ legal ancestry. How do we know this?
The Messiah had to be a descendant of David in order to be the King of Israel
Kingship is passed from the King to his chosen son
Matthew’s genealogy lists (most of) the kings of united Israel and Judah
Matthew wrote about Jesus’ birth from the perspective of Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23)
But even though Joseph was not, and could not have been, the biological father of Joseph, he was the legal father (via adoption) of Joseph. As the adopted son, Jesus inherited all of the legal rights of a natural-born son. Therefore, Jesus was legally the rightful heir to the throne of Israel.
Luke, on the other hand, traces Jesus blood ancestry, which descends from David (and ultimately from Adam). How do we know this?
The Messiah had to be fully man. Just as sin was brought into the world through one man, Adam (Romans 5:12), likewise, redemption could only be brought about by a man (Romans 5: 15-29; Hebrews 2:14–18).
Luke wrote about Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective (Luke 1:26–58).
Every natural-born person born has two human parents, and Matthew already covered Jesus paternal progenitors.
When, in Luke 3:23, he mentions that Jesus “…was supposed the son of Joseph, the son of Eli,” Eli would be Mary’s husband, Joseph’s father-in-law.
Isn’t God amazing? He made promises to Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David, painted Himself into a corner by cutting off David’s line at Jeconiah, only to pull the ultimate “Neener neener” by orchestrating the impossible—the virgin conception of a descendant of David who was betrothed to a royal descendant of David who would be the child’s adoptive father.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be repaid to him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. — Romans 11:33–36
Merry Christmas.