Related Terms • original sin • sin • Jesus • monastery

Definition:
In Christianity, the mother of Jesus is believed to have conceived him without sexual intercourse. In traditional Christian theology, sexual intercourse is believed to be the means by which the original sin of Adam is transmitted from human to human - thus, conception without sex means existence without sin.

The ideal of virginity was important throughout the development of classical Christianity, as seen in the institution of monasteries in the Middle Ages. In Protestantism, however, there is much less emphasis on both virginity in general and Mary in particular.

The tradition that Jesus was born of a virgin is traced back to a supposed prophecy in Isaiah:

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Unfortunately, this is all a misunderstanding. The term "virgin" appears in the Greek translation (the Septuagint), but that is not correct. The original Hebrew word, ha-almah, really just means "young woman." The word has no meaning beyond what we find in English with "young woman" or "maid," but it was translated into Greek with the word parthenos, which means virgin.

The Hebrew word for that, if that is what the author had meant to say, would have been bethulah. The phrase in which it appears, ha-alma hara, means "the young woman is pregnant." It is worth noting here that this phrase is in the present tense, not the future tense - rendering it an unlikely prophecy.

In his book Orpheus, Hebrew scholar and critic, Salomon Reinach wrote that:

"As early as the second century B.C. the Jews perceived the error and pointed it out to the Greeks; but the Church knowingly persisted in the false reading, and for over fifteen centuries she has clung to her error."

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Related Resources:

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