(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 ???? ?? e? s?? ??? s?e??? ?e??????? se”. 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’ (?? ???e?? a?t??); most uncials in ii. 33 substitute ‘Joseph’ (? ??s?f) for ‘his father’ (? pat?? a?t??)” (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 AC2G??, 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 ???a??? 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.