Born of a Virgin?: Reconceiving Jesus In The Bible, Tradition And Theology

by Andrew Lincoln

Paul and the Jewish Christian tradition he takes up in Romans 1.3 show no reservation about employing the term ‘seed’ in connection with Jesus’ birth, indicating that this birth was the result of the continuity of the male seed in the line of David. Elsewhere Paul can speak of Jesus as also the seed (singular) of Abraham (Gal. 3.16, 19), and this is in fact the context for the following reference to Jesus’ birth in Galatians 4.4. The one whom God sent as God’s Son, born of a woman, is the one who is the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham about his physical seed. Paul has a high Christology, which includes the notion of the pre-existence of Christ, but a virginal conception plays no part in this and it is almost certain that he did not know of such a tradition.