[Dialogue] Virgin Spong

[KroegerD@aol.com]

December 14, 2005 
The Virgin in the New  Testament 
As the Christmas season arrives, the icon of the Virgin Mary enters the  
consciousness of the Christian world in a significant way. She is universally  
recognized with her eyes lowered, the infant Jesus in her arms, and located in a  
stable. Joseph normally stands guard behind the manger. Sheep and cattle fill 
in  the humble scene. Madonna and child have provided the content for many 
artists  over the centuries. Most of us assume that this portrait is 
historically true  and beyond reasonable doubt and that the Virgin Mother is a force for 
good, the  image of female purity and virtue. Unfortunately, both of those 
conclusions are  highly debatable at best and clear distortions of reality at 
worst. A look at  some biblical facts might be in order.  
Paul, the first writer of what was destined to be called the New Testament,  
wrote his epistles between 50 and 64 C.E. An examination of these texts will  
reveal that Paul knew nothing about a tradition of a miraculous birth or of a  
virgin mother. He certainly never mentions either. However, an argument from  
silence is not very strong, so it is essential to note that Paul contradicts  
such a tradition when he asserts that Jesus was "born of a woman, born under 
the  law (Gal.4: 4)." The Greek word used here for "woman" has no connotation 
of  virgin associated with it at all. His phrase "born under the law" was 
another  way of saying that he was Jewish. Paul does mention that Jesus has a 
brother  named James with whom Paul does not get along very well (Gal. 1:19). 
James was a  force in the Christian movement in Jerusalem against which Paul had 
to contend.  James appears to have achieved this position only because of his 
physical  kinship to Jesus. Before the 8th decade of the Common Era, this is 
all the  Christian movement seems to have known about Jesus' family of origin.  
In the early 70s, the first gospel called Mark made its appearance. There was 
 no birth story in this original gospel either. Jesus rather bursts upon the  
scene in Mark's narrative as a full-grown adult being baptized in the Jordan  
River as part of the John the Baptist movement. Revealing no knowledge of a  
virgin birth tradition, Mark explains the God presence they find in Jesus by  
saying that at his baptism, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon him from 
heaven  and the heavenly voice of God acknowledged Jesus as "my beloved son." That  
acknowledgment appears to lean on words from Isaiah 42, in which the  
mythological servant figure, around whom II Isaiah builds his prophetic message,  is 
also referred to by a heavenly voice as God's son.  
Mark does introduce Jesus' family later in his gospel, but it is not a  
flattering portrait. His mother, as yet unnamed, and his brothers and sisters  are 
portrayed as thinking Jesus is "beside himself" and they go to take him away  
(Mk 3:21, 31-35). No father is mentioned as part of this family constellation. 
 Jesus rejects their attempt to define him inside their structures by 
claiming  that "whoever does the will of God" is his family (Mark 3:35).  
Later Mark fleshes out the data on the family of Jesus (see Mark 6:1-6). Here 
 a critic of Jesus from the crowd shouts, "Is this not the carpenter, the son 
of  Mary?" Please note that Jesus, not Joseph, is the carpenter in this 
earliest  gospel. Mark has never heard of Joseph. Note also that the designation, 
"the son  of Mary" is the first and only time that the name of Jesus' mother is 
mentioned  either in Mark or in any Christian written material until the 9th 
decade when  Matthew's Gospel comes into being. This passage also names the 
four brothers of  Jesus-- James, Joses, Simon and Judas, who presumably are 
Mary's sons. This  passage also states that Jesus had sisters. The word is plural, 
meaning at least  two, but in this patriarchal era when women were not 
valued, they were also not  honored with names. It is clear that by this time, no 
story of a miraculous  birth or a virgin mother had entered the Christian 
tradition. Therefore, the  tradition of a miraculous birth to a virgin mother cannot 
possibly be a part of  the earliest Christian proclamation called the 
Kerygma.  
In the middle years of the 9th decade, Matthew wrote his gospel, basically by 
 expanding Mark's text, which he clearly had before him, fashioning his work  
specifically for his more traditional Jewish audience. He is the author who  
introduces the virgin birth to Christianity. Some five to 10 years after  
Matthew, Luke writes a gospel in which he also expands Mark's story but fashions  
it for his audience, which was made up of Jews dispersed throughout the 
empire,  as well as for a number of people closely associated with the synagogues 
called  'gentile proselytes.' Luke also includes a story about Jesus having a 
miraculous  birth. The two stories are quite different, but few people recognize 
that  because Matthew and Luke have their birth stories blended in Christmas 
pageants,  which are the source of most peoples' knowledge of Jesus' birth.  
Matthew begins his gospel with a list of Jesus' direct line of ancestry  
stretching from his father Joseph all the way back to David and Abraham. This is  
the first biblical mention of the name of Joseph and indeed the first 
reference  to the existence of such a person. After establishing both Jesus' Jewish 
and his  royal roots through Joseph, Matthew tells the story of the miraculous 
birth of  Jesus, which he bases on Isaiah (7:14). Matthew misreads that text as 
saying  "Behold a virgin shall conceive." Matthew appears to be unable to 
read Hebrew,  for whenever he quotes the Hebrew Scriptures he quotes a Greek 
translation. If  he had read it in Hebrew, he would have known that this Isaiah 
text does not  have the word "virgin" in it. It is an account of a critical time 
in Jewish  history in the 8th century BCE when Jerusalem was under siege by 
the armies of  the Northern Kingdom and the Syrians. Isaiah states that the 
birth of a child to  a woman (presumably in the royal family) would be a sign 
from God that Jerusalem  would not be destroyed by this attack. The birth of a 
child some 800 years later  would hardly meet that criterion. It is a strange 
use of a text but Matthew used  the Bible strangely on more than one occasion. 
Most scholars today believe that  that text really says "Behold a young woman 
is with child." That is hardly the  story of a virgin!  
Matthew goes on to give us the familiar details of a star, magi, gifts of  
gold, frankincense and myrrh. These details appear to be based on Isaiah 60, in  
which kings are said, "to come to the brightness of God's rising," bringing  
gifts of gold and frankincense. Traveling on camels, these kings are also said 
 to have come from Sheba. It is the word Sheba that brought myrrh into the 
story,  since it led expositors to recall the visit of the Queen of Sheba to pay 
homage  to Solomon, another 'king of the Jews.' As her tribute she brought 
truckloads of  spices of which myrrh was the most familiar. Matthew makes Joseph 
the primary  star in his original birth drama. In Matthew it is Joseph who 
receives the  annunciation from the angel in a dream, Joseph who names the 
child, Joseph who  flees with the child to Egypt, Joseph who, when it is safe, 
returns to Bethlehem  and responding to another threat, it is Joseph who moves the 
family to Nazareth.  The Virgin is a minor figure in Matthew's story. She is 
portrayed as a 'fallen  woman.' Joseph debates whether or not to embrace her 
as his wife until God in a  dream assured him of the baby's sacred origin.  
Luke refashions the birth story centering it on Mary. In Luke's narrative it  
is Mary who receives the angel's annunciation, and who denies the possibility 
of  being pregnant, "since I know not man." Mary is then assured by the angel 
of the  child's divine source. In Luke Mary sings the Magnificat, which is 
patterned on  the song of Hannah at the birth of Samuel. Then the mythological 
elements begin  to appear. In Luke shepherds replace the Magi, since Bethlehem 
was the home of  David, the shepherd king. An angel and a heavenly host 
replace the star. There  are no gifts but the shepherds do journey, as the wise men 
did, and miraculously  find the child. Luke has no flight to Egypt to escape 
Herod's wrath but rather  in obedience to the Torah, Jesus is circumcised on 
the 8th day, and presented in  the Temple on the 40th day before taking a 
leisurely journey back to Nazareth.  The virgin birth thus entered the Christian 
tradition somewhere between 82 and  93 CE in two quite distinct forms that are 
filled with contradictory details.  Far from being history, the virgin birth is 
a mythological interpretation of who  Jesus is.  
To complete this New Testament survey, the gospel of John (95-100 CE)  
contains no birth story, miraculous or otherwise. On two occasions, John refers  to 
Jesus simply as the "Son of Joseph." The mother of Jesus is mentioned in this  
gospel only twice. In the first Jesus rebukes her at a wedding feast (2:1-11) 
 for trying to press him before his time had come. In the second John has her 
 present at the cross in order to receive Jesus' commendation of her to the 
care  of the beloved disciple. No other gospel portrays her anywhere near the 
cross.  Mel Gibson will be shocked to discover that! Perhaps he should check 
his sources  more carefully.  
That is all there is in the New Testament about the miraculous birth of Jesus 
 and the role of the Virgin Mary. If one takes the birth narratives out of 
the  gospels, Mary all but disappears from the story except for negative 
references.  That usually surprises people who do not recognize that the Virgin they 
think  they know, the Virgin who seems to appear periodically to people in 
visions, is  a product, not of the gospels but of later Christian history. She is 
the  creation of a male-dominated Church, which portrays her in the way males 
like to  fantasize about women: she is a virgin and a mother, sweet, docile 
and obedient.  She has been a weapon used historically to help religion repress 
real women. To  the story of the Virgin myth in history, I will return next 
week.  
— John Shelby Spong  
_Note from  the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at 
bookstores everywhere  and by clicking here!_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060762055/agoramedia-20)   
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
D. (last name omitted for personal reasons) writes:  
I am a man without a face. All I see in this world is unfairness and I feel  
that my life has been filled with sadness, loneliness and depression. I've 
been  driven to the point of suicide. I ask you: how can I accept that life is 
unfair  and still find a reason to believe in God?  
Dear D,  
The tone of your letter is so depressed that I was alarmed by it. I can speak 
 via this medium to your content but I cannot speak to your personal 
situation.  For that I hope you will contact a local clergyperson or trained counselor 
and  let them help you walk through this valley.  
As to your question, I do not assume that our world is ever fair. The God I  
meet in Jesus does not appear to do so either. Jesus is quoted as having said: 
 "In this world you will have tribulation." The peace he promised was, in his 
 words, "not as the world gives." When in the Fourth Gospel he is asked 
whether  either the blind man or his parents were guilty of causing his blindness, 
he  said that is not how the world operates. When in the synoptic gospels he 
talked  about those who were killed when the Tower of Siloam fell, he 
pronounced them no  guiltier than any others. The world we live in has what we call 
natural  disasters. They range from hurricanes to tsunamis. They do not just harm 
the  guilty, but whoever was in their path. Job was the book of the Bible 
that  addressed these issues most specifically. He too had no answer but to keep  
living in a world that will never be fair. Jesus does not give us peace of 
mind.  He gives us the courage to live in this evolving and transitory world 
without  despair. Our job is to transform the world when we can and to accept 
reality  when we cannot. God is not the source of our despair; reality is. God is 
the  power that gives us the ability to address reality just as it is.  
I hope this helps,  
— John Shelby Spong 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20051214/fd79bf8d/attachment.htm