Virgin birth of Jesus

==Texts==
In the entire Christian corpus, the virgin birth is found only in the [[Gospel of Matthew]] and the [[Gospel of Luke]].{{sfn|Hurtado|2005|p=318}} The two agree that Mary's husband was named Joseph, that he was of the [[Davidic line]], and that he played no role in Jesus's divine conception, but beyond this they are very different.{{sfn|Robinson|2009|p=111}}{{sfn|Lincoln|2013|p=99}} Matthew has no [[Census of Quirinius|census]], shepherds, or [[Presentation of Jesus at the Temple|presentation in the temple]], and implies that Joseph and Mary are living in Bethlehem at the time of the birth, while Luke has no [[Biblical Magi|magi]], [[flight into Egypt]] or [[Massacre of the Innocents|massacre of the infants]], and states that Joseph lives in Nazareth.{{sfn|Robinson|2009|p=111}}

Matthew underlines the virginity of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]] by references to the [[Book of Isaiah]] (using the 2,200 year old Greek translation in the [[Septuagint]], rather than the only 1,300 year old mostly Hebrew [[Masoretic Text]]) and by his narrative statement that Joseph had no sexual relations with her until after the birth (a choice of words which leaves open the possibility that they did have relations after that).{{sfn|Morris|1992|pp=31–32}}
Luke introduces Mary as a virgin, describes her puzzlement at being told she will bear a child despite her lack of sexual experience, and informs the reader that this pregnancy is to be effected through God's [[Holy Spirit]].{{sfn|Carroll|2012|p=39}}

There is a serious debate as to whether Luke's nativity story is an original part of his gospel.{{sfn|Zervos|2019|p=78}} Chapters 1 and 2 are written in a style quite different from the rest of the gospel, and the dependence of the birth narrative on the Greek Septuagint is absent from the remainder.{{sfn|BeDuhn|2015|p=170}} There are strong Lukan motifs in Luke 1–2, but differences are equally striking—Jesus's identity as "son of David", for example, is a prominent theme of the birth narrative, but not in the rest of the gospel.{{sfn|Dunn|2003|pp=341-343}} In the early part of the 2nd century, the gnostic theologian [[Marcion]] produced a version of Luke lacking these two chapters, and although he is generally accused of having cut them out of a longer text more like our own, genealogies and birth narratives are also absent from Mark and John.{{sfn|BeDuhn|2015|p=170}}