-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Why was a virgin birth necessary?
- Thread starter logician
- Start date
Smoke
Done here.
No, there isn't, and it might be significant that the Ebionites didn't believe in the Virgin Birth. The Ebionites didn't see Jesus as a God-Man, either.
I doubt that we could say for certain where the legend came from. Personally, I think the theory that Jesus was illegitimate and the legend was cooked up as a sort of cover for that fact is the most fun theory, but it doesn't seem particularly likely. More probably, after Christians (or at least some of them) had come to believe in the divinity of Jesus, they also imagined that there must have been some such miraculous circumstance connected to his conception.
It was important because it was prophesied about in at least one book in the Old Testament.
Smoke
Done here.
Not really. If you go back and read the "prophecies" cited by Matthew in context, you'll be astonished at the way he misuses the Jewish scriptures.
Im an Atheist
Biologist
I think your getting the term "Virgin Birth" mixed up. In my religious studies, it quoted that Mary was a virgin. However, this means she was pure, hence she was chosen by God to have Jesus.
Smoke
Done here.
No, the traditional Christian belief is that she was literally a virgin. Religious studies classes often reinterpret such beliefs to make them meaningful to people who don't believe they're literally true.
Im an Atheist
Biologist
Explain to me how a virgin got pregnant then, becuase it seems pretty impossible to me. Especially as back in those days they had no needles, IVF ETC
Smoke
Done here.
i didn't say I believe it; I said it's the traditional Christian belief. Those who believe it say it was a miracle.
There never was such a thing as a child that has been born without male semen having been introduced into the uterus of the Mother, or into the massive dormant female egg: ( Massive revelant to the minute living male sperm).
The first time that the word virgin was introduced into the Bible, was when it was translated to Latin by the church that was founded on the teachings of the Anti-Christ which refuses to acknowledge that Jesus came as human being, born of human parents and was the first fruits chosen from the body of mankind, the first of many brothers who are gathered as joint heirs to the throne of Godhead within the creation, united with Jesus the first fruits and the cornerstone to the new creation that is the glorious and brilliant Light Temple of God that will supercede the old tent of God which is the body of mankind who is currently the Most High in the ever evolving creation.
Last edited:
Kodanshi
StygnosticA
No, the word used (almah) actually means young woman and was misinterpreted as virgin, hence why redactors had to associate Jesus with a virgin birth to fulfil the prophecy.
Later, it made sense to others because of Adam & Eve: their sin causes everyone to be born into Original Sin because they are the products of sex. Accordingly, for a pure and sinless birth Jesus needed to come to this earth without his parents having sex.
Comicaze247
See the previous line
To help convert the Roman army better. They worshipped a god named Mithras who was born of virgin birth on the winter solstice. Apparently just a "coincidence" with how Jesus was born.
And not to mention, how better to make a woman more "holy" looking if she'd never had sex?
linwood
Well-Known Member
Are you saying Jesus was a chimp?
Free4all
It's all about the blood
A female chimp, at that?
lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
Or they reinterpret them back to what they originally meant.
I'm not disputing that the "traditional" Christian view is that Mary has never had sex before. That doesn't mean that's what the writers of the gospels believed.
It's the "traditional" Christian view that God is a trinity. Yet religious studies classes aren't just catering to religious liberals when they point out that the doctrine of the trinity isn't actually in the bible.
lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
That sounds about right. As we all know, sex is inherently dirty. :sarcastic
But is there evidence that the emphasis on Mary's so-called "virginity" coincided with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire?
I know that there's evidence that the crucifix became a prominent symbol during the Crusades, because Rome needed people who would be willing to kill and die for their religion, so they started to emphasize the "sacrifice" of Jesus as a symbol of love. Before that, the theology focused on the miracle of the resurrection, which is much more life affirming.
Ah, Christianity... :angel2:
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
Well, the way I see it, if Jesus had been the natural child of Mary and Joseph, He would have been the son of Joseph, not the son of God. He may have been able to do miracles, but they wouldn't really have been His miracles because He wouldn't have been divine. As God's own Son, He was divine. He could do what He did through His own power. And as to why Mary was a virgin, I suppose I'd have to say that when she conceived, she was betrothed to Joseph. She would not have been worthy to marry Joseph had she not been a virgin.
