The claim that Mary conceived Jesus without having a sexual relationship with a man, which is stressed in both canonical Gospels and apocryphal sources, is one of the most controversial parts Jesus’ story. Unsurprisingly, historical and scientific arguments have been made against the historicity of the virginal conception. What may be surprising to some, however, is that the New Testament itself has also been used to argue that the virginal conception was unhistorical! This scriptural argument is based on major inconsistencies in the New Testament. First, the miraculous nature of Mary’s conception of Jesus is confirmed in only two books — Matthew and Luke. Second, there are passages in the New Testament that contradict the virginal conception. Third, the two birth stories that confirm this concept differ fundamentally from each other and, thus, are unreliable. Questioning the virginal conception has, not unexpectedly, led to questioning Jesus’ illegitimacy.

 

The “virginal conception” is often mistakenly referred to as “virgin birth.” The latter is a broader Roman Catholic doctrine that incorporates the virginal conception. The virgin birth doctrine states that in addition to conceiving Jesus while a virgin, Mary remained a virgin even after giving birth to him. This is why the Catholic Church describes Mary as the “ever-virgin” (Aeiparthenos).

 

The virginal conception is also at times confused with the “immaculate conception.” This is another Catholic doctrine stating that Mary was free from the “original sin” from her conception. The original sin is a state of sinfulness that man is born with because of the sin of Adam and Eve. This is how Pope Pius IX defined the immaculate conception in 1854 when he turned this centuries-old concept into a revealed dogma that all Catholics had to believe in: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.” The immaculate conception was introduced because it was believed that not only Jesus but his mother also had to be free of sin.

 

Both concepts of the virgin birth and immaculate conception have established themselves in Catholic theology, but they have no foundations in the Qur’an. In fact, the Qur’an’s teachings about the noble, yet human, nature of both Mary and Jesus are at odds with these concepts, as well as with much of Christian theology. The Qur’an confirms several times, however, that Mary became miraculously pregnant with Jesus while she was a virgin.