The Methodist Review

CHRISTENDOM declares that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Thereby is held that Mary, the lawful wife of Joseph, without carnal knowledge of man, gave birth to her perfectly human son Jesus. Alleged universal counter-experience, and fondly dreamed fathomings of the mysteries of life's origin and transmission, may not rise up in judgment. with the belief that humanly Jesus had no father, so long as stand fast the less graspable biblical beliefs that the first woman had no mother, and the first man neither father nor mother. With Augustine,* the mysterious event and all its sufficient causes are held beyond dispute and gainsay. As, however, the softening of ad hominem arguments and the abating of faulty premises can but the more comfortingly cause to appear the ever-broadening bases by which the tops of the mountains of truth are verily upheld, it is the present aim to ask, of the Scriptures chiefly, when the idea and knowledge of the virgin-birth entered the public mind? and what evidence there is that the hostile Jews of Christ's day knew of and denied such claim? It is proposed to ask whether, upon crossing the vestibular thresholds of Matthew and Luke, gospels penned from sixty to eighty years after the events they narrate, a torch is not handed us the rays of which set Jesus's being and life in a light had by none who knew him in the ministering days of

"Hoc pie credimus, hoc firmissime retinemus, natum Christum de Spiritu Sancto ex virgine Maria."-Sermo li.

1-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VIII.

his flesh save Mary? whether in order to put ourselves in their places, know their struggles, and feel their infirmities we must not humbly empty ourselves of much knowledge gained solely from later events?

With expectation of the Messiah-the Prophet like unto Moses (Deut. xviii, 15, John i, 45), the eternal Son of David (2 Sam. vii, 11, 12, Psa. lxxxix, 3, ƒ., Luke i, 32, 33), the Redeemer of his people (Isa. lix, 20, Luke xxiv, 21)—glows page on page of Holy Writ. That, however, he was to be humanly fatherless is not so apparent. The clearest form of the expectation, namely, that he was to be virgin-born, is claimed to be read but once (Isa. vii, 14). Leaving until later a consideration of this passage, the records will be applied to the following allinclusive, mutually exclusive theories.

Either virgin-birth was a feature of the Messianic expectation or it was not. The first theory divides itself into (1) an expectation B. C., which may be (a) indefinite, or (b) personally definite; and (2) a credential A. D.

An indefinite anticipation of this kind must have left its deep impress upon life, both public and private. A keen lookout for this most unique and vital event in the life of the Jew and the race must (1) have called forth some official method for clearly discerning this mark in the eagerly awaited Messiah. Such alone could prevent fraud on the part of intentional deceivers and imposition on the part of guilty maidens seeking to justify their condition; such alone could screen the selected virgin from public scorn and the arm of the law. But, while officials strained their eyes to sight the new moon, no such official watch is known or hinted in this case. At least such was not on hand to deter Joseph from granting Mary leave to withdraw, and all Jerusalem was surprised by the strangers' rumor of the birth of David's eternal heir. Further, besides the doors for fraud and vice thus opened upon society, such an indefinite anticipation (2) could have been no less blighting upon maidens of piety just in proportion as they coveted the blessing-if a blessing they could esteem it. If every maiden having such holy wish, especially those espoused to royal heirs, procrastinated the wedding-march to her husband's house until all hope of a virgin-birth had died by expiration of time, the line of David must early have become extinct.

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The Methodist Review, المجلد 52;المجلد 74