The Historical Evidence for the Virgin Birth

by Vincent Taylor, B.D. (Lond.)

Clarendon Press

Oxford

1920

Contents

Preface

This book is intended to be a literary and critical examination of the historical evidence for the Virgin Birth. It is not the writer's desire to discuss the evidence from the point of view of an advocate; with a view, that is to say, of obtaining an uncompromising verdict. His aim is rather to trace and to define the earliest Christian tradition upon the subject, and to show the limits and the bearings of the historical question.

A limited aim such as this ought not to require much justification. If, however, justification is needed, it is not far to seek.

Much of the literature which treats of the Virgin Birth is controversial in point of origin if not in form, and, in the nature of the case, it could not have been otherwise. Controversial literature has, of course, a necessary place in the search for truth. Nevertheless, it is exposed to serious perils, especially when such a subject as that of the Virgin Birth is discussed. It is not always easy, for example, to avoid an arbitrary treatment of the New Testament, and to prevent philosophic or dogmatic presuppositions from determining purely critical questions. Few will deny that the discussion of the Virgin Birth has suffered in these directions, and that, as a consequence, the problem remains in considerable confusion. Not only has the evidence been variously estimated, but there are the widest differences of opinion as to what the evidence really is. Neither side has succeeded in convincing the other, and very many students of the question preserve an attitude of suspended judgement.

The point which it is important to make is that, if any escape is to be made from the present impasse, the problem must be approached in another way. Doctrinal presuppositions must be resolutely laid aside; there must be a common desire to ascertain the true facts of the evidence, whatever the results may be. Not that dogmatic considerations have no place in the problem! It is part of the conclusion reached in this book that in the end [pg iv] dogmatic considerations do determine the issue. But it must be “in the end”; not at the beginning, nor in the middle.

It may be that the writer has not himself escaped the perils to which he has referred. He can only say that no pains have been spared to achieve this purpose. It is true that the problem has been faced with a conviction that, while truly man, Jesus was much more than man as we know him to be. But this is not a presupposition which colours the evidence. On the contrary, it is the one point of view which recognizes that there is a problem to be solved. If our Lord was a prophet, and no more, there is no real difficulty; no one would defend the Virgin Birth upon such terms. The question becomes a living issue only when Jesus is believed to be more than man.

In Chapter I the New Testament evidence outside the First and Third Gospels is discussed. On the question of the attitude of the Fourth Evangelist to the Virgin Birth—a question as difficult as it is interesting—the writer has been glad to accept and to work out a striking suggestion made by Dr. E. F. Scott (The Fourth Gospel, its Purpose and Theology).

One reason for allotting three chapters to the Third Gospel is the complexity of the Lukan problem. The theory which is outlined in Chapter IV is one which has not yet received sufficient consideration. The alternative, in the opinion of the writer, is to regard the Miraculous Conception as a “necessary stone in the structure” of Lk. i, ii. It is the difficulties mentioned in Chapter II which have prevented him from taking this view. The writer is convinced that St. Luke believed and taught the Virgin Birth. Nevertheless, the critical difficulties are such that it has not been found possible to accept this view in the form in which it is generally held.

It is well to remember that he who states a theory in connexion with such problems contributes to their solution, whether his theory stands the test of time or not. Even in the case of failure the possibilities are reduced and a by-path is revealed as such. As an illustration of this, reference may be made to the view which ascribes the Virgin Birth tradition in Lk. i, ii to an unknown and later writer.

One chapter (Chapter V) has been assigned to the First Gospel. The exposition there given is one which is widely held [pg v] in this country, but an attempt has been made to emphasize the unique character of the Evangelist's standpoint, which, it is believed, is the key to the textual problem of Mt. i. 16. The textual problem is treated in an Appendix to the chapter.

It may seem strange that in Chapter VI no decided opinion is expressed for or against the Virgin Birth. The justification for this position is the fact that, in the end, the question becomes one of Theology, and that to attack the theological problem would be to go beyond the limited aim which the present work has in view.

One result of the investigation is that the documentary evidence for the Virgin Birth is found to be earlier than “negative” criticism has allowed. But to accept this conclusion is only to be brought face to face with the question which the modern New Testament student cannot escape. “Whence come the sources upon which the Evangelists drew?” At first sight the problem seems hopeless. To recover and to describe with objectivity of statement the several sources which the Evangelists employed is a task beset with difficulties: to penetrate still further might well seem impossible. If, however, the problem is faced bravely, with an open mind and an eagerness to learn, it may be that as time passes there will be cause to rejoice over real progress made. The journey is not the plunge into the dark which it might be thought to be. If, indeed, it will bring men nearer to the Jesus of history, it is a quest which cannot be refused, however great the difficulties may be.

In a subject such as this, certain things have necessarily to be taken for granted. The author of the First Gospel is regarded as unknown; accordingly, he is spoken of as the First Evangelist or as St. “Matthew”. The writer of the Fourth Gospel is also referred to as the Fourth Evangelist, the question of authorship being left open. St. Mark and St. Luke, the companions of St. Paul, are assumed to be the authors of the Second and Third Gospels respectively; St. Luke is also believed to be the author of the Acts. The reader who does not accept these views may mentally substitute such phrases as the Second and Third Evangelists wherever St. Mark and St. Luke are mentioned. Such abbreviations as Mt., Mk., Lk., Jn. are always meant to refer to the Gospels, not to their authors.

It only remains for the writer to express his deep sense of gratitude to those to whose knowledge and help he is debtor. How much he owes to earlier workers in the field will be sufficiently evident. It has proved by no means an easy task to weigh and to differentiate between opposing views, and the writer is not unmindful of his temerity, in certain places, in dissenting from opinions supported by justly honoured names.

He desires particularly to speak of the generous encouragement he received in his task from the late Dr. Sanday. Dr. Sanday had made a provisional promise to write a brief introduction to the present work. His lamented death has prevented the carrying out of this promise, and for the lack of such an introduction the book is so much the poorer.

The writer further wishes to express his gratitude to his former tutor, the Rev. Prof. A. S. Geden, M.A., D.D., and to the Rev. J. Walthew Simister, for their kindness in reading the typescript, and in suggesting improvements, and also to the Rev. Prof. F. Bertram Clogg, M.A., for his valued assistance in the reading of the proof-sheets.

Vincent Taylor.

Bath, September, 1920.

Abbreviations

DCG. Hastings's Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (1906-8).

EB. Encyclopaedia Biblica (1899-1903).

Evan. Da-Meph. F. C. Burkitt's Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe (1904).

GHD. V. H. Stanton's The Gospels as Historical Documents, Parts I and II (1903-9).

GHT. F. C. Burkitt's The Gospel History and its Transmission (1906).

Gr. ii. J. H. Moulton's Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. II (1919).

HDB. Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible (1898-1904).

HJ. The Hibbert Journal.

HS. Horae Synopticae, Sir John C. Hawkins (2nd ed., 1909).

ICC. The International Critical Commentary.

INT. Jülicher's Introduction to the New Testament, Eng. Tr. (1904); J. Moffatt's An Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament (3rd ed., 1918).

Proleg. Vol. I of J. H. Moulton's Grammar of New Testament Greek (3rd ed., 1908).

SH. Sanday and Headlam's Commentary on The Epistle to the Romans (ICC., 1895).

Th-Gr. Thayer-Grimm's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1905).

VGT. Moulton and Milligan's The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, Parts I to III (1914-18).

Chapter I. The Virgin Birth And The New Testament Outside The First And Third Gospels

Outside the First and Third Gospels there is no direct reference to the Virgin Birth in the New Testament. There are passages which have been said to imply a knowledge of the doctrine, but, for particularity of statement, none of them can be compared with Mt. i. 18-25 and Lk. i. 34 f. This fact must be our justification in the present chapter for treating together the New Testament Books outside these two Gospels.

The inquiry is mainly a study in silence; it is for that reason both difficult and complicated.

Dr. Sanday has expressed considerable distrust in the argument from silence (cf. The Criticism, of the Fourth Gospel, pp. 33-41). He quotes a striking passage from Dr. Drummond's Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (p. 157 f.), in which reference is made to Theophilus of Antioch, who, in a defence of Christianity, relates nothing about Christ Himself, and maintains a remarkable silence concerning the Gospels. The quotation ends with the words: “We may learn from these curious facts that it is not correct to say that a writer knows nothing of certain things, simply because he had not occasion to refer to them in his only extant writing: or even because he does not mention them when his subject would seem naturally to lead him to do so.” Dr. Sanday has two main objections to the way in which the argument from silence is often handled.

“(1) The critic does not ask himself what is silent—what extent of material.... And (2) experience shows that the argument is often most fallacious” (op. cit., p. 35).

Nothing can be lost in considering this opinion at the outset of our inquiry. In the connexion in which it is urged, it has very great justification. Dr. Sanday is referring to the paucity of references to the Gospels in the second century previous to [pg 002] 170 a.d. The real question is, he says, “What is the relation which the extant evidence bears to the whole body of that which once existed, and how far can we trust the inferences drawn from it?” The available literature is confessedly small. “If we take the whole extant Christian literature between the years 130 and 170 a.d., it would not fill more than a thin octavo volume, and by far the greater part of that is taken up with external controversy” (ib., p. 39).

The caution suggested by these words is distinctly healthy. It may be questioned, however, whether Dr. Sanday's point of view would apply quite so well as regards the alleged silence of so many New Testament Books with reference to the Virgin Birth. There are good reasons for this opinion.

(1) The existing New Testament Writings represent the best Christian literature of the period which they cover. No one would compare them in this respect with the extant works of the first seven decades of the second century.

(2) While not exhaustive in their treatment, the Gospels are faithful to the outstanding events in the life of Jesus.

(3) The Epistles are rich in doctrinal teaching. Occasional in point of origin, they impinge again and again upon the great doctrines of the Christian Faith. The Incarnation and the Person of Christ especially are central.

If, then, very many New Testament Writings are found to be silent as regards the Virgin Birth, the silence is not one which can be ignored. It may in part be explained, but it must not be explained away. If it exists, it is not a silence which can be regarded with equanimity; it must be significant, and no pains can be spared in trying to understand that significance.

We believe, then, that the argumentum ex silentio has a valid place in our inquiry. All the more, therefore, must we consider what the possibilities of silence are. Obviously, silence may be consistent with knowledge of a fact or lack of knowledge. But that is not all. If it implies knowledge, it may mean tacit acceptance of the fact, tacit rejection, or comparative indifference. Lack of knowledge, on the other hand, may be explained by special circumstances, or by the view that the alleged fact is untrue.

In treating the New Testament Books outside the First and [pg 003] Third Gospels, our first task must be to determine whether their silence is complete. Where this is the case, we have to try, so far as we can, to interpret the silence. Each stage is, however, a further step into the unknown, and must therefore be taken with increasing care and caution.

I. St. Paul

We begin with St. Paul, the earliest New Testament writer, and the author of ten, if not thirteen, Epistles. Several passages have been quoted from his writings, in support of the view that the Virgin Birth tradition was known to him. Among these are Gal. iv. 4, Rom. i. 3, and passages in which St. Paul speaks of Christ as the Second Adam, notably Rom. v. 12-15 and 1 Cor. xv. 47.

Gal. iv. 4 f. reads as follows: But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. It is most improbable that there is here any reference to the Virgin Birth, or even any indication that the doctrine is known to St. Paul. The phrase “born of a woman” is one that is used naturally of an ordinary human birth (cf. Job xiv. 1; and Mt. xi. 11 (Lk. vii. 28) “among them that are born of women”). The determining consideration is, however, the argument of Gal. iv. 1-7. St. Paul is there working out the figure of the heir who is yet a minor (verses 1, 2). While we were children, he argues, we were in bondage (verse 3). But, when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son to redeem men from the law. To accomplish this purpose, the Son must needs make Himself one with those He came to deliver. Like them He must be “born under the law”; like them He must be “born of a woman”. The one clause asserts His position as a child of the Jewish race; the other declares the reality of His humanity. There is not the slightest suggestion of a miraculous birth.[1] Indeed, the more natural impression [pg 004] made by the words is that of a birth common to all the sons of men. If St. Paul had wished to avoid giving that impression, he could have done so with ease, since he was perfectly familiar with the distinction between γυνή (woman) and παρθένος (virgin) (cf. 1 Cor. vii. 34).

Rom. i. 3 f. reads: “... his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.” Here the thought of the Virgin Birth is said to lie implicit in the opening words of the passage (cf. Orr, The Virgin Birth of Christ, pp. 119 ff.; also Knowling, Testimony of St. Paul to Christ, p. 313; and Sweet, The Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ, p. 237 n.). Again, the exegesis cannot be allowed. St. Paul's words state an antithesis; they speak of the Son from two standpoints, that of the body and that of the spirit (SH., Rom., p. 7). “According to the flesh”, He was “born (γενομένον) of the seed of David”, but, “according to the spirit of holiness”, He was designated (ὁρισθέντος) Son of God “by the resurrection of the dead”. It is very difficult to think that the antithesis would have been stated in this way, if the Apostle had been thinking of the Virgin Birth. “Born of the seed of David” contains no reference to the doctrine. The Divine Sonship, indeed, is not mentioned until the following clause, and there it is said to be predicated, not in the Virgin Birth, but in the Resurrection. Without pressing the view that “according to the flesh born of the seed of David” implies an ordinary human birth, we may certainly claim that the Miraculous Conception is a thought entirely foreign to the passage.

A further implication of the doctrine has been found in St. Paul's thought of the Second Adam (Rom. v. 12-21, 1 Cor. [pg 005] xv. 44-9). In Dissertations (new ed., p. 11), Dr. Gore writes: “What we can maintain, with great boldness, is that St. Paul's conception of the ‘Second Adam’ postulates His miraculous birth” (cf. Box, The Virgin Birth of Jesus, p. 150). In a question of this kind, we must distinguish between what the doctrine of the “Second Adam” may or may not “postulate” in our own minds, and what St. Paul's thoughts may have been. Certainly he gives us no reason to suppose that the Virgin Birth was in the background of his mind when he wrote Rom. v. 12-21.[2] There would be as much justification, if not more, for the contrary suggestion. So far as 1 Cor. xv. 44-9 is concerned—(verse 47 reads: “The second man is of heaven”)—the reference is to the Resurrection, not the Incarnation.[3]

None of these passages is sufficient to show that St. Paul was acquainted with the Virgin Birth tradition, nor can any others be cited. This fact is the more remarkable when we call to mind the great Pauline passages which bear upon the Incarnation. With the closest scrutiny, not one of them gives us reason to think that the Apostle knew of the Virgin Birth. This is true of the great Christological passage of Phil. ii. 5-11, and also of the well-known words of 2 Cor. viii. 9. Most significant in this connexion are Phil. ii. 7 (“Being made in the likeness of man”) and Rom. viii. 3 (which speaks of the Son as sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh”). These passages are important because they clearly imply a difference between the humanity of Christ and ordinary humanity. This difference—indicated by the word “likeness” (ὁμοίωμα)—is certainly not a difference in mode of origin. Its character is manifest in Rom. viii. 3; it lies in the sinlessness and moral perfection of Jesus.[4] There is no indication that the Apostle is thinking of anything further, and the [pg 006] same is true of Phil. ii. 7. Viewing the passages as a whole, we must conclude that, not only is St. Paul completely silent as to the Virgin Birth, but that he is silent just where his silence is most difficult to understand, if he knew of the tradition.

Can we go further, and say that St. Paul did not know of the doctrine? Short of a hard and fast conclusion, we are at liberty to state what would seem to be the probabilities of the case; and as regards these we can have little hesitation. It is reasonable to urge that St. Paul would have phrased his references to the Incarnation somewhat differently, if he had known of the Virgin Birth, and that, on the whole, his words are best explained by presuming his ignorance of the tradition.

W. C. Allen has suggested that St. Paul's silence may have been due to reasons of prudence. He may have thought that the tradition would prove “a great stumbling-block to the progress of Christianity, and a continual source of wounded feeling for the reverence of Christians for the Person of their Master” (ICC., St. Mt., p. 20). It is possible that this argument might go some way to explain the absence of direct allusions to the Virgin Birth in St. Paul's writings. It might cover his failure to employ the tradition as “an argument for Christianity in his preaching to the Gentiles”. But, assuredly, the theory is stretched to breaking-point, if it is made to cover the absence of the slightest indication that the doctrine was present to St. Paul's mind. For the most part, St. Paul's Epistles were not public manifestoes, but private letters, written to Christian communities. Moreover, they are intensely self-revealing. They permit us to appreciate how much St. Paul knew of the words and deeds of Jesus, and of the events of His earthly life. That they reveal no knowledge of the Virgin Birth is hardly to be explained by a policy of silence. Unless, on other grounds, it can be shown that the tradition was known in Apostolic circles during St. Paul's lifetime, his silence must be interpreted to mean lack of knowledge concerning it.

This conclusion, if established, would not, of course, be fatal to the historical value of the Virgin Birth tradition. Special reasons might be forthcoming to account for the later spread of the belief. The importance of St. Paul's silence is that it furnishes help in deciding when the belief became current.

A further inference, of considerable theological importance, is that the Apostle could build up a mature and consistent Christology, without any reference to, and apparently, thought of the Miraculous Conception.

II. Q

Q (Quelle, “source”) is the symbol used to denote the main documentary source, upon which the First and Third Evangelists drew, in addition to St. Mark's Gospel. As regards its character, there is difference of opinion. Some scholars identify it with the Matthaean Logia of which Papias speaks; others regard the latter as an independent collection of Messianic proof-texts. By some it is thought to have been a Gospel; by others it is looked upon as a collection of the Sayings of Jesus, with a certain element of narrative. Wellhausen dates it later than Mk., but most scholars think that it is earlier, and date it from the sixties and in some cases from the fifties.[5]

As regards the Virgin Birth, it is almost certain that Q did not contain the tradition. Harnack thinks that Q's narrative of the Baptism, with its use of Ps. ii. 7, “excludes all ideas of pre-existence and miraculous birth” (Sayings of Jesus, p. 235), and J. M. Thompson, who quotes this opinion, finds in the Baptist's question, “Art thou he that cometh?”,[6] a passage which it is “hard to reconcile ... with Lk.'s story of the Birth, as generally interpreted” (Miracles, p. 140). What is more important than either of these arguments, is the fact that neither the First nor the Third Evangelist drew a Virgin Birth tradition from Q. The presumption is that Q was silent as regards the Virgin Birth,[7] but in view of the fact that it probably contained only a small element of narrative, we ought not to say more.[8]

III. St. Mark's Gospel

In treating St. Mark's Gospel, our first task is to ask if its silence is complete. This leads at once to a discussion of Mk. vi. 3: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary...?”

Parentage among the Jews was traced on the father's side. The passage may therefore imply that Joseph was already dead. Archdeacon Allen thinks that “son of Mary” is “more naturally an allusion to the supernatural circumstances of the birth of Jesus” (ICC., St. Mt., p. 156).[9] Without going so far as this, Canon Box thinks that there is something “decidedly remarkable and unusual” in the phrase, and suggests that it is probably contemptuous (op. cit., p. 139).

However we explain the phrase, we ought not to interpret Mk. vi. 3 as implying a knowledge of the Virgin Birth on the part of the people of Nazareth. Mt. xiii. 55 and Lk. iv. 22 directly exclude this view.[10] “Who would allude to the miraculous birth of somebody as a reason for not believing in him?” (Thompson, ib., p. 138 n.).

But did the Evangelist know of the Virgin Birth? Has a knowledge of the doctrine shaped his phrasing in Mk. vi. 3? The question is complicated by critical considerations. It is suggested by several scholars that the passage, in whole or in part, is a later addition to the Second Gospel.[11] There is much to be said for this view, but, so far as our immediate purpose is concerned, we have no need to discuss it in detail. On either view—that of the critical theory just mentioned, or that which attributes the passage to the Evangelist—it is improbable that St. Mark intended to refer to the Virgin Birth, or was influenced by the doctrine. On the interpolation-hypothesis, this is obvious enough, but it is also true if Mk. vi. 3 is original. The suggestions that Joseph was already dead, and that a certain contempt [pg 009] breathes in the words, have great force. We may also note that the passage goes on to refer to the brothers and sisters of Jesus, with no suggestion that the relationship was other than full and complete. But what is most telling of all is the fact that, if Mk. vi. 3 does imply St. Mark's knowledge of the Virgin Birth, both St. “Matthew” and St. Luke, in their own narratives, have destroyed the reference. This is all the more remarkable if the First Evangelist's treatment of Mk. vi. 3 is motived by reverence for the Person of Jesus.[12] Finally, can we suppose that St. Mark would have placed his sole reference to the Virgin Birth in the lips of unbelieving Jews who speak with thinly veiled contempt? For these reasons, we find it impossible to discover in Mk. vi. 3 a reference to the Virgin Birth by St. Mark; the Evangelist's silence is unbroken.

Was, then, the tradition unknown to St. Mark?

Several passages have been cited in support of the contention that St. Mark had no knowledge of the doctrine. Among these is Mk. iii. 21, 31-5 (cf. Mt. xii. 46-50; Lk. viii. 19-21). The story of Mk. iii. 31-5 is that of the coming of Mary and of the brothers of Jesus, while our Lord is surrounded by a crowd, apparently in a house. When Jesus is informed that they are without seeking Him, He says, “Who is my mother and my brethren?”, and looking round upon the assembled company, He continues, “Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”. The account in Mt. is almost identical, and St. Luke's story, while much briefer, is substantially the same. But St. Mark's narrative must be read in the light of Mk. iii. 21 (cf. Gould, ICC., St. Mk., pp. 61, 67)—a passage which is omitted in Mt. and in Lk. There, we are told that the friends of Jesus (οἱ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, probably “His kinsmen”) went out to lay hold on Him, in the belief that He was mad. This fact must unquestionably be held to explain the action of the family of Jesus in the incident of Mk. iii. 31-5, and the question arises, Did Mary share in the fears and intentions of the rest?[13]

A second passage is Mk. vi. 4, where Jesus declares that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. The phrase “among his own kin”, which both Mt. (xiii. 57) and Lk. (iv. 24) omit, is said to point in the same direction as Mk. iii. 21, 31-5.[14] A third incident adduced is that recorded in Mk. xii. 35-7 (Mt. xxii. 41-6; Lk. xx. 41-4), where Jesus raises the question, how the Messiah can be at once David's Son and David's Lord. “Here again”, writes Mr. Thompson, “Jesus assumes the reality of that human parentage on which His Davidic descent relies.... Thus it appears that on three separate occasions (and there are no others) when Jesus, according to the earliest Gospel, spoke about His birth, He used language naturally compatible with human parentage, and not naturally compatible with anything else” (op. cit., p. 138).

It will be seen that these passages raise more than the question whether St. Mark knew of the Virgin Birth. They raise the question of the knowledge of Jesus, and indeed the whole question of the historical character of the Miraculous Conception.

Clearly, the question of the knowledge of Jesus is a determinative consideration. Few indeed will care to argue for the Virgin Birth tradition, if it can be proved that Jesus knew nothing of it, but believed Himself to be the son of Joseph. Just for this very reason we ought to be scrupulously careful in treating the question. A scientific inquiry will hesitate to draw an inference which makes further research superfluous. And in the present case hesitation is amply justified. We cannot share Mr. Thompson's conviction that the words of Jesus acknowledge a natural parentage. (1) Such exegesis must suffer an obvious discount if we find that the Evangelist knew nothing of the Virgin Birth. (2) We cannot be certain that Mary shared the fears and intentions of her children. (3) We do not know the tone in which Jesus spoke, nor can we be sure that He intended to repudiate His family. It may be so; but our opinion on these matters [pg 011] must rest upon what we believe about the Virgin Birth; the evidence is too uncertain to reverse the process.

As regards the Evangelist, we may say at once that we could account much more easily for the passages cited, if St. Mark did not know of the doctrine. But it is doubtful if we can say more, so long as we confine ourselves to what St. Mark has actually written.

There is little difficulty in the third passage (Mk. xii. 35-7), since both Mt. and Lk. repeat it without material variation. Nor is there the force claimed in the phrase “among his own kin” (Mk. vi. 4). In any case Mt. has the words “in his own house”, and probably the omission of the former phrase is sufficiently explained by the writer's tendency to remove redundant expressions in Mk.[15] While in the case of St. Luke, we have to remember that abbreviation is a common feature in his use of Markan material.

The real difficulty lies in Mk. iii. 21, 31-5. Something more than a desire for brevity must account for the later Evangelists' treatment of this story. Mary's position and attitude are certainly left very ambiguous in the light of Mk. iii. 21. In the subsequent story St. Mark does not distinguish her from the rest (iii. 31-5). In short, he leaves her open to the charge of having thought her Son distraught and in need of restraint. Ought we to find in this proof that St. Mark had no knowledge of the Virgin Birth? Our hesitation in drawing this conclusion arises out of the “objectivity” of St. Mark's writing. Frequently, he does not hesitate to introduce details, to which, for various reasons, St. “Matthew” and St. Luke took exception. He does not appear to feel the difficulties which the later writers felt. We could not, therefore, attach the same significance to an “inconsistency” in Mk., as in Lk., or in Mt. For this reason, we think that, while Mk. iii. 21, 31-5 raises very great difficulties, the passage is not sufficient in itself to prove that St. Mark knew nothing of the Virgin Birth. We may say that the passage points in this direction, but that the inference requires further confirmation. Can this be found? We believe that it can be found in the broad fact of St. Mark's silence.

There is much greater significance in St. Mark's silence than is sometimes allowed. Why should he, as an Evangelist, remain silent about the Virgin Birth, if he knew of it, and believed in it? The deep interest which he takes in the descent of the Spirit at the Baptism, and his evident intention to describe this event as a crucial moment in the life of Jesus, set up a strong presumption that, had he known of the Miraculous Conception, he would have introduced it into his narrative. There is no sufficient analogy in his silence about other events in the life of Jesus which later writers record; no omission can be compared with this. Nor will reasons of prudence account for his silence; the Second Gospel is probably too late for this argument to have weight. There is still less force in the suggestion that St. Mark's intention was to describe only the public ministry of Jesus. This solution evades the difficulty, and comes perilously near to saying that St. Mark does not record the Virgin Birth tradition because he does not record it! The Second Gospel describes not only the death and burial of Jesus, but also the visit of the women to the tomb, and probably, in its original ending, some of the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus. These facts are enough to show how inadequate it would be to describe the Gospel as an account of the public ministry of Jesus.

Having regard to all the facts of the case, the probability is that St. Mark's silence must be explained on the ground that the Evangelist had no knowledge of the Virgin Birth tradition. The further implication is that it formed no part of Apostolic preaching, and was unknown in the circles in which St. Mark moved. These conclusions cannot, of course, be hardened into certainties; they move in the realms of what is probable. Instead of being capable of refuting other considerations which might arise, they themselves require further confirmation.

IV. Acts

There is no reference to the Virgin Birth, either direct of indirect, in the Acts. The presumption is that the doctrine had no place in Apostolic preaching.[16] This view is suggested, [pg 013] not only by the silence of Acts, but also by the character of its Christology.

Christ is spoken of as Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God by mighty works and wonders and signs (ii. 22), and as one who was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, and with power, who went about doing good (x. 38). He is the Holy and Righteous One (iii. 14), the Prince of Life (iii. 15), whom God made both Lord and Christ (ii. 36). He is exalted to the right hand of God, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins (v. 31).

In all this, the main ground of appeal is to the Resurrection (ii. 24, 32, iii. 15, iv. 10).[17] The reference to the miracles of Jesus (ii. 22, x. 38) is “the only direct and concrete allusion to the events of His earthly life”.[18] Even where the Davidic descent is mentioned (ii. 25 f., xiii. 23, 33), there is no suggestion other than that of direct physical lineage (“Of this man's seed hath God according to promise brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus”, xiii. 23).

Does the silence of Acts permit us to draw any inferences concerning St. Luke's knowledge of the Virgin Birth tradition? The question ought to be considered apart altogether from Lk. i, ii. Having regard to the character of the work we do not think that any one conclusion can safely be drawn. The Acts obviously differs from the Gospels, and we cannot, as in the case of the Pauline Epistles, look to it for any sufficient account of the writer's Christology. It would therefore be unsafe to say that the silence of Acts implies that its author had no knowledge of the Virgin Birth.[19] If the doctrine was not a subject of Apostolic preaching, St. Luke must have known this: his silence may therefore be due to a sound historical sense. If, at the time when he wrote the Acts, his knowledge of the tradition had not long been gained, he would be still less likely to perpetrate what would have been an historical anachronism. On the other hand, we cannot, on the evidence of the Acts [pg 014] alone, show that he did know of the doctrine, and that the possibilities just stated represent the facts. The case is one in which the argumentum ex silentio would be untrustworthy in either direction. It should be emphasized that this view springs entirely out of the character of the book, and in no way affects the use of the argument we have made in the case of Mk. and the Epistles of St. Paul.

V. The Epistle to the Hebrews

The Epistle to the Hebrews claims attention because of the developed character of its doctrine of the Person of Christ, and because its writer, while not an eye-witness (ii. 3), has a vivid knowledge of many events in the earthly life of Jesus. As regards the Virgin Birth, the Epistle is completely silent. In the comparison with Melchizedek (vii. 1-3), no stress can be laid on the fact that the latter is described as “without father”; he is also “without mother” and “without genealogy”. The reference to the descent of Jesus from the tribe of Judah (vii. 14) is left quite bare. Even the statements concerning the sinlessness of Christ (iv. 15, vii. 26), and the lofty characterization of the Son as “the effulgence” of God's glory and “the very impress of his substance” (i. 3), are made without a word as to the method of the Incarnation. It is difficult to read the Epistle without feeling that the writer's thought is nowhere influenced by the Virgin Birth. Especially is this the case in such passages as ii. 14 (“Since then the children are sharers (κεκοινώνηκεν) in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of (μετέσχεν) the same”),[20] and ii. 17 (“It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren”). Two considerations forbid, however, the drawing of this conclusion. We have no certain knowledge of the writer's identity, and we have no other work from his pen with which to compare the Epistle. Its significance is therefore mainly theological; it is an instance of an elaborate [pg 015] doctrinal writing,[21] coming possibly from the seventh decade of the first century, or, more probably, from about the year 80 a.d., in which no reference of any kind is made to the Miraculous Conception. This fact, however it is explained, cannot be ignored, and the later we date the Epistle the more important it becomes.

VI. The Fourth Gospel

The silence of the Fourth Gospel regarding the Virgin Birth is now generally admitted;[22] the only question being whether there is not a passing reference to the doctrine in Jn. i. 13.[23]

What the writer's silence means is one of the most difficult problems in the question of the Virgin Birth. The case is different from any we have yet considered. For the doctrine of the Virgin Birth must have been perfectly well known to the Fourth Evangelist. He was well acquainted with the Synoptic Gospels,[24] and there can be little doubt but that he read Lk. i, ii, [pg 016] and Mt. i, ii, in the form in which we have them to-day. That he knew of the tradition is further confirmed by the fact that, so early probably as c. 110 a.d., the Epistles of Ignatius contain several references to the doctrine (Eph. xviii. 2; xix. 1; Magn. 11; Tr. ix). The difficulty is further increased by the freedom with which the Evangelist treats the Synoptics. “On the one hand their contents are very largely assumed; and on the other hand the author does not hesitate, where he thinks it necessary, to correct them.... The author evidently felt himself at liberty to select just those incidents which suited his purpose” (Sanday, The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel, p. 71).

As the problem is usually treated, the silence of the Fourth Gospel is said to mean either “tacit rejection” or “tacit acceptance” of the tradition. It may be questioned, however, if these alternatives sufficiently cover the possibilities of the case. “Tacit rejection” under any circumstances means repudiation of the doctrine. But “tacit acceptance” may mean anything from comparative indifference to whole-hearted assent.

As containing the sharper issue, the case for “tacit rejection” may be considered first. Among the arguments in favour of this view, we may note the following:—

(1) Certain passages seem to require this position. In i. 45 Jesus is described by Philip as “the son of Joseph”, and in vi. 42 the Jews at Capernaum ask the question: “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” Three times, moreover, controversy turns on the question of the birthplace of Jesus. The Jews look for the birthplace of the Messiah at Bethlehem (“Hath not the scripture said that the Christ cometh of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem?”, vii. 42), or they regard it as unknown (“When the Christ cometh, no one knoweth whence he is”, vii. 27), and the objection is raised that Jesus is of Galilee (i. 45, vii. 41 f., 52). Nowhere does the Evangelist expose the futility of the controversy by a reference to Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. On the contrary (it is said), he himself believed Nazareth to be the birthplace, and must thus have rejected the tradition of Mt. i, ii.

(2) Instead of directly repudiating a particular Synoptic narrative, the Fourth Evangelist's method is silently to set it aside by preferring another tradition or view. Is not his [pg 017] preference for his own Incarnation theory a tacit repudiation of the Virgin Birth tradition?

Of these arguments the second can be allowed only if we can show that the Evangelist looked upon the two doctrines, that of the Virgin Birth and that of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos, as contradictory and mutually exclusive. It is not possible, however, to prove this, and to assume it is to beg the question. The stronger argument is the first. It is certainly difficult to show that the language of i. 45 and vi. 42 is that of Philip and the Jews respectively, and that it does not reflect the Evangelist's point of view. In the Fourth Gospel we are often unable to assume that the writer intends to give the ipsissima verba of those who speak. Are i. 45 and vi. 42 cases in point, or are they exceptions? The question is not an easy one to decide, unless, of course, we have satisfied ourselves that the Fourth Gospel is an entirely unhistorical work. In this case, i. 45 and vi. 42 will represent the Evangelist's opinions. But, on this view, we have largely forfeited our right to appeal to the Fourth Gospel in treating the question of the Virgin Birth on its historical side. We cannot have it both ways. If the Fourth Gospel shows a pronounced disregard of history, it is not permissible to draw historical arguments from it. It will have (on this view) an important bearing on the historical question from the theological side; but, as a primary historical authority, it must disappear. If, on the other hand, we admit—as we have good reason to admit—the presence of a considerable element of valuable historical tradition in the Fourth Gospel, it is by no means certain that i. 45 and vi. 42 represent the Evangelist's views. As in the case of Mt. xiii. 55 and Lk. iv. 22, these passages may indicate contemporary opinions and no more. This view is less easy to hold in the case of i. 45 and vi. 42 than it is in respect of the Synoptic passages; but it is a possibility not lightly to be set aside. And if this is so, we cannot with confidence urge that in i. 45 and vi. 42 the Fourth Evangelist repudiates the Virgin Birth.

As regards the passages which connect Jesus with Nazareth and Galilee, it is not necessary to infer that the writer looked upon the town as the birthplace of our Lord. His silence regarding Bethlehem is strange, but it does not compel us to [pg 018] conclude that he is rejecting the tradition bound up with Mt. i, ii, as Mr. Thompson thinks (op. cit., p. 158).[25] The more important fact is that the Evangelist does not name any town, not even Nazareth, as the birthplace of the Eternal Word.

The view that the Fourth Evangelist tacitly rejects the Virgin Birth fails to justify itself on internal grounds. It is also opposed by considerations of an external character. It is from the locality in which probably the Fourth Gospel arose, that we have the earliest references to the Virgin Birth outside the New Testament. Ignatius, according to Dr. Moffatt (INT., p. 211), seems “to fuse the Johannine idea of the incarnation with the synoptic birth-stories”. If this is so, the fact does not compel us to suppose that the Fourth Evangelist would have done the same; but it raises a strong presumption against the view that he explicitly rejected the tradition.

Must we then suppose that the Evangelist's silence means “tacit acceptance” of the doctrine? Obviously, the failure to prove “tacit rejection” tells so far in the opposite direction. But, as we have seen, “tacit acceptance” is a very elastic term; it calls, therefore, for closer consideration.

It can scarcely be shown that the Fourth Evangelist accepts the Virgin Birth in the same way in which it is held in Mt. i, ii. There is no sufficient answer to this assertion in the plea that the story had been already told, and that the Evangelist's purpose was to supplement the Synoptic narratives. This is a view of the Fourth Gospel which cannot be carried through. It is better to suppose that the Evangelist's omission of the Virgin Birth tradition has a more definite meaning, even though we reject the view that its significance is silent repudiation of the doctrine. We have also to find a place in our solution of the problem for the difficulties left over in i. 45 and vi. 42, and in the Evangelist's failure to name the birthplace of Jesus. In other words, arguments insufficient to prove “tacit rejection” cannot on that account be ignored. They must rather be held to condition the sense in which we speak of “tacit acceptance”.

The Evangelist's silence regarding the Virgin Birth can only be understood when it is considered along with his other notable “omissions”. It is one of “a whole series of episodes, cardinal to the Synoptic story” (Scott, Fourth Gospel, p. 42). This series includes the Genealogy, the Virgin Birth, the Baptism, the Temptation, the Transfiguration, the Supper, the Agony, the Ascension. The true explanation is probably that given by Dr. E. F. Scott: “These remarkable omissions ... cannot be due to oversight or to the leaving out of what was non-essential. Without doubt they have been made deliberately, in view of certain theories and presuppositions with which the writer approached his subject” (ib., p. 42 f.). These words set us on the right track. The Evangelist's silence does not mean that he rejected the Virgin Birth tradition. The Synoptic birth-stories were more probably accepted by him “as a part of the orthodox tradition, in which, as a member of the Church, he acquiesced” (ib., p. 188). His doctrinal sympathies, however, lay in another direction. It may be that at the time when he first heard of the Virgin Birth tradition, his doctrine of the Incarnate Word had already shaped itself in his mind. Jesus Christ was the Eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh, who became incarnate by His own voluntary act. The fact that his own theological scheme was already developed, together with its specific character,[26] may well account for his neglect of the Virgin Birth. He does not deny the story, but his own Christology has superior spiritual attractions.

It will be seen that this theory leaves little room for difficulties arising from such passages as i. 45 and vi. 42, and explains at once the Evangelist's attitude to the question of the birthplace of Jesus. On the one hand, the doctrinal presuppositions of the Virgin Birth were not operative in his mind; on the other hand, in the light of his doctrine of the Logos, the difficulties mentioned would scarcely be felt. The Jewish controversies must have seemed to him so much playing with words. What did it matter [pg 020] where the Word became flesh? What did it matter if men called Him Joseph's son?

Our conclusion, then, is that the Fourth Evangelist tacitly accepts the Virgin Birth, but gives it no place in his doctrinal system. With the theological significance of this result we are not now concerned. Our present interest is rather in its historical implications. On the positive side, it yields little; on the negative side, its importance is greater. It is not permissible to argue against the Virgin Birth tradition on the ground that the Fourth Evangelist rejected it. We may go further and say that, having regard to his evident preoccupation with the Logos-doctrine, it may not even be safe to make too much of the fact that he ignored the tradition.

VII. The Pastoral and the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse

Of the New Testament Writings, other than the First and Third Gospels, there remain the Pastoral and the Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse. Whether the Pastoral Epistles are the work of St. Paul or not, their silence regarding the Virgin Birth cannot be pressed. 1 Tim. iii. 16 (probably a fragment from an early Christian hymn) may or may not be significant in its silence; but, in either direction, the inference would be unsafe. These writings are much too brief and restricted in subject-matter to leave room for the argument from silence. The same view is also true of the Catholic Epistles. The Apocalypse contains one passage (xii) which has been thought to indicate the writer's knowledge of the doctrine,[27] but the inference is far from being certain, and, in any case, in view of the date of the Book, it would add nothing to our knowledge which cannot be learnt more clearly elsewhere.

VIII. Summary

We may summarize the historical results reached in the present chapter as follows:—

1. There is no certain instance of a New Testament writer who knew of the Virgin Birth tradition, and yet repudiated it. [pg 021] It is more than doubtful if an exception can be found even in the case of the Fourth Gospel, though the Evangelist makes no doctrinal use of the tradition. If the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews knew of the doctrine, the same is probably true of that writer also.

2. The doctrine had no place in the subject-matter of Apostolic preaching. This view is supported by all the available evidence. The silence of the Pauline Epistles, of the Acts, and of the Second Gospel can be explained in no other way.

3. The tradition was not a matter of public knowledge during the period covered in common by the Pauline Epistles, the Second Gospel, and Q.

4. It is also probable that the same conclusion should be extended to the period covered by the Second Gospel alone, if this Book is dated later than St. Paul's lifetime, as it usually is.

Until we have examined the Virgin Birth tradition reflected in the First and Third Gospels, it would not be right to discuss these results further, except to say that an historical argument against the Virgin Birth based on these conclusions alone would be precarious. The chief importance of the results reached is the help they furnish in deciding when belief in the Virgin Birth first became current.

Chapter II. The Virgin Birth And The Third Gospel

The question to be discussed in this chapter needs careful definition. What we wish to discover, if possible, is whether the Virgin Birth is an original element in the Third Gospel. This question is not without a certain ambiguity. It is sometimes taken as if it were equivalent to the further question, Did St. Luke teach the Virgin Birth? It is clear that these questions are closely connected; nevertheless, they are distinct, and should be kept distinct. The difference is at once apparent if, for purposes of argument, we assume that the doctrine really does belong to a later stratum in the Gospel. In this case, all the references to the tradition must have been inserted, either (i) by an unknown reader, editor, or scribe, or (ii) by St. Luke himself. In either case, the Virgin Birth would be a later element in the Gospel; but the two senses in which this could be true are clearly very different.

Before one could say that St. Luke did not teach the Virgin Birth, it would be necessary to show that he did not write the passage Lk. i. 34 f.,[28] and this is a point which cannot be determined by arguments derived from the context and subject-matter alone. Such arguments may, or may not, be able to prove that the doctrine is a later element, but they cannot show that it is a non-Lukan element. This is a second and distinct step, which is not justified until the textual and the linguistic facts have been examined. Then, and then only, can we say if St. Luke taught the Virgin Birth.

In the present chapter all questions of a linguistic character will be left aside. Lk. i. 34 f. is perfectly susceptible of the linguistic test, and this will be applied in its proper place. The only arguments we shall consider at present will be those which [pg 023] arise out of matters of context and subject-matter. In the light, then, of the principle laid down above, the question whether St. Luke taught the Virgin Birth, does not yet properly arise. The only question we have to consider at this stage is whether the Virgin Birth is an original element in the Third Gospel, interpreting that question in its strictest and barest sense.

The distinction we have drawn is perfectly obvious when it is pointed out. At the same time, one cannot read the literature which treats of the Third Gospel in relation to the Virgin Birth, without feeling how frequently the point has been neglected. The assumption, that, if the Virgin Birth is found to be a later element in the Gospel, we must straightway have recourse to the hypothesis of non-Lukan interpolation, runs through the writings of critics of all schools like a refrain. Its presence in the arguments of those who deny the Virgin Birth is often sufficiently clear. But the same assumption is also tacitly made by many critics on the other side. It would be ungenerous, and perhaps unwarranted, to suggest that this assumption has prevented many orthodox writers from doing justice to the objections which have been raised against the view that the doctrine was present in the Gospel from the very first. That its effects have been harmful in the interests of dispassionate investigation, is, however, hardly open to question. In the treatment which follows, an attempt will be made to avoid this fallacy, and to keep the discussion within the limits which are proper to itself.

The material to be examined is found for the most part in the first two chapters of the Gospel, and consists (1) of certain narratives and passages, which apparently are inconsistent with the view that the author wrote with a knowledge of the Virgin Birth, and (2) of the passage i. 34 f., which implies the doctrine, but is believed by many scholars to be a later insertion. Outside chaps. i and ii, the only passages which call for notice are iii. 22, iii. 23, and iv. 22.

We may say at once that we have few new arguments to bring forward. The contentions we have to examine are familiar to every one who studies the question of the Virgin Birth. They have been brilliantly stated in two well-known articles in the Encyclopaedia Biblica, one by P. W. Schmiedel (on “Mary”), and the other by Usener (“Nativity”). In a review (HJ., vol. i, [pg 024] no. 1, p. 164), Dr. Moffatt justly describes these articles as “competent and first-rate essays, which deserve alert recognition”. But both these articles not only deny that the Virgin Birth was an original element in the Third Gospel, but also that St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul, ever taught that doctrine—and this without any linguistic examination of the passage i. 34 f. They provide, in fact, a clear illustration of the point we have already discussed. Inasmuch, then, as our purpose is to consider the question, Was the Virgin Birth an original element in the Third Gospel?, interpreted in its strictest terms, we shall need to state and weigh the arguments afresh. This is the more desirable, because, in the form in which these scholars present their case, each argument is put forward with an assurance and a finality which individually it does not merit. It is the cumulative force of a number of arguments, each of which has strong presumptive value, which ultimately carries conviction; not a series of arguments each of which is conclusive in itself. We do not suppose, of course, that a writer like Schmiedel would deny anything so obvious as this. Nevertheless, very many English readers feel that his several arguments are stated too much in the light of the result. Moreover, they appear to be shaped by presuppositions which are themselves fatal to the Virgin Birth. In the present treatment of the question, an attempt will be made to assign to each argument its proper force, to observe its limitations as well as its cogency. The result sought is not a conclusion to which we can append a triumphant Q. E. D., but that hypothesis, whatever it be, which best explains the observed facts taken as a whole.

I. Narratives and Passages Said to be Inconsistent With the View

Our first task must be to examine those narratives and passages in the Third Gospel which are said to be irreconcilable with the view that St. Luke wrote in the belief that Jesus was miraculously conceived of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost. What we have to ask is whether or not they are consistent with that supposition. We begin with Lk. iii. 22.

(a) Lk. iii. 22, according to the “Western Text”

In the great majority of existing MSS. this passage reads as in the RV., “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well [pg 025] pleased”. But in Codex Bezae, supported by Old Latin MSS. and by quotations in Justin and Clement, the passage reads, “Thou art my Son: to-day have I begotten Thee”. Blass (Philology of the Gospels, p. 168 f.) believes this to be the genuine Lukan reading, and explains the common text as “a product of assimilation to the other Gospels”. Usener (EB., col. 3348) also accepts the “Western” reading, and says, “Thus the passage in Lk. was read, in the Greek Church down to about 300 a.d. and in the Latin West down to and beyond 360 a.d.” Dr. Moffatt (INT., 3rd ed., p. 269) goes so far as to say that the Lukan reading “undoubtedly was υἱός μου εἷ σύ· ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε”. He follows this reading in his Translation of the New Testament, and says (p. 74), “In the other MSS. it has been altered, for harmonistic reasons”. These opinions, and the arguments upon which they rest, have great weight. If the “Western” reading is accepted, a strong presumption is set up against the view that the Third Gospel originally contained the Virgin Birth; for it is very difficult to believe that the hand which wrote, “To-day have I begotten Thee”, had already described the miraculous birth. (Cf. also Harnack, Sayings, pp. 310 ff.)

At first sight Blass's argument would seem to show a way of escape from this conclusion. He defends the “Western” reading by showing the close connexion which it has with the following verse. “The ‘to-day have I begotten Thee’ stands in opposition to the ‘thirty years’, and the ‘Thou art my Son’ likewise to ‘being as was supposed the son of Joseph’ ” (op. cit., p. 169). The phrase “as was supposed” (verse 23) will fall to be discussed next. Meanwhile we may observe that the connexion which Blass notes is actually strengthened if what St. Luke originally wrote was “being the son of Joseph”. This is the real point in the parallelism, as Blass himself indicates by printing the name Joseph in italics.

If the “Western” reading is to be accepted, a very interesting question arises as regards St. Luke's conception of the Baptism of Jesus. There is no need to suppose that he looked upon it as the occasion of the imparting of the Divine Sonship. If the connexion which Blass notes be allowed, it is probably purely literary, and the form in which St. Luke reports the logion is [pg 026] determined by his recollection of Ps. ii. 7.[29] There is no intention, that is to say, on his part, of describing an act of deification or even adoption. But if the connexion is literary, we return again to the question, Can we think that St. Luke would have written the passage in this form, if he had already described the miraculous birth? Can we explain his deliberate preference for the language of Ps. ii. 7? The answer is, we feel bound to say, It is difficult, if it is not impossible. The force of this argument rests, nevertheless, upon the confidence with which we can accept the “Western” reading; and while the present writer would favour that reading himself, he recognizes that its attestation is not such as to compel acceptance. Moffatt's claim that it “undoubtedly was” the Lukan reading is too strong. The most we can say is that it has great, if not very great, probability in its favour.

(b) The Lukan Genealogy and Lk. iii. 23

It will be best at this point to consider the question of the Lukan Genealogy, and also the passage to which attention has just been called: “being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (RV.).

An examination of the Genealogy reveals the fact that it is artificially constructed, it is an arrangement of names in multiples of seven (cf. Sanday, Outlines, p. 202). The whole list contains seventy-seven names. From Adam to Abraham there are twenty-one names (7 x 3); from Isaac to David fourteen names (7 x 2), if we include, as we probably should, the name Admin, as in the RV. margin; from Nathan to Shealtiel twenty-one names; and from Zerubbabel to Christ twenty-one names. Not only is this so, but in order to preserve the symbolic arrangement, names are repeated and omitted. Thus in verse 36, the compiler has preferred the LXX to the Hebrew. This permits the name Cainan to be introduced into the Genealogy twice, as the son of Arphaxad in verse 36, and again as the son of Enos in verse 37. No Hebrew MS. mentions Cainan as the son of Arphaxad. Again, in the list from Isaac to David, the name Ram (cf. 1 Chron. ii. 10 and Ruth iv. 19) is omitted, and in its [pg 027] place the two names Admin and Arni appear. Whatever be the explanation of these facts, it is significant that in this way the symmetrical arrangement is preserved.

It is not probable that a Genealogy of such an artificial character was constructed by St. Luke himself. He shows no predilection for symbolic numbers in his writings, and does not indeed appear to observe this feature in the list. (Cf. Sanday, op. cit., p. 202, and contrast Mt. i. 17.) Probably he found the Genealogy ready to hand. The fact that it traces the descent to Adam may have appealed to him, in view of his own bent of mind, and it may have been this feature in the list which led him to incorporate it in his Gospel. The words “the son of God” with which the list ends, may be due to St. Luke himself, “added for the sake of Gentile readers, to remind them of the Divine origin of the human race” (Plummer, ICC., St. Luke, p. 105)·

It does not seem likely that the Genealogy in its original form, in the form, that is to say, in which St. Luke found it, contained the words which now stand in iii. 23, “as was supposed”. It is generally allowed at the present day that the Genealogies, both in the First Gospel and in the Third, trace the ancestry of Jesus through Joseph. But unlike the Matthaean Genealogy, that in Lk. gives us no reason to suppose that legal descent only is traced in it. It is therefore difficult to believe that its author intended to construct a chain of descent in which the vital link should contain the words, “as was supposed”. These words more naturally give the impression of being a later insertion intended to adapt the Genealogy to a new situation. For our present purpose the important question is, Are these words the words of St. Luke?, and what is still more vital, At what point, if Lukan, were they inserted in the Genealogy,—when it was first incorporated in the Gospel, or at some subsequent time? If from the first they stood where they now stand, it is obvious that the Third Gospel taught the Virgin Birth from the beginning. If, on the other hand, they were added after the Gospel was written (or its earlier chapters), this supports the view that the doctrine is a later element.

The data at present at our disposal do not enable us to decide between these alternatives. We may argue a priori that it is [pg 028] unlikely that St. Luke would have thought it worth while to introduce the Genealogy at all, if at the time when he wove it into his Gospel he had realized the necessity of interpolating the words “as was supposed”. In other words, we may say that had he known of the Virgin Birth from the first he would never have made use of the Genealogy. And further, we may argue that we best conserve St. Luke's reputation as a skilful writer by supposing the phrase “as was supposed” to be a correction, introduced to make the best of a Genealogy, used in the first place under presuppositions which new information had now led him to discard. Short of excising the Genealogy altogether—we may say—he did the best he could. But such speculations, however attractive, do not lead to a conclusion which we can regard with confidence. It is better to leave iii. 23 to depend upon the conclusion to which we come with regard to i. 34 f. This is the crucial passage, and if this should prove to be a later insertion, then iii. 23 must also be regarded as such, introduced by the same hand at the same time and for the same reasons.

(c) The Narratives of Lk. ii

We have now to examine the narratives of Lk. ii, and to ask, Under what presuppositions were they shaped? The incidents which call for special notice are the Purifying, the meeting with Simeon in the Temple, and the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem at the age of twelve. The five passages which speak of “the parents” of Jesus will be considered separately. There is no need to dwell on the story of the visit of the shepherds. It goes without saying that it nowhere presupposes the Virgin Birth. On the other hand, there is nothing in the presentation of the story which is alien to the doctrine.

Turning to the story of the Purifying in Lk. ii. 22-4, we are met by the question, What are we to understand by the phrase “their purification” (ii. 22)? Attempts have been made to take the pronoun as referring to the mother and the child, but, in view of the construction of the passage, this exegesis is impossible. Joseph and Mary are clearly the unexpressed subject of the verb in the sentence in which the pronoun “their” occurs (“And when the days of their purification ... were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem”). Schmiedel holds that the word “their” refers [pg 029] to Joseph and Mary,[30] and without doubt this opinion is correct. But if this is so, is it probable that St. Luke had the thought of a virgin birth in the background of his mind when he first penned the phrase? Is not the pronoun one which we may think he would have been anxious to avoid? Nor was there any need for him to introduce it, since, according to the Levitical law, it was only the mother who was made unclean by a birth (cf. Lev. xii). Schmiedel, who calls attention to this fact, thinks that the writer has made “an archaeological error”. “This error serves to show that the writer regarded Joseph as the actual father of Jesus; otherwise he could not have thought of him at all as unclean” (EB., col. 2955). Even if we think that Schmiedel's remorseless logic is too confidently applied, the fact remains that St. Luke's pronoun is as unnecessary as it is ambiguous. The difficulty of the expression is not felt by the modern mind alone. It is reflected in two subsequent textual alterations. Instead of “their purification”, the Codex Bezae reads “his purification”, and the Sin. Syr. MS., together with the cursive 76, has the pronoun “her”. The textual evidence forbids us to accept the reading “her purification”, but this is assuredly the phrase we should expect a writer to use who has just told the story of a virgin birth.

In the two remaining stories, that of the meeting with Simeon, and that of the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, there is a common element which provokes reflection in the surprise of Joseph and Mary. In reference to the prophecy of Simeon concerning Jesus, we are told that they “were marvelling at” the things that were said (ii. 33). We can readily account for this remark, if St. Luke had no knowledge of the Virgin Birth at the time of writing, for the prophecy of Simeon transcends that of the angelic announcement of i. 31-3. Whereas the latter does not leave the soil of Israel, the former speaks of a revelation to the Gentiles. We could say, then, that the wider scope of the prophecy of Simeon provides room for wonder. But can we say this if St. Luke believed Mary to have received the announcement of a virgin birth, which, moreover, had been fulfilled? Would he have thought any prophecy called for wonder after such facts as [pg 030] these? The same difficulty arises in the story of the visit to the Temple. After St. Luke has recorded the pregnant words of Jesus, “Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?”, he writes: “And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them” (ii. 50). If, in this case, as distinguished from ii. 33, the Evangelist had said that they marvelled, the difficulty would be less great. It might then have been argued that, inasmuch as the facts of His birth had not been made known to the boy Jesus, there was room for wonder that already He should have attained to such a consciousness of filial relationship to God. But to say that they did not understand His words is an astonishing statement on the part of a writer who believes the Virgin Birth. On the other hand, it is a perfectly natural remark, if we can presume the Evangelist to have written in the absence of such a belief.[31]

Speaking of the narratives of Lk. ii, as a whole, we may say that, apart from the references to “the parents”, which remain to be considered, distinct difficulties are raised if we must believe that St. Luke knew of the Virgin Birth at the time when he first wrote the chapter, and that greater justice can be done to the narratives if we can presume him to have written them without that knowledge. How far this view is supported by the five passages which speak of Joseph and Mary, we have now to consider.

(d) The References to Joseph and Mary in Lk. ii

These passages are as follows: ii. 27, “the parents”; ii. 41 and 43, “his parents”; ii. 33, “his father and his mother”; and ii. 48, “thy father and I”. The point to be considered is whether we can suppose St. Luke to have known of the Virgin Birth at the time when he used these expressions.

The last passage (ii. 48) differs from the rest, and should not be pressed. It is reasonable to urge that, in addressing the boy Jesus, Mary would naturally speak in this way, even if the Virgin Birth is historically true; and that it is conceivable that [pg 031] St. Luke, while himself holding the doctrine, should have been so far faithful to his sources as to preserve Mary's words in this form.

In this respect the four passages which remain are quite different, in that they are expressions which St. Luke himself employs. This gives them a distinctive character which has often been overlooked. It has been too frequently assumed that these passages are of like character to those which belong to the story of Jesus at the synagogue at Nazareth. In this incident the Jews speak of Jesus as “the carpenter's son” (Mt. xiii. 55. Cf. Mk. vi. 3, “the carpenter, the son of Mary”). St. Luke, who records the same incident, but perhaps follows a special source of his own (Lk. iv. 16 ff.), gives the question in the form, “Is not this Joseph's son?” With regard to these passages, it is open to any one to urge that in them we have instances of the accuracy with which the Gospels record contemporary beliefs, which were natural but erroneous. The language of the Jews, it may be said, is justified by ignorance of the true facts, and its retention by Evangelists who teach the Virgin Birth is evidence of their fidelity to detail. This is a reasonable argument, and it cannot be gainsaid, until the whole question has been faced (again, as in the case of ii. 48). But the four passages in Lk. ii stand upon an entirely different footing. In these passages it is not a question of what is justified by ignorance, but of what is possible in the light of knowledge. Assuming that we have to do with a writer who believes Jesus to be the son of Mary by the direct operation of the Holy Ghost, we have to ask whether, believing this, and having (on this assumption) just stated this very thing, that writer would be at all likely to speak of “the parents”, “his parents”, and, indeed, to use an expression so definite as “his father and his mother”. In short, granting that St. Luke has recorded the language of the Nazarenes, can we suppose that he would have used the same language himself in the light of the Virgin Birth? It is not as if these modes of speech were indispensable. The words “Joseph and Mary” could easily have been employed, and in this way all danger of ambiguity removed. In the face of a fact so unique as a virgin birth, one would expect an effort to avoid ambiguity; all the more, in the case of a writer, with [pg 032] whose apt choice of words and delicacy of expression scholars like Ramsay and Harnack have made us familiar.

In saying this we are not guilty of imposing modern canons of accuracy upon an ancient writer. The difficulties we ourselves feel have long been felt. “It is very noteworthy that six old Latin codices in ii. 41 have Ioseph et Maria for ‘his parents’ (οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ); most uncials in ii. 33 substitute ‘Joseph’ (ὁ ιωσηφ) for ‘his father’ (ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ)” (Schmiedel, EB., col. 2955). None of these readings can claim, of course, to be original, since admittedly they represent attempts to remove difficulties. Their significance lies in the fact that they indicate that those difficulties have long been felt. They show that we are not asking an ancient writer to conform to modern standards, when we assert that St. Luke has expressed himself with an ambiguity which it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand, if he wrote from the first in the knowledge of the Virgin Birth.

The impression made by the narratives of Lk. ii is thus deepened and confirmed by the several references to Joseph and Mary.

(e) Lk. ii. 5

The bearing of the facts examined thus far is in the direction of showing the Virgin Birth to belong to a later stratum in the Gospel. One passage in Lk. ii might seem to invalidate this view. In the Revised Version, verse 5 reads: “to enrol himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child”. These words, if they must stand, imply that the Virgin Birth is known to the writer. But, apart altogether from the historical character of the miracle, it is highly probable that we ought to read: “with Mary his wife”.[32] This is the reading of the Sinaitic Syriac and of the Old Latin MSS. a, b, c; and the word “wife” together with “betrothed”, also appears in AC2ΓΔΛ, l, q*, Syrp, vulg., goth., aeth. (Moffatt, INT., p. 269). There [pg 033] is much to be said for the view that this is one of the cases in which “Western” readings, where Old Syriac and Old Latin MSS. agree, probably preserve an original text.[33] When we add the argument of transcriptional probability, it is difficult to resist this conclusion. One can easily understand how the reading “with Mary his wife” could come to be altered to “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” by those who imagined that the former was inconsistent with the Virgin Birth. But, if the words “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” stood in the primitive text, can we give any satisfactory explanation of the change? When we consider that from New Testament times the Virgin Birth was part of the faith of the Church, questioned by few save the Ebionites and some of the Gnostic sects, the supposition that “with Mary his wife” is a later corruption, becomes improbable in the extreme. It is hardly sufficient to adopt Plummer's suggestion, that “the γυναικί of A. Vulg. Syr. and Aeth. is a gloss, but a correct one” (op. cit., p. 53). Must we not find more than a gloss? Moreover, is this a satisfactory explanation of the Sin. Syr. and of those Old Latin MSS. which have “wife” without “betrothed”? We should probably conclude that in this instance the “Western” reading, supported by transcriptional probability, must outweigh the evidence of even the great uncials, and that what St. Luke wrote was “with Mary his wife”.

If this view is sound, the verse in itself is not necessarily inconsistent with the Virgin Birth, since it may reasonably be urged that it carries us no further than Mt. i. 24, where the marriage is implied.[34] If this fact is put forward in a narrative [pg 034] which expressly teaches the Virgin Birth, it could be so here. The phrase “with Mary his wife” is certainly congruous with the view that the doctrine is a later element in the Third Gospel, but it would be improper to employ it in support of that view. (The case is like those of ii. 48, iv. 22.) But even if we must leave the question open, at any rate we have no longer to reckon with the words, “with Mary, who was betrothed to him”. There is nothing, therefore, in the verse which is in conflict with the view that St. Luke had no knowledge of the Virgin Birth when he first wrote his Gospel.

Before leaving this part of the subject it may be well to recall the nature of the argument. The several points treated are not regarded as contentions which inexorably demand a certain conclusion, but as distinct difficulties, greater or less, which arise, on the view that St. Luke knew of the Virgin Birth from the first. We may fairly say that the facts examined thus far would be best satisfied by considering the Virgin Birth as a later element in the Gospel; but, until we have investigated the important passage Lk. i. 34 f., it would be precarious to say more.

II. The Passage Lk. i. 34 f

In the Revised Version Lk. i. 34f. reads as follows: “And Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? (35) And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God.” As regards the last clause, the margin gives the alternative rendering: “the holy thing which is to be born shall be called the Son of God”. The difference rests upon a question of punctuation in the Greek, and does not affect our immediate problem.

Our purpose in this section is to inquire how far the view, which is widely held, that Lk. i. 34 f. is a later insertion is justified. But two important questions must detain us first. (a) Is the assumption we have made thus far, that Lk. i. 34 f. implies the Virgin Birth, tenable? What is the true interpretation of the passage? (b) What is the purport of the angelic announcement in Lk. i. 30-3? Is Dr. Plummer's language justified, when, [pg 035] in reference to this message, he speaks of “the strange declaration that she [Mary] is to have a son before she is married” (op. cit., p. 24)? Is there any suggestion of a virgin birth?

(a) The Interpretation of Lk. i. 34 f

In the text as it stands, in answer to the angel's words in Lk. i. 30-3, Mary says: “How shall this be, seeing I know not (οὐ γινώσκω) a man?” The interpretation of this verse depends upon the force we give to the word γινώσκω. Schmiedel (EB., col. 2956) thinks that γινώσκω in this verse “cannot mean the act of concubitus for which the word is often employed”, because it is here used in the present tense. On the other hand, the quite general sense of knowledge in the way of acquaintanceship, is also, in his view, “equally precluded”, since it would be “quite meaningless in the present context”. Accordingly, he finds the true interpretation to be “the intermediate one; I have no such acquaintanceship with any man as might lead to the fulfilment of this prophecy”. In other words, Mary's objection or difficulty is that she is not even betrothed. Schmiedel is not daunted by the fact that this interpretation is in conflict with Lk. i. 27 (“a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph”). Indeed, the contradiction is given as one reason for regarding Lk. i. 34 f. as a later insertion. In this respect Schmiedel's view will probably not command much support. He gives no example of γινώσκω used in the special sense in which he interprets it, and fails to justify his rejection of the common use of the verb. (See Th-Gr., p. 117; VGT., p. 127.) It is altogether preferable to follow Dr. Plummer (op. cit., p. 24), whose view is indicated in the references which he gives to the OT. passages, Gen. xix. 8; Judg. xi. 39; Num. xxxi. 17. “The words”, says Dr. Plummer, “are the avowal of a maiden conscious of her own purity”. According to this view the phrase “seeing I know not a man” must be interpreted of the marital relationship. Mary's perplexity is that she, an unmarried woman, is promised an immediate conception. It is impossible to accept Schmiedel's view, when he says: “Mary takes the words of the angel as referring to a fulfilment in the way of nature”. This explanation is, of course, consistent on the interpretation which Schmiedel gives to Mary's question, but not on that which we have found [pg 036] reason to prefer. Had Mary understood the angelic message to mean a natural human birth after marriage, there would have been no cause for perplexity. Her words, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”, are clearly a reply to what is understood as the announcement of an immediate conception, and not of a birth within the marriage tie.

If this view is taken of Mary's words, it follows that verse 35 must be explained as the yet clearer announcement of a virgin birth, supernaturally caused. If the verse is treated in itself, it is possible to interpret it of an ordinary human birth, and there is much that is attractive in the interpretation. The words may be said to speak of the Holy Ghost who should come upon Mary to inspire and preserve the purity of her soul in the act of conception. They may speak, that is to say, of God's use of His own appointed agencies. But, to accept this view, it would be necessary to regard the words “seeing I know not a man” as a later insertion, and, though this opinion has been held by some (including Kattenbusch, Weinel, J. M. Thompson), it does not on the whole commend itself as a satisfactory solution of the problem (see further pp. 69 ff.). We are compelled therefore to accept the ordinary interpretation of verse 35, as implying the Miraculous Conception.

(b) The Purport of the Angelic Announcement in Lk. i. 30-3

In treating Mary's question in Lk. i. 34. we have concluded that it reflects the point of view of one who has received the announcement of a miraculous birth. But this conclusion does not compel us to interpret the words of Lk. i. 30-3 as containing such an announcement. We have to examine the passage so as to determine whether as a matter of fact it is susceptible of that interpretation. That its present context requires this view of Lk. i. 30-3 is a fact not lightly to be regarded; nevertheless, it must find justification within the passage itself before it can be accepted.

In the Revised Version, the angelic message reads as follows: “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. (31) And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. (32) He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give [pg 037]unto him the throne of his father David: (33) and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

We have already expressed the view that this prophecy moves strictly within Jewish limits (p. 29). Detailed study of the passage only serves to confirm this opinion. The Sonship mentioned in verse 32 bears a purely Messianic character. Dr. Plummer justly remarks: “The title υἱὸς ᾿Υψίστου expresses some very close relation between Jesus and Jehovah, but not the Divine Sonship in the Trinity” (op. cit., p. 23). Nothing is either said or implied in this announcement of a miraculous birth. The terms of the promise to Mary would be perfectly fulfilled by an ordinary birth within the marriage tie, so far, that is to say, as the mode of birth is concerned. We must therefore reject the view which speaks of “the strange declaration that she is to bear a son before she is married” (Plummer). We look in vain for this declaration. We agree that Mary's question in verse 34 demands such a declaration in order to make it rational. In fact, we ourselves have argued that verse 34 is “a reply to what is understood as the announcement of an immediate conception”. Nevertheless, even on the most generous interpretation of Lk. i. 30-3, it is impossible to find in the passage any such announcement.[35] There is thus a radical difference of point of view between the angelic announcement of Lk. i. 30-3 and Mary's question in Lk. i. 34. This difference of standpoint will be urged as one, though not the only reason for regarding Lk. i. 34 f. as a later insertion. But before we examine these reasons, we need to consider whether after all the angelic announcement may not contain some implication (which does not lie upon the surface of the passage) that a Miraculous Conception is promised.

We find it impossible to rest satisfied in the suggestion of W. C. Allen, that there may have been some unrecorded indication of something unique in the conception (Interpreter, 1905, p. 121 f.). A suggestion of this kind can neither be justified [pg 038] nor gainsaid, and is valuable only as a confirmation of the view that there is nothing “recorded” in Lk. i. 30-3 of a unique conception. To launch upon the waters of what is unrecorded would seem to be a policy of despair. There is much more to be said for an extremely interesting suggestion of Canon Box in his article on the Virgin Birth in Hastings's Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (see vol. ii, p. 806 a). Box argues that in the angelic announcement of Lk. i. 30-3 “an immediate conception is meant”. Accepting the view that a Hebrew original underlies the nativity-narratives of Lk. i, ii, he thinks that this original has been incorrectly translated in Lk. i. 31, where, in the Greek, we have the future tense συλλήψῃ, “thou shalt conceive”. “The Hebrew original of συλλήψῃ would be a participle”, he says, “and the exact rendering would be, ‘Behold, thou art conceiving now’ ”. There can be no doubt that, if this view can be allowed, the angelic announcement really does speak of a miraculous birth, and thus an adequate explanation is given of Mary's surprise in Lk. i. 34. There are, however, certain objections which, in the judgement of the present writer, appear to be fatal to this theory. We need not press the objection that it rests upon an initial assumption, the existence of the supposed Hebrew original, since this theory of a Hebrew (or Aramaic) documentary source is accepted by most British scholars. Nor is it more than a formal objection if we question if the word συλλήψῃ would necessarily be represented in the supposed Hebrew original by a participle. In the Hebrew NT. published by the British and Foreign Bible Society, the adjective הָרָה is used, and this is the case in similar passages in the Hebrew OT., viz. Gen. xvi. 11, xxxviii. 24; Judg. xiii. 7 (verse 3, perf.); 1 Sam. iv. 19; 2 Sam. xi. 5; Isa. vii. 14. A more serious objection arises from Lk. ii. 21, where it is said that the name Jesus was so called by the angel “before he was conceived in the womb” (πρὸ τοῦ συλληφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ). On the theory we are considering, this must be held to be either a second mistranslation of the Hebrew original, or a departure from it. In either case we must conclude that a promised conception, and not an immediate one, was the considered view of the translator of the Hebrew document. A second and conclusive objection to the theory of Canon Box rests upon [pg 039] questions of grammatical syntax. Is it correct to say that “the exact rendering” of the participle (or adj.) would be, “Behold, thou art conceiving now”? It is true that the active participle is “mainly descriptive of something present” (Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, p. 134), but it is also true, to quote the same authority, that “the participle does not indicate time, its colour in this respect being taken from the connexion in which it stands”. The same consideration also applies to הָרָה in all the OT. instances referred to above. Where it is made clear in the context that conception has already taken place, הָרָה is translated in the RV. by the present (cf. Gen. xvi. 11, xxxviii. 24; 2 Sam. xi. 5). Where, however, there is no such indication, it is rendered by the future, and the announcement is treated as a promise (cf. Judg. xiii. 7).

To convict the translator of the Hebrew document of an error in translation, it is clearly necessary to show from the context of Lk. i. 31 that conception has already taken place. In other words, the translation preferred by Canon Box, if it is to be accepted, must be justified by some statement, either previously made, or made within the angelic announcement itself; it must be required, that is to say, by something in the narrative previous to Mary's question in Lk. i. 34.[36] But these conditions, which are by no means arbitrary, cannot be met. We must, therefore, conclude that the translator was quite justified, when he used the future (συλλήψῃ), and so represented the announcement as a prophecy; and we must draw this conclusion, irrespective altogether of the difference of point of view which thus stands revealed between this announcement and verse 34 in the connexion in which it now appears. Indeed, the argument of Canon Box seems capable of being employed in a direction the very reverse of that intended. It could be argued that since, in point of fact, the translator has used the future in verse 31, there was nothing in the Hebrew original to suggest to his mind the idea of an [pg 040] immediate conception; not even the statement of verse 34, which might have suggested, though it does not justify, the rendering, “Behold, thou art conceiving now”. Thus we might enlist the considered view of the translator, that a promised conception is meant, in support of the contention that Lk. i. 34 f. is a later insertion. Without pressing this view, we may fairly say that there is much more to be said for it than for the theory we have discussed. The latter theory, in spite of all that can be urged in its favour, fails to justify itself. In that case its failure seems to illustrate the somewhat desperate expedients to which we must have recourse, in order to find in the angelic announcement the thought of an immediate conception. On the question as a whole, we can only conclude that such a view is neither stated nor implied in the announcement, but that, on the contrary, its reference is to the future.

(c) Reasons for regarding Lk. i. 34 f. as a Later Insertion

Having sought to give their full force and proper meaning to the two passages, Lk. i. 30-3 and Lk. i. 34 f., we may now consider the arguments which can be advanced in favour of regarding the latter passage as an interpolation. In respect of these arguments, there is far from general agreement among those who are at one in the conclusion reached. But the significant fact is not the diversity of opinion as regards the mode of proof, but the agreement of so many scholars in holding the passage to be a later insertion.[37] The arguments we shall examine are not equally cogent, and, as in the first part of the present chapter, we shall call attention to their limitations as well as to the points in which they are strong. We shall also treat the case entirely apart from the results suggested in the first half of our inquiry. Those results, if valid, set up a presupposition against Lk. i. 34 f. But it seems much the best not to avail ourselves of such an argument, but rather to consider the passage in itself and in relation to its context. If in this way we find reasonable grounds for considering Lk. i. 34 f. to be [pg 041] a later insertion, we have then a double series of arguments converging on one conclusion.

(1) The first point to be considered is that verse 36 follows naturally after verse 33. As we have seen, in verses 30-3 we have an angelic announcement to Mary to the effect that she is to give birth to a son who is destined to become the Messiah. He will be called “the Son of the Most High”, and to him the Lord God will give “the throne of his father David”. To this message, it may be said, verses 36 and 37 form a fitting sequel. They add the assurance that “no word from God shall be void of power”, in proof of which it is declared that Mary's kinswoman, Elisabeth, is shortly to bear a son in her old age. The whole speech (Lk. i. 30-3, 36, 37) is a consistent passage, and in relation to it the words of Mary in verse 38—“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”—are a natural and fitting reply. Canon Box, in the article already cited, questions this view. “There would be nothing extraordinary”, he says “in Mary's conceiving a son as Joseph's wife”—nothing, that is to say, to require the sign offered. But surely it is not a question of “conceiving a son”, but of conceiving such a son, the long-promised Messiah; and, moreover, the ratification of so great a promise by means of a miracle is a commonplace of OT. thought. It is not suggested, of course, that this argument proves Lk. i. 34 f. to be an interpolation. That a section runs smoothly when a particular passage within it is excised, is no proof that that passage is not original. This last conclusion must be established on the ground of other arguments. If, however, in the present instance, other arguments carry weight, then the fact that verse 36 can be connected easily and naturally with verse 33 becomes of very great importance, and it is for that reason that we introduce it here.

(2) We take a really decisive step when we instance what already has been found, namely that verse 34 follows quite unnaturally upon Lk. i. 30-3. We have seen that Mary's question implies the announcement of an immediate conception, and we have failed to find any such announcement in the angel's words. There is thus a complete difference of point of view in the two passages. No possible ground is provided in the [pg 042] angelic announcement for the objection raised in verse 34. It is difficult, therefore, to deny the suggestion that Mary's question already implies a knowledge of what is told for the first time in verse 35. But this view, if we accept it, is to say that Mary's question could not possibly have been present to the mind of Mary in the connexion in which it stands; it was the last question she would have thought of asking. The question can only have been put into her mouth by one who already knew of the Virgin Birth, and wished to introduce that doctrine into a context in which originally it did not appear. On the interpretation which we have given to Lk. i. 30-3 and Lk. i. 34 f., this conclusion is inevitable, unless we prefer to find in St. Luke an utter inconsecutiveness of thought which does him no credit as writer, and which neither of his works justify us in attributing to him.

(3) We are unable to attach the same force to the contention that verse 35 is followed unnaturally by verses 36 and 37 (so Schmiedel), though this view has something to be said for it. Verse 35 announces the virgin birth of the promised Messiah, a doctrine which is not found in Jewish literature and tradition, and for which, therefore, the mind of Mary must have been utterly unprepared.[38] As the section now stands, the statement of verses 36 and 37 is added as a sign that what has just been promised will surely come to pass. This sign, we have already argued, would be quite natural, according to OT. modes of thought, as authenticating such a message as that given in Lk. i. 30-3. But can we say this in reference to the promise of a virgin birth? To the modern mind at least the argument seems faulty and unconvincing. Mary is bidden to accept as the divine promise what is so remarkable as to be otherwise unknown to her, on the ground of what is certainly remarkable but familiar to her mind and outlook. In truth, this seems a remarkable argument with which to credit an angel! At the same time, it has to be admitted that such an objection may be too stringent, and that it may not allow sufficiently for ancient modes of thought, according to which the argument from the less to the greater is by no means uncommon. For [pg 043] this reason the present writer would not feel confident in pressing the argument sketched above.[39]

(4) A much stronger argument calls attention to the similarity between Mary's question and that of Zacharias (Lk. i. 18), and the difference with which they are treated by the angel. “Mary's speech expresses doubt of the truth of the angel's message, and yet she is not so much as blamed, whilst Zacharias is actually punished for a like doubt (i. 20)”.[40] The presumption is that the two cases do not emanate from the same cycle of tradition. The force of this argument depends, of course, upon the way in which we interpret Lk. i. 34. It is true that we have no indication of the tone in which the question is asked, beyond the words themselves and the sentences which follow; but quite sufficient is given to indicate the presence of doubt. The point is not merely one of subjective valuation. This will appear if we consider Plummer's view, which is quite different from Schmiedel's. “She does not ask for proof, as Zacharias did (ver. 18); and only in the form of the words does she ask as to the mode of accomplishment. Her utterance is little more than an involuntary expression of amazement.... It is clear that she does not doubt the fact promised, nor for a moment suppose that her child is to be the child of Joseph” (op. cit., p. 24). In weighing this opinion, it should be noticed that it refers only to the words, Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο? We may readily agree that if all that Mary had said were, “How shall this be?”, we should be unable to contest this view. But to divide Mary's question in this way is not permissible. The second part, “seeing I know not a man”, clearly determines the first, and debars us from viewing it as merely “an involuntary expression of amazement”. The presence of doubt, we think, must be conceded, though it is less marked than in the case of Zacharias.

This view, moreover, is supported by the fact that, in the narrative as it stands, an explanation follows, which is also confirmed by a sign. Since, as Plummer says, Mary, unlike Zacharias, does not ask for proof, we need not object that she is not “punished.” And it is just possible that we make the parallelism too rigid if we lay stress on the fact that “she is not so much as blamed”. It is rather the “eulogium” of Lk. i. 45 (“Blessed is she that believed”) which presents the difficulty. It is true that, in the narrative as we have it now, Mary believes ultimately (verse 38), but Lk. i. 45 seems rather to belong to a narrative in which Mary believes from the first. We conclude that the present argument gives real support to the view that Lk. i. 34 f. belongs to a source distinct from its context.

(5) A fifth argument dwells on the different senses in which Divine Sonship is predicated of the promised child in verse 32 as compared with verse 35. As we have seen, the term υἱὸς ᾿Υψίστου in verse 32 is purely Messianic. But in verse 35 the expression υἱὸς θεοῦ must be given a very different meaning. It is in consequence of (διὸ καί) the divine overshadowing that the child is to be called “Son of God”. Here, to quote Dr. J. Estlin Carpenter, the term denotes “not official adoption, but actual origin”, and, with the same writer, we must conclude that verse 35 “is thus a doublet of verses 31, 32 on another plane” (op. cit., p. 487).[41] It is more difficult to decide whether the difference supports the theory of interpolation. We cannot shut out the possibility that two diverse types of Sonship might have been attributed by St. Luke to the same speaker at the same time of writing. But, having said this, we may observe that it is certainly much easier to suppose, and is much more probable, that they belong to different periods of reflection, and are the product (or deposit) of different traditions. This argument, then, may be said to lean in the direction of the theory of interpolation, but, for the reason given above, we should hesitate to urge it, if it stood alone.

(6) We have lastly to look at the vexed question of the Davidic descent. It is safe to say that, if we had not Lk. i. 34 f. in the Gospel as it stands to-day, we should have no ground for [pg 045] regarding Mary as of Davidic descent. It is the presence of these verses that makes possible that inference in verse 32, where, in addressing Mary, the angel speaks of David as the forefather of the promised child. It is surely a remarkable fact that a point so vital to St. Luke's narrative as the Davidic descent of Mary should be introduced in so incidental a manner. Our wonder is increased when we observe that St. Luke is at great pains to assure Theophilus of the Davidic descent of Joseph. In ii. 4 it is said that Joseph was “of the house and family of David”; not a word is said of Mary's descent. It is true that the Sin. Syr. reads, “because they were both of the house of David”; but this does not naturally fit into the structure of the sentence, is unsupported elsewhere, and is accepted by no one; it clearly represents an attempt to remove a difficulty. In. i. 27 it is also said that Joseph was “of the house of David”. The phrase cannot be construed with the word “virgin”, which occurs earlier in the sentence, in view of the fact that after ἐξ οἴκου Δανείδ St. Luke resumes the thread of the story by saying “and the virgin's name was Mary”; otherwise, he would have continued (so Schmiedel, op. cit., col. 2957), “and her name was Mary”. It is not easy indeed to resist Schmiedel's further contention that the phrasing of the sentence expressly forbids our ascribing the Davidic descent to Mary, though the opinion is put forward with greater confidence than seems justified. The one passage in which St. Luke directly refers to the family of Mary is dubious. In i. 36 Elisabeth is said to be “the kinswoman” of Mary, and we know from i. 5 that Elisabeth was “of the daughters of Aaron”, which seems to imply that Mary too was of Levitical descent. But as the precise nature of the relationship is not stated, we cannot say, with Schmiedel, Usener, and others, that this is so. Nevertheless, the broad fact remains that apart from an inference, which itself depends on Lk. i. 34 f., we have no grounds for believing Mary to be a descendant of David. St. Luke undoubtedly believes Jesus to be of Davidic descent; he carefully shows Joseph to be of that descent; he gives us no reason to suppose, that, like the author of the First Gospel, he traced the descent of Jesus through Joseph as His legal father; and yet, in spite of all this, he has left the vital question of the Davidic descent of Mary at the mercy of an inference! If he knows Mary to be [pg 046] a descendant of David, why does he not say so explicitly? We have a right to ask the question, which is neither captious nor unfair. No one has yet answered it satisfactorily, except in the answer that St. Luke had no tradition of the Davidic descent of Mary at his disposal, that he traced the descent of Jesus through Joseph as His real father, that this is the true interpretation of verse 32, and that Lk. i. 34 f. is a later insertion, which has imposed on verse 32 a sense which originally it did not bear. Regard Lk. i. 34 f. as a later insertion, and all the facts alleged by St. Luke about the Davidic descent fall into intelligible order; refuse to do this, and they remain in inexplicable confusion.

When we consider the cumulative force of the preceding arguments, it becomes impossible for us to think that Lk. i. 34 f. was written at the same time, and from the same point of view, as the context in which it now stands; it is clearly a later insertion. With some reason we may hesitate to say that verse 36 does not follow naturally upon verse 35, and we may speculate whether two diverse conceptions of Sonship may not be held in the same mind at the same time of writing. But when we ponder the question of the Davidic descent; when we compare verse 34 with Lk. i. 18 ff.; when we observe the natural coherence of Lk. i. 30-3 and Lk. i. 36-8, and the radical difference in point of view between verses 34, 35 and the angelic announcement; when, in short, we have a narrative, which, if Lk. i. 34 f. was present from the first, ought to be dominated by those verses, but on the contrary does not seem to be influenced by them; we are compelled to conclude that the suspected verses represent a later insertion in the Gospel.

III. Summary and Conclusion

We are in a position now to conclude from the foregoing investigation that the Virgin Birth is not an original element in the Third Gospel. This conclusion has been reached by two lines of argument which confirm and strengthen each other. We have seen that the one passage which unmistakably asserts the doctrine is a later insertion. Independently of this, statements have been noted in chapters i and ii, which receive no natural and satisfactory explanation on the assumption that St. Luke wrote his narrative with a knowledge of the miracle [pg 047] presupposed. In the first part of this chapter we expressly refrained from pressing the view that these points in themselves absolutely forbid this assumption. But, obviously, now that we have found Lk. i. 34 f. to be a later insertion, the force of these difficulties is greatly increased. We are now entitled to say that the opinion which does least honour to St. Luke is the view that he has written cc. i, ii, while knowing of the Virgin Birth. We have to remember that not only is the Virgin Birth itself a stupendous thought, but that, if known to St. Luke, it cannot have been known long, and must therefore have preserved the freshness of its wonder. Can we, then, suppose that, while under the sway of a presupposition so despotic as this, he would straightway proceed to use such expressions as “the parents”, “his parents”, “his father and his mother”; that, without qualification, he would speak of “their purification”; that he would represent them astonished at the words of Simeon, and mystified by the bearing and speech of Jesus at Jerusalem? Is it credible, in short, that he should have fallen into the very ambiguities and inconsistencies, which presumably he would be anxious to avoid, and which without the slightest difficulty he could have avoided? Even if we should still hesitate to answer these questions in the negative, our conclusion, that originally the Gospel lacked the references to the Virgin Birth which we now find in it, leaves us no other option.

It should be observed that the arguments we have employed in the present chapter do not compel us to take the view that St. Luke never at any time taught the Virgin Birth. They are satisfied if we can suppose that he had no knowledge of the doctrine when Lk. i, ii was first written. To say that i. 34 f. is a correction, inserted by a redactor or reader, whose name we do not know, but who is not St. Luke, is to take two steps where we have ground for one only. All that our study entitles us to claim is that the Virgin Birth belongs to a later stratum in the Third Gospel. More than this we cannot say, until we have made a thorough linguistic and textual examination of Lk. i. 34 f., and this must be our next task.

Chapter III. St. Luke and the Virgin Birth

While, in the preceding chapter, we concluded that the Virgin Birth is a later stratum in the Third Gospel, we were unable to say to whose hand its presence is due. There was nothing to show that St. Luke could never at any time have known of the doctrine, but only that he could not have known of it at the time when he first drafted and wrote his Gospel. We are free, then, to make a new beginning, and to ask: Did St. Luke teach the Virgin Birth?

The question is most conveniently treated by discussing the authorship of Lk. i. 34 f. As we have seen, this is the crucial passage. If we can believe St. Luke himself to have written these verses, we must also attribute to his pen the words, “as was supposed” in iii. 23; in a word, we must conclude that he taught the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and we must leave the question, how this result is to be co-ordinated with those reached in the previous chapter, to be considered later.

That St. Luke and no other did write these verses, is the considered view of the present writer. There are two lines of argument which converge in this direction. The first argument is textual, but it is more than a matter of weighing documents; the second is linguistic and stylistic. Neither is completely conclusive in itself, and, when taken together, they do not admit of a result so stringent as rigid demonstration. They are complementary each to the other. Either would be weakened in force in the absence of the other, but their agreement is sufficient to establish a result for which a very high degree of probability can justly be claimed.

I. Lk. i. 34 f. and the Textual Question

It is well known that no exception to Lk. i. 34 f. can be taken on strictly textual grounds. The external evidence for the [pg 049] passage is practically complete. The sole exception, which only serves to throw into relief the overwhelming mass of positive evidence, is found in the Old Latin MS. known as b, which substitutes i. 38 for i. 34 and omits verse 38 after verse 37.[42]

In Great Britain, a generation ago and less, this weight of external evidence would have been thought sufficient to settle the question, and there are probably very many scholars who would still take this view. But within recent years a change has come to be discernible among leading theological writers on the general question of attestation. Much more than in former times it is now recognized that during the first half of the second century the text of the New Testament, and especially that of the Gospels, was subject to rather free handling, and the possibility has to be faced that interpolations may have crept into the text in places where formerly the external attestation would have been thought sufficiently strong.

Dr. George Milligan[43] traces the danger of textual corruption to which the New Testament writings were exposed to a threefold cause, (i) the material upon which the autographs were written, (ii) the employment of non-professional scribes, (iii) the fact that the thought of the need of absolute verbal reproduction was strange to early scribes. The last named fact led, not only to attempts to improve the grammar and to add “explanatory words”, but also to the insertion “even of deliberate changes in the supposed interests of historic or dogmatic truth”. Milligan instances the case of Dionysius of Corinth who, “in view of the circulation of his epistles in a falsified form”, is found “naïvely comforting himself with the thought that the same fate had befallen the Scriptures” (p. 179 n.). “The general result”, Dr. Milligan concludes, “is, that instead of assigning textual corruption to a comparatively late date ... everything rather points to the conclusion that, the nearer we get to the original manuscripts, the greater were the dangers to which their text was exposed” (p. 180).

In view of this position, it is important to ask whether interpolations may not exist which have left no trace whatever of their origin in the abundant documentary evidence we possess. A representative statement of this view may be found in the words of Dr. James Moffatt (INT., p. 36 f.): “Even where the extant text does not suggest any break, the possibility of interpolations cannot be denied outright; the distance between the oldest MSS., or even the oldest versions, and the date of composition leaves ample room for changes to have taken place in the interval between the autograph and the earliest known text” (p. 38). “The extent of interpolations varied from a word or two to a paragraph, and the motives for it varied equally from sinister to naïve” (p. 38).[44]

One argument in favour of this view may be drawn from the state of the existing MSS. and versions. The multitudinous variations which occur in these documents cannot be explained without admitting the free treatment which has been mentioned, and which was natural at a time when the Gospels were not yet looked upon as “sacred books”. In large measure such additions as we find were drawn from floating Christian tradition, and in many cases, e.g. the pericope adulteriae, they probably reflect historic fact.[45] Nevertheless, they are not genuine parts of the New Testament. The further argument is an inference: if such variations from such causes occur in the MSS. and versions we possess, may there not be interpolations of which we have no external indication in the existing texts?

Stated in this way the question invites an affirmative answer, but there are other factors which have yet to be considered. As [pg 051] a matter of fact, there is little profit in a broad and general discussion. We touch the heart of the problem only when we consider the types or classes into which such insertions might conceivably fall. On the whole it is best, even if only for purposes of argument, to admit the possibility that insertions unmarked by signs of textual variation exist, and to ask: Of what character may we suppose these insertions to be, and can we define any limits within which they are more probable than others? In particular, is Lk. i. 34 f. a likely or probable instance? It is obvious that hard and fast lines cannot be drawn in individual cases. Nevertheless, it ought to be possible to say whether or not a passage like the one we are considering is, or is not, the work of a redactor.

Those instances of insertions, where textual variations can be cited, supply us with the safest criterion for other suspected cases. Of these instances many, as we have seen, were drawn from the floating tradition of the Christian communities. An interesting case is suggested by Dr. J. H. Moulton (From Egyptian Rubbish Heaps, p. 101 f.). He traces the saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”, to the reminiscences of the centurion who was present at the death of Jesus. “The words are not in Luke's original Gospel, but as the great Professor Hort said in regard to the fact that these words cannot be textually defended, ‘Few if any words in all the Gospels bear more intrinsic witness to the truth of what they relate than these’ ” (p. 103). On general grounds, it may very well be, that similar items of tradition have found their way into the existing texts, leaving the surface of the textual stream unruffled. But it is clear that, in any suspected case, the insertion could be the act of the author himself and not the reader. If the latter really is the case, the insertion must have been made very early, and must have been of such a kind as not to awaken comment or dissent.

A second kind of insertions may possibly be found in explanatory words or phrases, introduced with the intention of bringing out the original writer's meaning. We may take as an instance Rom. iv. 1 (“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, hath found?” εὐρηκέναι), where Sanday and Headlam say that they “regard the omission of εὐρηκέναι as probable with WH. text Tr. RV. marg.” (ICC., [pg 052] Rom., p. 99).[46] In this case, however, as in so many others, the gloss, if gloss it is, is reflected in the textual evidence. Nevertheless, the possibility may be allowed, that such glosses exist even where variants cannot be cited. In these cases, however, it is clear that the insertions must have been very early and very happy, and that in specific cases their presence can rarely be conceded with complete confidence.

Yet another class of interpolations may possibly be found in certain passages in the Gospels which later conditions obtaining within the Christian Church have shaped. That later experience did interpret the words of Jesus and give the sense of them in its own terms, need not be questioned. But it should always be remembered that in any suspected case, the process may well have been complete by the time that the Evangelists wrote, and that the passage is not an interpolation at all. There are very good grounds for this opinion even in cases in which variations in rendering can be cited from patristic and other sources, as, for example, in the case of the Great Commission in Mt. xxviii. 19. This fact makes it all the more difficult to concede an interpolation where the textual record is unbroken, though again the possibility that such cases do exist may well be left open.

The cases just considered help us when we come to think of doctrinal modifications. As regards these, it is important to draw again a distinction which has been already made. We must distinguish, on the one hand, between those instances of doctrinal modification that are due to the Evangelists themselves, and which are in no sense interpolations, and, on the other hand, those which may subsequently have been made by later scribes or readers. Cases of the former kind unquestionably occur in the Gospels. We have only to examine the way in which the First and Third Evangelists have treated the Second Gospel, which lay before them, to be assured of this. Alterations, e.g., are made out of a sense of reverence for the person of Jesus (cf. Allen, ICC., St. Mt., p. xxxi f.). Mt. xix. 17 (“Why askest thou me concerning that which is good?”), and the changes which [pg 053] Mk. vi. 5 f. has been subjected to, both in Mt. and Lk., will serve as illustrations.

Modifications of this kind are not, however, the sort we have specially in mind. It is the second type, those which are interpolations proper, that we have particularly to consider. The existence of these has frankly to be admitted. It is beyond question that doctrinal insertions were introduced into the text of the Gospels by later scribes and readers. The one case of Mt. i. 16 is proof positive of this (see pp. 105 ff.). If the opinion, that the original ending of our Second Gospel was deliberately suppressed, is correct, Mk. xvi. 9-20 may be cited as another instance.[47] An important qualification, however, requires to be made. In the two cases mentioned there is a conflict of textual evidence, and, as regards the latter, the objections are reinforced by the internal evidence, arising from the vocabulary, the style, and the subject-matter. The present writer must needs conclude that the presence of textual variation is an almost necessary condition in the case of a doctrinal insertion. It is more difficult to say how far this requirement should be pressed in the other types of interpolation which have been mentioned, but as regards doctrinal modifications the test is thoroughly legitimate. Without going so far as to pronounce it absolutely impossible, we may say that the theory, that doctrinal insertions may exist where the extant texts show no break, is improbable in the extreme.

In taking this view, we are not confined to the plea of the early and abundant nature of textual evidence, or to the effect of controversy in preserving the purity of the text, though these are arguments of very great weight. A sufficiently decisive factor is the character of the existing textual variants.[48] If authentic items of Jesus-tradition and “explanatory words and phrases” [pg 054] have not been able to enter the textual stream unnoticed, can we suppose that doctrinal modifications have breasted the waters without leaving so much as a ripple? If even an insertion like “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” has not been able successfully to conceal itself, can we believe Lk. i. 34 f. to have succeeded in doing this? Can we think that, like Melchizedek, the passage is without father, mother, genealogy and beginning of life? In asking these questions we need to recall the character of the section. It is such as radically to transform the standpoint of the chapters in which it occurs. It speaks of matters which, for a considerable time at least, were not known among the mass of Christian believers, and were never accepted by some. To suppose, then, that it is a non-Lukan doctrinal interpolation, is a flight of faith, for which those who can make it should receive the credit that is due, but of which the present writer must confess that he is not capable.

While, however, we conclude that the theory we are discussing is manifestly improbable, we have admitted our inability to pronounce it impossible in any shape and form. Provided we agree that the Third Gospel never circulated without Lk. i. 34 f., there is one point where the passage might have entered as an insertion, and that is in the interval before circulation. But even here it is difficult to suppose that the passage was added by some one other than St. Luke himself. In our entire ignorance of the circumstances under which the Gospel came to have a wider circulation, we cannot say that this supposition is inadmissible. It has a bare possibility in its favour, but not more. If a linguistic examination of the passage gave a result unfavourable to Lukan authorship, the possibility would become more significant. But if the contrary proves to be the case, then it becomes so remote as to be unworthy of serious consideration. It is because of this position that we have described the present argument as being not completely conclusive in itself, and the one line of reasoning as complementary to the other. Quite apart, however, from the linguistic argument, the difficulties which the theory of non-Lukan interpolation has to face on textual grounds are formidable.

II. Linguistic and Stylistic Examination of Lk. i. 34 f

Our second task is to make a linguistic and stylistic examination of Lk. i. 34 f. At the beginning of the last chapter we drew attention to the importance of the test. It cannot be too strongly affirmed that any hypothesis of interpolation, which does not take account of the linguistic characteristics of the passage, is premature; indeed, it may easily turn out to be a rather glaring case of non sequitur.

It is precisely the linguistic test which we miss in the arguments of those who claim that Lk. i. 34 f. was not written by St. Luke. Usually it is thought enough to argue an incompatibility between this passage and its context, and straightway to assign the former to the pen of an unknown redactor. We may illustrate this method from the two articles in the Encyclopaedia Biblica to which reference has been made. In the article on “Mary”, Schmiedel says (col. 2956): “It has to be pointed out that even in Lk. i only two verses—vv. 34 f.—contain the idea of the virgin birth clearly and effectively; and these disturb the connexion so manifestly that we are compelled to regard them as a later insertion”. The only argument of a linguistic character is the remark: “Note, further, that apart from i. 34 ἐπεί (‘since’) is not met with either in the third gospel or in Acts”. Usener writes (col. 3349): “To Joh. Hillmann (JPT. 17, 221 ff.) belongs the merit of having conclusively shown that the two verses in Lk. (i. 34 f.), the only verses in the Third Gospel in which the supernatural birth of Jesus of the Virgin Mary is stated, are incompatible with the entire representation of the rest of chaps, i and ii, and thus must have been interpolated by a redactor”.[49] It is theories of this kind that we have in view when we say (p. 47) that to state such a conclusion is to take two steps where there is ground for one only.

The importance of the linguistic argument is manifest in such works as Sir John C. Hawkins's Horae Synopticae (2nd ed., 1909) and Dr. W. K. Hobart's Medical Language of St. Luke (1882). It has also received great emphasis in the books in which Harnack has sought to prove the Lukan authorship and early date of the Acts, viz. Luke the Physician, The Acts of [pg 056]the Apostles, and The Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels.

It may not be without value to ask how far the linguistic argument can take us. We may certainly lay down the broad proposition that arguments in favour of an interpolation ought to be supported by the linguistic facts; provided, of course, that the suspected passage is susceptible of the linguistic test. We do not forget that a passage may be of such a neutral character as not to admit of that test. In that case we have to be content with other available arguments. Where, however, the linguistic test can be applied, and where the result is strongly favourable to the genuineness of the passage, that, assuredly, is a very serious objection for the theory of interpolation to face. It becomes especially formidable, if we can bring forward no evidence to prove an anachronism, or if we can allege no real textual objections. Under such circumstances, indeed, we may well adopt the rule that, in cases of this kind, we have not to do with the insertion of a redactor; unless, of course, we have good reason for saying that the interpolator has entered deeply into the original writer's style. The view here taken does not mean that all objections to a passage are sufficiently met if we can state a strong linguistic case on the other side. We shall have reason to take up this point again (p. 69). For the present it is sufficient to say that each kind of argument must be given its own particular force. In the case of a passage where objections arising from context and subject-matter cannot be gainsaid, we must conclude that the passage is of later date than its context, but not more. In a case where the facts of vocabulary, style, and subject-matter are sufficiently favourable, and no textual difficulties forbid, we must ascribe the passage to the original writer. In a case, finally, where both kinds of conditions occur, we must suppose that the passage was afterwards inserted by the writer himself into the body of his own work. Clearly, then, the linguistic examination of a suspected passage is a matter of great importance. In the case of Lk. i. 34 f., it is not too much to say that it is a task as necessary as it is neglected.

It may be objected that the passage is one of two verses only, and that, in consequence, it is much too brief to allow of satisfactory [pg 057] results. On the other hand, it should be remembered that the thirty-seven words of the section include several interesting phrases and points of construction, which are so important in matters of this kind. Moreover, in the case of St. Luke, we are dealing with a writer who has a very distinctive style.[50]

Harnack has recognized the force of the linguistic argument in the case of two verses (thirty-one words). These are the last two verses of the Acts. After remarking that, so far as he knows, it has never been questioned that these words come from the author of the complete work, though they have the appearance of being a postscript, he continues: “Moreover, in content and in form they agree so closely with the Lukan style that from this point of view strong arguments can be produced in favour of their genuineness” (Date of Acts, &c., p. 94). In a footnote he adds the linguistic argument. This is quite enough for our purpose. It is true that the genuineness of Lk. i. 34 f. is questioned by many (on other than linguistic and textual grounds). Nevertheless, the field is open for inquiry as to whether “in content and form they agree so closely with the Lukan style that from this point of view strong arguments can be produced in favour of their genuineness”. After all, the length of the passage is not the vital consideration, but its character (which may, or may not, be more striking than that of a much longer section); and this is something which can come out only after actual examination.

We turn, then, to the linguistic examination of Lk. i. 34 f. According to the Westcott and Hort text, the passage is as follows:

34. εἶπεν δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω; 35. καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ ἄγγελος εἶπεν αὐτῇ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ δύναμις Ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι· διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ᾿ἍΓΙΟΝ ΚΛΗΘΉΣΕΤΑΙ, υἱὸς θεοῦ.

In treating these words, we shall not follow the order in which they occur, but the order of their importance for our investigation.[51] It is clear that the words fall into different [pg 058] classes: (a) according as they are neutral in character, that is to say, of insufficient importance either way in deciding the question; (b) in so far as they create difficulty on the assumption of Lukan authorship, and, to that extent, support the theory of interpolation; (c) in so far as they give clear support in favour of Lukan origin.

a.

In the first class we may include the words: ἀνήρ, καὶ ἀποκριθείς, πῶς, ἄγγελος, δύναμις, ἅγιος, εἶπεν with dat., υἱὸσ θεοῦ, and perhaps even Πνεῦμα ἅγιον.

Every one of these words and phrases is well represented in the Lukan writings, and in the case of some of them we get, on investigation, remarkable results.[52]

Take the case of ἀνήρ. In the NT. it occurs 212 times, and of these no less than 125 appear in St. Luke's works (26 in G. and 99 in Acts), i.e. 58 per cent. Still more remarkable is the result when we compare ἀνήρ and ἄνθρωπος. Whereas the other Evangelists use ἄνθρωπος very frequently indeed (218 times), they employ ἀνήρ only 20 times. St. Luke also (especially in the Gospel) uses ἄνθρωπος frequently (93 times), but he has ἀνήρ 26 times (cf. Mt. 8 times, Mk. 4 times, Jn. 8 times). If we take both Lukan writings, the usage of ἄνθρωπος and ἀνήρ is roughly equal, whereas in the rest of the NT. it is as 9 is to 2. We can say, therefore, that St. Luke shows a liking for ἀνήρ, whereas Mt. Mk. and Jn. markedly prefer ἄνθρωπος. However, the word is so common that we can lay no stress on the fact that it occurs in i. 34, where the connexion demands it. We can only note its congruity with a Lukan liking.

Καὶ ἀποκριθείς is also interesting, though not, of course, in any way decisive. In Lk. the phrase occurs 14 times; in Mt. it is found 6 times; in Mk. 8; never in the Fourth Gospel, and never in the Acts. It occurs, that is to say, in those parts of the New Testament in which sources, probably Aramaic,[53] are employed. This is in line with the view expressed by Moulton and Milligan with regard to the aorist passive forms of the verb.[54] They say that they incline to the opinion that ἀπεκρίθην “belongs only to early Hellenistic, whence it was taken by the LXX translators to render a common Hebrew phrase, passing thence into the narrative parts of NT. as a definite ‘Septuagintalism’ ”. It is in keeping with this view that καὶ ἀποκριθείς ... εἶπεν should appear in that part of St. Luke's Gospel where most of all we have reason to posit Semitic sources, whether oral or documentary. As we have seen, half the record of this expression in the New Testament, apart from Lk. i. 35, is in the Third Gospel. The presence, then, of καὶ ἀποκριθείς in Lk. i. 35 is congruous with these facts; more, perhaps, we cannot say.

A word like πῶς has no bearing on our present investigation, [pg 060] and the same is true of ἄγγελος, δύναμις (otherwise, however, of δ. in combination with nouns, &c., in the gen.), ἅγιος (very frequently in Lk.), εἶπεν (with dat.),[55] and υἱὸς θεοῦ.

Μαριάμ (of the mother of Jesus) occurs more often in Lk. than in other NT. writers (9 times and probably 10 in the G., once in Acts); the form Μαρία appears but once (ii. 19 is doubtful). In Mk. Μαρία occurs once, Μαριάμ never; in Mt. we find Μαρία 3 times and Μαριάμ probably twice. The use of the form Μαριάμ in i. 34 is therefore in agreement with St. Luke's usage, but of course this does not preclude the hand of an interpolator, since every instance of Μαριάμ (of the mother of Jesus) in the Third Gospel occurs in the first two chapters.

As is well known, the phrase Πνεῦμα ἅγιον is very frequently found in the Lukan writings. The percentage is as much as 60, and out of the instances in the NT., where the phrase is anarthrous, more than 50 per cent, are in St. Luke (G. and Acts). The phrase is therefore very strongly Lukan. But perhaps we ought not to include the phrase among those which tell strongly against the theory of interpolation, since a redactor would easily and naturally introduce it in the connexion in which it appears in i. 35. “The new view was not an intruder from the sphere of heathen mythology, but a logical conclusion from the belief that our Lord was God's Son by the operation of the Holy Spirit” (Harnack's Date of Acts,[56] p. 144). We can say therefore that Πνεῦμα ἅγιον is admirably in keeping with Lukan usage but hardly more. The case is quite otherwise with the whole phrase, Πνεῦμα ἅγ. ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, as we shall see.

Καλέω is also a word which might be considered here, for it is, of course, a very common word. Having regard, however, to the way in which it is used, it will be better to take it later.

Summing up our results thus far, we may say that we have found nothing that is out of accord with Lukan usage. On the other hand, indeed, every word and phrase we have examined is well represented in St. Luke's writings. Nevertheless, the [pg 061] words are common elsewhere, and in no case do they tell decisively either way.

b.

We now come to words which present difficulties, less or greater, on the assumption of Lukan authorship, and so far tell in favour of the theory of interpolation. These are—ἐπεί, γινώσκω, and perhaps τὸ γεννώμενον.

1. We introduce τὸ γεννώμενον here, because the expression, as distinct from the construction, occurs nowhere else in Lk. As a matter of fact it occurs nowhere else in the New Testament in this form. The perfect passive participle, however, appears twice in the Johannine writings: τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τ. σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν (Jn. iii. 6), and ὅτι πᾶν γεγεννημένον ἐκ τ. θεοῦ νικᾷ τ. κόσμον (1 Jn. v. 4). What is more important is that there is a close parallel to τὸ γεννώμενον in Mt. i. 30, which reads, τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ πνεύματος ἐστιν ἁγίου. The complete clause in Lk. runs, διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται, υἱὸς θεοῦ.

It is certainly open to any one to argue that the passage in Lk. is introduced by an interpolator who is under the influence of Mt. i. 20. Why, however, while under that influence, he should so far enter into Lukan usage as to introduce the Lukan διὸ καί, and κληθήσεται, to say nothing of putting Πνεῦμα ἅγιον into a different connexion in a characteristically Lukan phrase (Π. ἅγ. ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ. Cf. Acts i. 8 and see later), are questions which it is not easy to answer. Assuredly there is not much here to support the hypothesis of interpolation, and when we consider the constructional use of the article with the participle, there is still less, if indeed anything at all. To consider τὸ γεννώμενον is rather a concession to carefulness than the acknowledgement of a real difficulty.

2. Γινώσκω must be examined, because in i. 34 it is used of knowledge in the way of marital relationship. The only parallel in the New Testament is Mt. i. 25, where, however, it is used of a man: καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὖ ἕτεκεν υἱόν. On the other hand, in other senses, γινώσκω occurs fairly frequently in Lk. It is, however, in no sense Lukan, being distributed evenly throughout the New Testament, except in the Johannine writings, where it is very common.

We cannot, therefore, produce evidence to show that elsewhere St. Luke uses γ. in the special sense of i. 34. Nevertheless, there is no reason why he should not have written γ. in that passage, and there are considerations which go to show how he could easily have used the word.

In i. 34 and also in Mt. i. 25 γινώσκω is by no means a “Hebraistic euphemism”,[57] yet it is probable that the influence of the Septuagint is to be found in both passages. In the LXX there are several instances of γ. used, as in i. 34, of a woman. It is so used in Gen. xix. 8 (of Lot's daughters), in Judg. xi. 39 (of Jephthah's daughter), and in Num. xxxi. 17 (of the women of Midian). If, then, we are right in tracing the influence of the LXX, in i. 34, we have ground for finding the hand of St. Luke in that passage, even though he never again uses γ. in that sense. For it is just in Lk. i, ii that the influence of the LXX is most marked.[58]

Even if we do not press LXX influence (for γ. in this special sense is found “in Greek writers from the Alexandrian age down”),[59] it is not at all apparent why St. Luke himself should not have used the word. And if the argument in favour of the theory of interpolation is to be sustained, it is scarcely enough to urge the bare fact that St. Luke does not use γ. as in i. 34 elsewhere. An idiom which occurs in Greek writers from the time of Menander[60] (b.c. 325) may well have been known to a writer like St. Luke, apart from its presence in the Septuagint. If verses 34, 35 are indeed Lukan, it is quite probable that in γ. we should find the influence of the Septuagint, but we are not at all shut up to Septuagint usage. In the connexion in which it occurs γινώσκω was a suitable word to employ, and its presence there is in no way incongruous with Lukan authorship.

3. In these verses the word which is of greatest difficulty is without doubt ἐπεί. In the rest of the New Testament it occurs 25 times. Of these 10 are found in the Pauline Epistles and 9 in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The remaining 6 appear [pg 063] in the Gospels; 3 in Mt., 1 in Mk., and 2 in Jn. Apart then from i. 34 ἐπεί occurs nowhere in St. Luke's works.

There are, it is true, two Lukan passages, one in the Gospel (vii. 1) and the other in the Acts (xiii. 46), where ἐπεί δέ occurs in some MSS. The true reading, however, in both cases is probably ἐπειδή.[61] We have, therefore, to face the fact, that not only is ἐπεί found nowhere else in St. Luke's works, but that elsewhere he seems to prefer ἐπειδή and ἐπειδήπερ (the latter in the Prologue to the Gospel, and the former five times out of the ten cases in which it occurs in the New Testament). Here is the strongest argument, which on linguistic grounds can be urged against the genuineness of i. 34 f. The richness of St. Luke's vocabulary increases the difficulty.[62] Why, if he has used ἐπεί in i. 34, he should never employ it again, is a question which it is not easy to answer. If, in view of the evidence as a whole, the case for an interpolation fails, we shall have to content ourselves with the fact, however strange, that here and here only έπεί occurs in Lk. A writer indeed may use a word once and never again. Ἐπεί occurs but once in Mk. (xv. 42), and it may be so here. Assuredly, in a linguistic argument room must always be left for the occurrence of ἅπαξ λεγόμενα in an individual writer. The force of this contention is, however, somewhat weakened by the preference which St. Luke seems to show for ἐπειδή, and it must be allowed that the case for an interpolation does receive support from ἐπεί.

c.

We have now to consider the third division of the linguistic evidence. It includes the following words and phrases:

τὸ γεννώμενον (the construction),

κληθήσεται,

δύναμις Ὑψίστου,

διὸ καί,

ἐπισκιάσει σοι,

Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ,

εἶπεν δὲ ... πρὸς ...

1. We begin with τὸ γεννώμενον (the construction.) As is well known, the article with the participle is quite a characteristic of the Lukan writings. “Participles with the article often take the place of substantives”, writes Plummer (ICC., St. Lk., p. lxii). The instances given by Plummer are as follows:

ii. 27. κατὰ τὸ εἰθισμένον. (Here only in NT.)

iv. 16. κατὰ τό εἰωθός. (Here and Acts xvii, 2 only.)

viii. 34. ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ βόσκοντες τὸ γεγονὸς ἕφυγον. (Here and Mk. v. 14; Lk. [xxiv. 12]. Cf. also Acts iv. 21.)

xxii. 22. κατὰ τὸ ὡρισμένον. (Here only in NT. Cf. the parallel passages, Mt. xxvi. 24 and Mk. xiv. 21, where we find καθὼς γέγραπται περὶ αὐτοῦ.)

xxiv. 14. περὶ πάντων τῶν συμβεβηκὸτων τούτων. (Cf. Acts iii. 10.)

To these may be added xxi. 36, xxiii. 47, 48. The construction is clearly Lukan, without, of course, being exclusively Lukan, and though τὸ γεννώμενον does not occur elsewhere in St. Luke's works, the verb is not uncommon (10 times out of 93 in the NT., of which 40 occur in the Genealogy in Mt.).

2. Κληθήσεται. In his Date of Acts Harnack underlines this verb, as a Lukan trait, wherever it occurs in the “We” Sections, which he prints on pp. 4-12. Out of the total number of cases in which it occurs in the New Testament, no less than 44 per cent. are found in the Lukan writings. In the Gospel it is present 41 times. It should also be noted that when we compare καὶ τὸ γ. ἅγιον κληθήσεται with the analogous phrase in Mt. 1. 20, τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ πνεύματός ἐστιν ἁγίου, in the latter the Lukan καλέω is absent. Of course καλέω is a common word, but St. Luke's use of it is distinctive, and with this usage κληθήσεται in verse 35 agrees.

3. We have referred to δύναμις already,[63] and have said that while frequent in Lk., it is too common a word to be important for our present purpose. The case is otherwise with the phrase δύναμις Ὑψίστου. St. Luke is fond of using δ. in composition with other words in the genitive. In his Gospel, he employs [pg 065] it with τὸ πνεῦμα, ὁ θεός, Κύριος, οἱ οὐρανοί, and ὁ ἐχθρός. In the Acts (viii. 10) we have ἡ Δύναμις τ. θεοῦ ἡ καλουμένη Μεγάλη. In Mt. we find this usage twice; in Mk. once; in the main epistles of St. Paul it occurs 13 times; elsewhere in the New Testament 7 times. That is to say, out of 29 instances in the New Testament (other than i. 35),[64] St. Luke has 6 (or 20 per cent.). We may therefore say that this again is a marked characteristic of St. Luke's usage, and though the phrase δ. Ὕ. does not occur again in Lk. (it occurs nowhere else in the NT.), it is thoroughly congruous with the Lukan style. We have also to note the word Ὕψιστος. Out of 12 instances in the New Testament St. Luke actually has 8, or 75 per cent. As, however, three of these occur in chaps. i and ii, it might be argued that the interpolator has introduced Ὕ. in verse 35 under the influence of these very chapters. That, however, he should combine it with δ. is interesting. Indeed, on the theory of interpolation, our interpolator has combined a distinctively Lukan word (Ὕψιστος) with another word (δύναμις) which St. Luke often uses (24 times), to produce a characteristic Lukan phrase (δ. in composition with a noun in the genitive)!

4. Διὸ καί. Elsewhere St. Luke uses διό 9 times (once in the Gospel and 8 times in the Acts). In this respect he may be compared with St. Paul, who uses the word 25 times, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who employs it 8 times. In the Catholic Epistles it appears 6 times. There is but one instance in Mt. and a doubtful case in Mk. The results are also interesting when we take διὸ καί. Out of 10 instances in the New Testament, St. Luke has 2 (Ac. x. 29 and xxiv. 26), St. Paul has 6, and Hebrews 2. There is not an instance in Mt. or Mk., or anywhere else in the New Testament. We are far from suggesting that no one else could use διὸ καί.[65] The point is that the supposed interpolator has introduced the phrase into the work of a writer who, with St. Paul and the author of Hebrews, alone among New Testament writers employs it!

5. Ἐπισκιάσει σοι. Ἐπισκιάζω appears in four other places in the New Testament. Of these, three are connected with the [pg 066] story of the Transfiguration (Mt. xvii. 5, Mk. ix. 7, Lk. ix. 34). That the remaining instance should be Acts v. 15 is, in connexion with our present problem, an interesting fact. Thayer-Grimm remarks that the verb occurs in “profane” authors, “generally with an accusative of the object, and in the sense of obscuring”. In the Septuagint, however, it is used of the divine covering or overshadowing (cf. Ps. xc. (xci.) 4; Ps. cxxxix. (cxl.) 8; Ex. xl. 29 (35)). We have to ask whether these passages, especially the last, have influenced the writer of i. 35. We cannot assume the point, of course, but there is much to be said for it. The thought of the cloud of Yahweh overshadowing the tent of meeting may very well have shaped the thought and the phrasing of δ. Ὕψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι. If there is any weight in this suggestion (cf. Plummer, op. cit., p. 24), again it tells for Lukan authorship—so far, that is to say, as the undoubted fact that chaps. i and ii have a distinctly Old Testament atmosphere will take us. Apart, however, from such considerations it is a remarkable fact, on the theory of interpolation, that a word so rare in the New Testament, and one which St. Luke uses more than any one else, should appear in the suspected verses. Acts v. 15 (ἵνα ἐρχομένου Πέτρου κἂν ἡ σκιὰ ἐπισκιάσει τινὶ αὐτῶν) is enough in itself to raise the gravest doubt that we have here to do with an interpolator.

6. Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ. Here we have first to call attention to the verb ἐπέρχομαι. Apart from Eph. ii. 7 and James v. 1, this verb is limited to the Lukan writings, where it occurs six times (i.e. besides i. 35). We have already spoken of Πνεῦμα ἅγιον and remarked that, while it is characteristic of St. Luke, we could not lay stress upon that fact, since even an interpolator would naturally introduce a reference to the Holy Spirit in such a connexion as i. 35. If, however, as now we take the whole phrase, we come to a very different conclusion. For in Acts i. 8 we have the significantly close parallel, ἐπελθόντος τ. ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς. The parallel speaks for itself!

7. We consider lastly, εἶπεν δὲ ... πρός. A comparison of passages in the four Gospels and the Acts gives the following results:

εἶπεν δέ: Jn. 1 (& 2?); Lk. (G.) 60; Acts 15; Lk. (G. & Ac.) 75

εἶπεν ... πρός: Mt. 1?; Mk. 2; Jn. 9; Lk. (G.) 79; Acts 26; Lk. (G. & Ac.) 105

εἶπεν δὲ ... πρός: Lk. (G.) 25; Acts 2; Lk. (G. & Ac.) 27

To the facts noted in the foregoing table we may add that εἶπεν πρός occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. St. Luke, therefore, has it 105 times out of 116. Still more is εἶπεν δὲ ... πρός limited to St. Luke. No other New Testament writer uses the phrase, and St. Luke has it 27 times.[66]

In his three books on the Acts, Harnack is fond of underlining Lukan characteristics in the “We” Sections, in order to show the linguistic identity which exists between these Sections and the rest of the work. Let us see how Lk. i. 34 f. appears, when treated in this way; not forgetting, of course, that we are dealing with two verses only. It is obviously impossible to indicate by this method the special significance of each word or phrase; this, however, has already been shown. Our results may be represented as follows: εἶπεν δὲ Μαριὰμ πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον Πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω; καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ ἄγγελος εἷπεν αὐτῇ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ δύναμις Ὕψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι· διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται, υἱὸς θεοῦ.

A possible reply to the linguistic argument presented above is that we may have to do with an interpolator who has thoroughly entered into the Lukan style. If our examination has shown anything at all, it has shown that Lk. i. 34. f. is very far from presenting neutral features: it is shot through and through with “Lukanisms”.[67] But, it may be asked, could not an interpolator, strongly influenced by the Lukan style, have penned these verses?

Let us see what, on that hypothesis, the interpolator has done. He has produced a passage of thirty-seven words, in which there [pg 068] is not a construction, and only one word (ἐπεί), which is not well represented in the Lukan writings. He has used a word (γινώσκω) in a sense not elsewhere illustrated in those works, but a word which St. Luke would naturally employ in the connexion in which it occurs. He has employed words, phrases, and constructions for which St. Luke has a fondness, such as καλέω, δύναμις Ὕψίστου, διὸ καί, the article with the participle in place of a noun (τὸ γενν.).[68] He has used two verbs (ἐπισκιάζω and ἐπέρχομαι) which are rare in the New Testament, but which St. Luke uses more than once; the phrase Π. ἅ. ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, which is closely paralleled in Acts i. 8; and, above all, the markedly Lukan εἶπεν δὲ ... πρός.

This feat, it must be confessed, is a striking performance. If, indeed, it has been achieved, we must conclude that it has been carried out deliberately. We make every allowance for the possibility that a redactor may well enter into the style of an author. But to suppose that in so short a passage so many Lukan features have come together without premeditation or design is all but impossible. We make bold to say that, if we must admit such an undesigned collocation of “Lukanisms”, we can have little confidence in the linguistic argument anywhere.

But can we believe that the linguistic features of Lk. i. 34 f. have been purposely introduced? Such a question is its own answer. No one, assuredly, would resort to the desperate expedient of supposing a redactor, who laboriously amasses Lukan characteristics, with the intention of passing off the very phraseology of his insertion as genuine. A modern interpolator might work along these lines, but not an ancient redactor. Interpolations are not forgeries. The thought of consciously reproducing stylistic features in an insertion would probably never have occurred to a redactor of the Gospels.[69]

So far then as linguistic considerations go, we must conclude that our unknown interpolator is a mythical personage. We do [pg 069] not forget the difficulty of ἐπεί, but if Lk. i. 34 f. is a non-Lukan interpolation, we must have more support than this. Warp and woof are Lukan; only a single thread gives cause for hesitation. Must not this hesitation give way when we look at the facts as a whole? Can we strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel? Assuredly on linguistic grounds the most reasonable conclusion we can frame is that Lk. i. 34 f. comes from the hand of St. Luke himself.

III. Summary and Conclusion

We have now to co-ordinate our results. However strong a linguistic argument may be, there is perhaps always room for the view that it is confirmatory rather than demonstrative. In the present case also, the shortness of the passage can be pleaded. In noticing this objection we urged that the character of the passage is the relevant consideration, and we think Lk. i. 34 f. meets this demand. But we have no need to press the linguistic argument to the extent we ourselves believe to be legitimate, when we find that both this argument and the textual argument point steadily in the same direction. It is this fact, that both arguments converge on the same point, which is the ultimate ground for our conclusion. Short of supplying a rigid demonstration, which should not be sought, it is sufficient to establish for us the Lukan authorship of Lk. i. 34 f.

This view carries with it at once the further conclusion that at some time or other St. Luke taught and believed in the Virgin Birth. But before we can rest satisfied with this result, we need to look more closely at an alternative form of the interpolation-hypothesis, to which reference has already been made (p. 36). This is the view of Kattenbusch, Merx, Weinel, and J. M. Thompson (Miracles in the New Testament, p. 149).

According to this theory the interpolation consists in the phrase ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω, an insertion which, it is contended, has transformed the promise of a natural conception into the prophecy of a virgin birth. Mr. Thompson notices the two forms which the theory may assume. The insertion may be either “a modification of St. Luke's source, introduced by the Evangelist himself, as editor”, or it may be “a later addition to the text of Lk. by some person or congregation who wished to make the [pg 070] miracle quite clear” (p. 149). It is obvious that, in its former shape, this hypothesis would not seriously affect our results reached thus far, provided we could agree that “verse 35 is not inconsistent with human parentage” (Thompson, p. 148), and is best interpreted in this way. As regards the second form of the theory, the case is different. If ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω is the addition of a later reader or congregation, it is much more difficult to think that St. Luke taught the Virgin Birth. It would not be impossible; but it would leave the whole problem to rest upon the interpretation of verse 35.

We are unable to accept the theory that ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω is an insertion of unknown origin, for the following reasons:

1. On the whole, the more natural interpretation of verse 35 is that in itself it implies the Virgin Birth. It is easier, on this view, to explain ἐπελεύσεται and ἐπισκιάσει followed by διὸ καί. (Cf. Schmiedel, col. 2957 n.; Plummer, St. Lk., p. 24f.; Lobstein, op. cit., p. 67.)

2. No textual evidence can be cited in support of the theory. This is frankly admitted by Mr. Thompson, and the insertion is explained as an editorial modification. We could regard this explanation as sufficient, if the “insertion” could be looked upon as an “explanatory phrase”, intended to sharpen a reference to the Virgin Birth, which had already been found in the context. On this reading of the problem, absence of textual variation might not be an insuperable difficulty. But if we must regard ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω as a doctrinal modification—an attempt on the part of an unknown editor to impose upon the narrative a sense quite different from that which previously it had been understood to bear—then the argument sketched in the first part of the present chapter is wholly against the theory. We cannot understand why no echoes of the earlier view have lingered.

3. It is difficult to suppose that a later reader who sought to work up the original narrative in the interests of the Virgin Birth would have exercised such restraint. To expand a narrative in the direction of the sense which it already bears is a conceivable suggestion. To transform it totally by merely adding four words is a theory which does not carry conviction. Was ever an interpolator so ingenious as this?

On the other side may be pleaded (1) the difficulty of ἐπεὶ, (2) many of the arguments we have sketched in Chapter II. The difficulty of ἐπεὶ we have to admit. As regards the second point, we believe that the theory we have yet to outline in the next chapter meets the case much better, without suffering from the special objections which can be brought against the view we have just discussed. For the reasons given we are unable to accept that view. We prefer to regard Lk. i. 34 f. as a unity, and to interpret both verses as implying the Virgin Birth. And as we have found sufficient reasons, both on textual and linguistic grounds, for ascribing the passage to St. Luke, we believe that he taught the Virgin Birth.

Chapter IV. The Place Of The Virgin Birth In The Third Gospel

In the present chapter we must formulate a theory which shall do justice to the results obtained in the last two chapters. We have argued that the Virgin Birth is not an original element in the Third Gospel, that several passages in it are inconsistent with the doctrine, and that Lk. i. 34 f. is a later insertion. On the other hand we have given reasons for our belief that St. Luke really did write the passage just mentioned, and that in consequence he taught the Virgin Birth. It is useless, we think, to set these results against one another; they are not contradictory. The argument from the linguistic and textual facts will not make one iota of difference to those derived from the treatment and subject-matter of Lk. i, ii, and the latter will not in any way impair the former. Writers who hold fast to the view that St. Luke wrote i. 34 f. have not, in that one contention, answered their opponents, and critics who plead for the hypothesis of non-Lukan interpolation travel much too fast. The final theory must take all the facts into account.