Who Says Mary Was a Virgin?

Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman

Chris Huntley

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 745 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost anyone who knows anything about Christianity knows that Jesus was born of a virgin. But was he?

This miraculous event is found in only two passages of the entire New Testament (in Matthew and Luke). Did the other New Testament authors know about it? If so, why didn't they mention it? If not, how could they not? And where did the idea of a virgin birth even come from?

If it is not a major concern for the twenty-five other books of the New Testament, why did it come to be so important in the Christian tradition -- so much so that many people today assume that anyone who does not believe in it cannot be a Christian?

In this episode we deal with these and other intriguing issues highly relevant to the Christmas season.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman.
0:07.0	The only show, where a six-time New York Times best-selling author and world-renowned Bible scholar
0:13.0	uncovers the many fascinating, little-known facts about the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.
0:20.0	I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin. Testament, the historical Jesus, and the rise of Christianity.
0:23.5	I'm your host, Megan Lewis. Let's begin.
0:27.5	Hello everyone and welcome back to misquoting Jesus.
0:32.3	With Christmas fast approaching, many people's thoughts are turning to the birth of Jesus,
0:35.1	which naturally brings to mind his parents.
0:38.3	The virgin birth is probably one of the most well-known stories about Jesus, but where did it come from? And why is it recorded in the New Testament?
0:44.1	Was this story important to early Christians? And if not, how and why did it become a central
0:49.3	tenet of many denominations? Before we get into that, though. But good morning. How are you doing today?
0:55.4	Doing well. I'm, you know, looking forward to the Christmas break ahead. We'll be in England,
1:01.1	as we normally are, with Sarah's family. And as is my want, I'll be taking a bunch of books.
1:06.5	And so instead of preparing for classes and preparing for podcasts and things, I'll be on leave next semester. And so I'm hoping to get this next book written on The Ethics of Jesus. And so I'm really looking forward to just having some time to read. How are you? I mean, the holidays. Here we are. Yeah. No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm enjoying myself. The kids are enjoying themselves. We spent some time decorating the house, so it looks more chaotic than normal, but a very festive form of chaos. They all enjoyed that very much. And on the subject of books, my parents always ask me, what does Josh want for Christmas? What does Josh want for birthdays? And the answer is always he would
1:45.9	like books or monetary contributions towards books because academic volumes are not exactly cheap.
1:52.3	My mom is, I think, about ready to just give up asking and start sending gift cards for bookstores.
1:58.0	Yeah, well, the problem with buying books is that you never know if the person has it.
2:01.1	So they're either going to dictate their own present or you're going to get them something they
2:05.0	have. And so I gave up a long ago buying books for Sarah because it's like it's hopeless.
2:10.8	And so go for plan B.
2:14.0	Yeah, his birthday is the beginning of, well, middle of November, and I asked our 10-year-old,
2:20.1	what do you want to get Daddy for his birthday?
	...

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