[Oe List ...] 11/15/12, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part II: Paul and the Virgin Birth

Sat Nov 17 18:06:55 PST 2012

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	The Birth of Jesus, Part II: Paul and the Virgin Birth
	In the writings of Paul, there is not a single reference to a supernatural birth tradition, regarding Jesus of Nazareth.  That is a fact easily established.  Determining what that fact means is a bit more complicated.
	Does this omission mean that Paul was unaware of this part of the Christian tradition?  Is it possible that a story as dramatic as the one that appeared 20-30 years later in the gospels of Matthew and Luke could have been ignored by Paul, if it had been known?  Paul was an educated man.  The idea of a great person being born in a supernatural way that presaged his greatness was not unknown.  There were birth legends surrounding the nativity of such icons as Alexander the great, Romulus and Remus and the deity called Mithra, for example, all of which were almost certainly known by Paul.  So the evidence suggests that Paul did not include any reference to this tradition in regard to Jesus’ birth because he had never heard of it.  If Paul had never heard of this tradition, the overwhelmingly probable explanation of this fact would be that the miraculous stories of Jesus’ birth had not yet been written, which means that they were not an original part of the Christian story.  That is, however, an argument from silence and as such is not regarded as particularly definitive.  So we turn to Paul’s writings to see what might be possible for us to conclude as the reality that Paul knew on this subject.
	Paul gives us some biographical details in one of his earliest epistles, the Epistle to the Galatians.  Here he argues that the gospel he proclaims “is not man’s (nor according to man) gospel.”  He goes on to say, “I did not receive it from man nor was I taught it but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:10-12).  Then he recites his history as a persecutor of the Christian Church.  Obviously that was well known, but we need to be aware that the details of his conversion on the road to Damascus will not be written until Luke produced the Book of Acts in the tenth decade of the Common Era, some 30 plus years after the death of Paul.
	Paul then describes his life in Judaism in which he asserts that he was “extremely zealous” for “the tradition of my fathers” (Gal. 1:14).  Then he described his conversion saying that God had “set me apart” and was “pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”
	To back up this claim, Paul says that after his conversion, which scholars place between one and six years following the crucifixion, he went to Arabia for three years and only then went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephus, that is Peter, and stayed with him for 15 days.  He says he saw no other apostle “except for James, the Lord’s brother.”  So somewhere no earlier than four years and no later than nine years after the crucifixion, Paul was in the presence of Peter and James, the brother of Jesus.  In the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 11 and in chapter 15, Paul uses the phrase, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.”  In chapter 11 that phrase introduces Paul’s understanding of the institution of the “Lord’s Supper” and in chapter 15 he relates the final events in Jesus’ life: the crucifixion, the burial and the Easter experience of resurrection.
	From putting these things together we know that Paul learned many of the details of the Jesus story from his association with the disciples, though Paul insists that he got to know Jesus directly, by way of a revelatory experience.  He also knows that Jesus had a brother.  If the miraculous birth of Jesus had been a fact of history instead of a later developing legend, it seems obvious that an event of this presumed degree of importance would have been communicated to Paul.  It wasn’t. In none of Paul’s writings is there any mention of the mother of Jesus, the father of Jesus or the birth of Jesus.
	This still remains, however, an argument from silence and as such continues to be weak and inconclusive.  So, back to the Epistle to the Galatians we go in search of more data.  Here we discover that Paul actually discusses the origins of Jesus.  Interpreting the differences in being a child in a family as opposed to being a slave in a family, he argues that children are heirs and that even though they are placed under the authority of guardians, teachers and trustees until they come of age, they are nonetheless destined for freedom and their inheritance.  Paul uses this analogy to explain the role of the law given to the people of Israel.  The law is to them what guardians, teachers and trustees are to children who are not yet of age.  They are obedient to them while they wait for their promised inheritance.  In Paul’s mind, the role of Jesus was to give to all human life, Jews and Gentiles alike, the inheritance of full humanity, “sonship” he called it in the patriarchal world.
	Then in a wonderfully clear affirmation, Paul asserts this: “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as “sons” (Gal. 4:8).
	For Paul, Jesus was “born of a woman.”  That is, he was born just like any other person.  It is not possible, he was suggesting, to be born in any other way.  Could the word that is translated “woman” have in it any connotation of virgin?  Not a chance!  The Greek word used here is a form of the word “gunos” from which we get the word gynecology.  It is not the word “parthenos” from which we get the word “parthenogenesis,” that is to give birth by a single sex and which does include the connotation of virgin.   Jesus came from God the way every life comes from God, he was born of a woman.  Paul also says that like every Jew he was also born under the law.  Paul could not be clearer.  The idea of a miraculous or virgin birth is never hinted at by this early Christian writer because he had never heard of it.  The story of Jesus’ supernatural birth had not yet been written or developed.
	When these birth stories were written, one of their purposes was to assert that from the moment of his birth, Jesus was uniquely related to God.  It is also clear that this idea was not one even entertained by Paul.  To make this case we turn to the opening verses of the Epistle to the Romans.
	Paul certainly gives expression to his conviction that somehow and through some means, the reality of God they thought of as transcendent had been experienced as present in Jesus of Nazareth.  In his early epistles he was content simply to proclaim the reality of this experience not to explain it.  So he wrote that “God was in Christ” and the content that made this claim real was the experience of “reconciliation.”  In the Christ experience, those people who had once been separated are brought together.  Again, in Galatians, the apostle proclaims that inside the Christ experience, human differences and human barriers simply fade away.  In Christ, there is no such thing as tribal identity, that is, there is no Jew or Greek, no Jew or Gentile, but one humanity.  In Christ, there is no gender identity, no male or female, but a single humanity.  In Christ, value is not established by economic or social standards, there is no bond or free, no slave or master, but a new creation, a new oneness.  That was the God experience that Paul found in Jesus.  It was a theme resonating throughout the New Testament.  We see it in the Pentecost story of Acts 2 where spirit-filled people are said to be able to communicate in the same language of human oneness.  We see it in the divine commission in Matthew 28 where the followers of Jesus are instructed in the name of Jesus to go to those whom they have previously described as unclean and unworthy and to proclaim to them the limitless love of God.  We see it in the Fourth Gospel in which Jesus defines his purpose as giving abundant life to all.  That is the God experience that his followers believed they had met in Jesus.  When did this God presence enter into Jesus?  Paul says it was at the time of the resurrection.  This was the moment in which God and Jesus became one in the mind of Paul.  So to the Romans he writes that Jesus was descended from King David “according to the flesh,” but was “designated Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:3-4).
	As the tradition developed, that moment when God and Jesus became part of each other would get earlier and earlier.  In Mark it was when he was baptized.  In Matthew and Luke, it was when he was conceived.  In John it was at the dawn of creation.  The story of the origins of Jesus’ power would develop significantly between Paul and the later gospels.  In that later development, the story of the Virgin Birth would be born and it would begin to grow.  Paul, however, knew nothing of this tradition, since it was not developed until well after his death.
	The witness of Paul is clear.  He never heard of the Virgin Birth.  This fact begins to relativize the power of this claim as “revealed truth.”  The Virgin Birth is not an essential ingredient in the Christian story.  Why?  Because one can hardly say that Paul, who had never heard of the Virgin Birth tradition, was not a Christian.
	~John Shelby Spong
	Read the essay online here.

	Question & Answer
	Cynthia A. MoriczdeTecso via the internet writes:
	Question:
	You may not remember me but I grew up attending St. John's Boonton with Father Jack Thorn. Back then I was known as Cindy and the daughter of Ian and Allie Moricz. Ian was the "Lay Person" who helped Father Thorn. I know you always meet so many people, but I did have a question and thought you would be the best person to ask.
	As a child I knew that there were things we could and could not see around us. I am not just talking about the Holy Spirit or God, but ghosts, angels and demons. As an adult, I been involved with paranormal investigations. I have had some incredible experiences and began a blog site to share my personal stories as well as evidence I have captured (www.originalcynpi.com).
	I always had an inclining that I wanted to write a book on the subject but there are so many out there that I wanted to be different. This past year, I have been praying to find a topic for a book that I could use to educate people on the paranormal - the good and the bad. The answer came to me that it should be about Religion and how it perceives the paranormal world.
	My issue is I don't know where to start. Other than angels and demons, I haven't found any mention of ghosts. I am not really sure where to begin looking to find this information.
	I know that you are truly busy but wondered if you could push me to a starting point as you are a publishing author.
	PS - Thank you for being who God intended you to be. Your ability to question, allowed me to question and get some answers. Although, I know I have a long way to go before all my questions are answered.
	Thank you for your consideration.
	Best regards,
	Cynthia A. MoriczdeTecso
	Answer:
	Dear Cynthia:
	Yes, I do remember you and your family and I am pleased to her from you once more.
	You have chosen a complex area to study. It is a legitimate field of inquiry. You do need to be aware that this field attracts lots of people to venture into it, who are on the border of mental stability. this means you need to make clear the boundaries of your study, so as not to be identified with these fringes. Do not waste your time reading on the fringes. The whole subject does not lend itself to verifiable study.
	There are some resources that can guide you. A generation ago a professor at Duke University, Dr. J.B. Rhine devoted his life to the study of parapsychology and the near death the out of body experiences. If you can find any of his work, it is worth reading. It should be in libraries.
	A second source is a theologian named John Hick, a citizen of the U.K., now in his nineties, who taught for years at Claremont in California. He did a massive study in this area in a book entitled: "Death and Eternal Life." That book is also probably available in a good library and his bibliography would open many more doors for your study.
	I hope this will get you started. The closest I came to the subject in my career was in my book Eternal Life: A New Vision -- Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell. Your topic was not germane to mine in this book, but I did allude to it. I remain a sceptic about its reality, but I am an open sceptic.
	My regards to you and any members of your family that might remember me.
	~John Shelby Spong

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