Why Did Jesus Have to be Born of a Virgin?

Let’s talk about the virgin birth of Jesus. Specifically, two things: Scriptural verses predicting and saying that it happened; and secondly, the meaning of it—why a virgin birth was necessary. We’ll begin with Luke 1:26ff, as the New King James Version (NKJV) presents it. Partial verses in some, to reduce the length:

²⁶ Now in the sixth month (ed., of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, as will be explained later), the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” ³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”

This New King James quote is in updated English from the venerable King James edition of 1611. The King James was the result of an English translation from Greek partial texts, that Erasmus (16^th century Dutch theologian) put together, 27 books, that were earlier acceptable as Holy Spirit-inspired. Since there were insignificant differences among those 5000 partials texts, they were trustworthy. Erasmus’ Greek Bible was called the “Textus Receptus” (Received Text). The reason I mention all this is that here were false prints of “Bibles” going around too, though. Those false “Bibles” often spread the doctrine that Mary was not a virgin when she conceived Jesus. But word spread about which ones were false; so if a large portion of a Bible was found hundreds of years later just lying around, in good shape, it was pretty certain to be a false print, since not too many would read it, being false. The true Bibles and partial texts were passed around everywhere and grew tattered, in contrast. Erasmus, codifying Scripture over a millennium later, was a master theologian, and did a great job of deciding which texts that crossed his path were real or false.  I will dig into the subject of modern false versions further, and how it affects the virgin Mary, but I must finish telling the necessity of why Mary had to be a virgin when she carried Jesus in her womb.

People have had a sinful nature ever since Adam and Eve; we have a natural tendency to ignore, or even do the reverse of God’s commands. His Word tells us not to lie; but we lie frequently when it serves our purpose. I could name many such examples of different sin such as this, but you get the point. We lean toward sinning. Wanting to be holy, and loving God, should be our first priorities, but we fail on both counts. As Romans 3:23 puts it, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This means we are not reconciled to God, and cannot have access to heaven no matter what we do on our own. We need forgiveness, and for our sins to be expunged. A just God cannot just avert His eyes from our rebellion against Him. But God wanted to make a way for us to escape hell. He provided a way, but only for those who follow Scripture, which tells Jesus’ exact role in that. Jesus did not come from heaven to earth (yes, He had eternal existence) to be a moral leader, nor to heal people, nor to be a martyr. He came to save sinners. Consider I Timothy 1:15 and Luke 19:9-10, on why He came:

…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners... 

⁹ And Jesus said to him… the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Many “theologians” assert that there was nothing supernatural about Jesus or His conception. But how could Jesus save us from hell, if he was just another guy like us? Even a philosopher, or a super-religionist, when he died, would just be another human death, since all humans sin and cannot enter heaven, for themselves or for others.

The answer is that Jesus was God, also called the Son of God, which is the same thing—either one says He was God. Part of the Trinity. And He was sinless. Scripture confirms His deity, in a slew of places. Here’s a good one: Hebrews 1:1-3, 8:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ² has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³ who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…8 But to the Son He (God the Father) says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Note the many phrases asserting Jesus’ deity:

1)    God spoke to believers through His Son (Jesus)

2)    God appoints Jesus to be heir of all things

3)    Jesus was involved in original creation

4)    Jesus was the “express image” of His (the Father’s) person. The term “express image” means “the exact representation of God’s being;” and “the visible form of the invisible God.” He was called “Immanuel” three times in Scripture. One is in Matthew 1:23:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Do not think lightly about “God with us.” While Jesus was on earth, God was truly right there with them. It’s called the Incarnation.

5)    Jesus upholds all things (even the universe) by the word of His power. Did you ever wonder, what holds all of this, flying around in space, together? It’s Jesus.

6)   God (the Father) calls His Son, Jesus, “God.”

7)    Finally, the phrases “sat...at the right hand,” and “A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom” are important in ancient literature. They are symbolic references to honor and power. To have these bestowed by God, can mean only one thing. Jesus is God.

Why do we have to see Jesus as God, though? Isn’t it enough that He was the greatest moralist, the greatest teacher, of all time? Well, there was one phrase I omitted from Hebrews 1 explanations: He had by Himself purged our sins (see v.3 above). To explain: Because we have all sinned, the only way to reconciliation to God, the only way to achieve heaven, was through Jesus, who was sinless, who wanted to pay the price demanded for our sin. His suffering and death were deliberate, done as an acceptable sacrifice to the perfect God the Father. He shed His blood not for His sins…but for our sins. He was a substitute who paid the penalty we deserve, like a lamb in the Old Testament.  John 1:29 confirms that: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" I Peter 1:18-19 says:

…you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 

This blows apart any claim that Jesus is the same as Buddha, or Confucius, or Muhammad, or Ghandi. Jesus alone was sinless, and alone had the “superpower” of substitution—and the power of resurrection, to prove that he alone among men was God.

So the only way to be acceptable to God, as Scripture says, was to believe that we couldn’t do it, being sinful, but Jesus was God-in-the-flesh and did it for us.

To explain it deeper for this paper, look at Hebrews 7:26-27, where Jesus is called a High Priest. In the Old Testament, the high priest offered the blood of a spotless lamb as a substitute sacrifice for the people’s sins:

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners…²⁷ who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

There is a theologically correct phrase coined by St. Augustine about the New and Old Testaments: “The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”  So in the Old Testament, a foretaste of the New Testament, the Jewish priest would, as God commanded, offer up the blood of a healthy innocent lamb, as substitute for the sins of the people (and himself). He had to do this yearly, since obviously the people sinned often. (Each offer of a lamb only covered sins to that point). Jesus, being a greater High Priest, offered up Himself—as a lamb, an innocent substitute, for our sins, not His—and He only had to offer it once, covering all the sins of people. But we cannot obtain heaven unless we obtain two Scriptural requirements. First, we must believe (have long-lasting faith in) that Jesus was God and was thus able to offer Himself up as a perfect, acceptable sacrifice for our sins—for which we acknowledge that we deserve hell. We must also believe that Jesus beat death and was resurrected, as we will be resurrected. None of our efforts will save us. God then adopts us as children of God. BUT…secondly, as an outgrowth of real faith, that we are His children, also necessary, we must develop a love for Him and His Son, out of thankfulness for His sacrifice, and willing to obey His commands and to strive to be holy, as He is holy. James 2 goes into some detail on that. How faith must be matched by works. Not developing holiness means we have ignored His Word, and our “faith” in Him was useless. For instance, His Word is against most divorces, against premarital sex, considers children as innocents and a blessing, not killing them as inconvenient, just to cite a few things done by fake “Christians.” Maybe you are in that group. As the Larnelle Harris song said, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Consider Revelation 21:7-8, speaking to us:

⁷ He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. ⁸ But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

“He who overcomes” speaks of us not abandoning faith in Christ, but continually following His commands, even under persecution. The “bad” list are all those who have not “become a new creation” and have not abandoned the sins of the world. Many people have this fake identity: they call themselves “carnal Christians.” Too bad that doesn’t fly with God.

Consider that all sins, including those named above in Revelation, can be forgiven under the blood of Christ. But you must grab ahold of it, and then live differently. Our required sanctification means stepping aside from the sins of the world. Our sins must be confessed to God and abandoned.

Hell is your alternative, so be sober about it; God is not as merciful as you may think. As it says in Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

I still haven’t explained how Mary had to be a virgin. Let’s start with this: Note the word “undefiled” in Hebrews 7:26 above, as I underlined. Jesus’ DNA was undefiled, as opposed to us, which has the sin-nature.  The curse of the sin nature began with Adam and is passed through the male. This male-designate is hinted at in Genesis 3:17.

 

 While the curse for Eve didn’t mention disobedience, Adam was accused of disobedience to God’s command:  

 ¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’

Scripturally, the male is the head of the wife, and takes the accountability for her actions. Anyone in the hierarchy of the military knows what I am talking about here. So the church fathers agreed that the male carried whatever was in the body that passed on the sinful gene. So that means Joseph COULD NOT have been Jesus’ biological father, because Jesus would then have obtained that dreaded sin nature from Joseph, and could not have stayed God because He would have sinned. As Luke 1:31 says above, Mary would conceive Jesus, and there would be no involvement by Joseph. Elsewhere in Scripture, it is obvious that Joseph knew he did nothing to her at that time to be a father. The Holy Spirit, part of the Trinity of God, who obviously did not have a sinful gene, was the father. As Luke 1:35 says (see above), by the Holy Spirit doing that, what she bore could be the Son of God.  

There are many Scriptural verses suggesting Jesus would have a virgin mother. Such as Genesis 3:15, which is spoken by God to satan:

I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.

Satan, of course, was the serpent in the temptation of Adam and Eve. God’s prophecy here predicted a battle between satan and his children on one side (“your” seed), demonic or human.  And he is at war with Jesus (her Seed). Note that Seed is capitalized (suggesting the child would be God), and note that it is singular (just one Seed, Christ, so we are not gods). Satan would “bruise” Jesus’ “heel” with a temporary hurt--(His crucifixion, but He rose from the dead), but Jesus would crush satan’s “head”—a mortal wound administered to satan—which will happen in the last days.

The thing that zeroes in on how Joseph is not Jesus’ father, is how it mentions “her seed.” In almost all of Scripture, children are called “his seed,” giving credit to the father, who rules the home.  See Genesis 9:9, 12:7, 15:13, 19:32, etc, etc.

I like the way GotQuestions.org puts it: “The virgin birth is important in that it preserves the truth that Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time. His physical body He received from Mary as her biological child. But His eternal, holy nature was bestowed by the Holy Spirit. He was all-God and all-man. Thus, He was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. Therefore, He is our perfect sacrifice and also able to empathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). Our God graciously revealed His love for us.

Hopefully that explains how Mary had to be a virgin; so Jesus could, without a sin nature from Joseph, be an acceptable substitute, since He was sinless, paying the price for our sin, enabling us to follow Christ and avoid hell and obtain heaven. So Mary’s virginity was part of a pathway for God to enable a way for us to heaven. So if you’ve ever been ignorant on the subject of the necessary virginity, now is the time to pray and ask God to help you see this crucial piece to the puzzle. I have never heard a sermon on this, which is a sorely needed subject.

While you’re doing that, I have to cover an important subject I alluded to earlier: many theologians are still messing with versions of the Bible. They are even beginning to water down Mary’s virginity. Obviously, if they hint that she was not a virgin, then they’re saying that Jesus wasn’t sinless, and therefore not God. Then His could not be an innocent, perfect substitution for us in His death; it would be null and void. And we would not have a path to heaven. So, it’s important to see which are the bad Bible versions, and it would be good advice to throw out the bad Bibles. Most modern-day versions are built, not on the Textus Receptus of Erasmus and the King James version, but on a version invented in the 1800s, which included Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus—together known as the Alexandrian Text. I have written blogs on these, and how there is excellent proof that they are false versions. As Google AI puts it, “the two manuscripts (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus) disagree with each other on over 3,000 occasions in the gospels.” That huge number is in only four books—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Well, goodness, then, what are the disagreement numbers on the other 23 New Testament books? Textus Receptus doesn’t have significant disagreements like that.

So here we go. Let’s start with Isaiah 7:14, a famous verse predicting that the Messiah (the Jewish Savior) would be born of a virgin—or does it, according to modern “theologians”?

a.    King James Version (KJV) says: …Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel

b.    The New International Version (NIV)  (which has sold over 500 million copies worldwide) says: The virgin^[d] will conceive and give birth to a son…(then there is a handy footnote (d) which calls her a “young woman”). This may seem OK to you, since the false claim is “only” in a footnote, but they are not expounding clear Truth. The Hebrew word means “virgin.” Isaiah, the writer of his book, says “Behold!” (Which means, “here comes a shocker fact.”) So he definitely means a virgin conceiving. (The NIV conveniently left off the Behold!) No pregnant young woman would deserve a “Behold! A young woman is pregnant—what a shocker.” The NIV writers are copping out, wanting you to make the choice. A “this is my truth” scenario. If you make the wrong choice, and decide that Mary fornicated with someone, and Jesus was just another baby, that’s your choice, not theirs, they say. Joseph thought that, too, until the angel set him straight. (Of course, begging the question: if she’s just a young woman who got pregnant, why all the angelic fanfare for a fornicated birth?)

 

a.     In the KJV, Luke 1:34 says, in Mary’s quizzical question of the angel about being pregnant: How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

This archaic phrase, “know not,” which means, “haven’t had sexual intercourse with,” was prudent, considering how children could read it.

b.    But consider the Revised Standard Version: "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" Well, obviously, women can become pregnant without a husband, so this verse tells us nothing about the uniqueness of Mary.

c.     Or consider the “Basic English” Bible: How may this be, because I have had no knowledge of a man? I would say, “Well, read a book.” Knowledge is terribly abused here.

 

a.     Let’s look at Luke 3:23: KJV gives a crowd’s thoughts, without giving Joseph any credit for the birth: And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli. Very crafty interpretation.

b.    But the New Living Translation (more than 50 million copies sold), says: Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. Jesus was known as the son of Joseph. It’s too much of a stretch to interpret “was known as” as being a mistake of the crowd. It just comes out that Jesus was the son of Joseph. This is tragic theology.

 

a.    Look at Matthew 1:25. KJV: And (Joseph) knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. Once again, we have the discreet “knew her not.” Joseph first had sex with her after she had Jesus, making her not a virgin any longer.

b.   Once again, the Basic English Bible founders on modern English: And he had no connection with her till she had given birth to a son; and he gave him the name Jesus. Since when did “connection” necessarily mean sex? The word “connection” falls under the “Hey, whazzup” interpretation of the Bible. I must remember, never to tell my children after our conversation, “we have connected.”

 

a.    In Matthew 1:16, KJV reads: And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. There is one purpose making this verse so wordy; namely, to disconnect Joseph from the birth of Jesus. Normal births’ genealogies go like this: Jacob begat Joseph, and 20 years later, Joseph begat Jesus. You see why we can’t do that, right? Joseph did not provide the seed; he did not beget Jesus.

b.    The Message Bible has a strange, uncertain wording: Jacob had Joseph, Mary's husband, the Mary who gave birth to Jesus, the Jesus who was called Christ.

c.     The New American Standard Bible has a wording that tries, but can’t get there: Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. Does the “by whom” trace back to Mary, or to Joseph, or both? Not clear.

d.    The New International Reader’s Version (I guess that means you don’t have to read the NIV) says: Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was the husband of Mary. And Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called Christ. The problem here is, “Joseph was the husband of Mary.” Then she gave birth. The writers put their names together, then she has birth. No separation of Joseph is going on, which is what the ancient writers intended.

 

a.  In Luke 1:26-27, the KV reads: And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

b. But the bad Good News Translation has Luke 1:27 thus:

He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. This is not even limited to a footnote. The ultimate bad-news for honest theology.

c.    Hardly better, considering the confusion of “maiden,” the Weymouth New Testament has Luke 1:27 as follows: to a maiden betrothed to a man of the name of Joseph, a descendant of David. The maiden's name was Mary.

You can see how different “theologians” like to play with “virgin;” they can’t stand the word.

So that is the end of my paper. There’s a lot of other things you get, if you read carefully and think about it. Was Mary sinless? Was she always a virgin? Scripture makes the clear answer, “No.” Another thing to think about: If Jesus was God, shouldn’t the Gospels be the first place to go for Truth about how to be saved? Get the word on salvation from God Himself, since Jesus will someday judge us for heaven or hell. And Jesus was the only Person who said much on hell; so if you need to know more about heaven vs hell, Jesus in the Gospels is the place to go first. And every word is serious; He won’t change the rules and give a break because somebody did something nice some of the time. And don’t even think that His rules are too difficult, so I can ignore Him.  And don’t let any “theologian” tell you that Jesus’ words in some particular verses were for Jews only, or for Gentiles exclusively. Or, telling you that He is speaking about behavior “not for now, but for a specific future time period.” Scripture says nothing about such discriminations. Pray every time you read Scripture, which should be frequently. It is God’s Words for you, for all of us. Be like the Bereans, who checked out what was preached. Your pastor or denomination are not gods. The Holy Spirit can help you to obtain wisdom and judge what you hear. And get a Bible that is untainted with those modern versions where the theme is “avoid supernaturalistic stuff. Like virginity, or angels.” May God bless you.