The conclusion that the most plausible reason for the Lukan material containing a virginal conception is not that it had more reliable information than the earliest form of the tradition of a birth announcement but that it adapts the tradition to conform more closely to standard elements in the accounts of the lives of great figures in ancient biography fits with another feature of Luke’s storytelling. Elsewhere in the New Testament ‘Son of God’ remains a metaphor for Jesus’ unique relationship to Israel’s God.
