The
Virginal Conception and Birth of Jesus ChristThe becoming flesh of the Son of God is a fundamental, irreducible article of the Catholic faith succinctly expressed in the Creed with the words “by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary” (Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine). The words themselves appear, at times with slight variations, in some of the earliest forms of the Christian Creed[1] and were solemnly ratified by the First Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. to express, within the limits of human language, the mystery which the Church received, believes and transmits about the Incarnation of the Son of God.[2] It is the Catholic Church’s perennial belief in two facets of this mystery that is the specific object of this study: the conception and birth of Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary.
I. Foundational Principles
At the very beginning I would like to state my intentions and assumptions as clearly as possible and in doing so I would like to make my own the declaration of Professor John Saward in his excellent book, Cradle of Redeeming Love:
I make no claim to originality. Self-consciously original theology tends always to be heretical theology. Orthodox theology has, by contrast, a blessed familiarity, for it does no more than assist the faithful in understanding what they already believe; its surprises are the outcome not of human ingenuity but of divine infinitude, the sign of a Truth that is ever ancient and ever new.[3]
To be even more explicit, I remain firmly convinced that the best approach to the Scripture texts which we will be considering is via the living Tradition of the Catholic Church and in this regard I would like to cite this fundamental text from Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation:
The apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. Hence the apostles, in handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to maintain the traditions which they had learned either by word of mouth or by letter (cf. 2 Th. 2:15); and they warn them to fight hard for the faith that had been handed on to them once and for all (cf. Jude 3). What was handed on by the apostles comprises everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith. In this way the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.
The
Tradition
that
comes
from the
apostles
makes
progress
in the
Church,
with the
help of
the Holy
Spirit.
There is
a growth
in
insight
into the
realities
and
words
that are
being
passed
on.
This
comes
about in
various
ways.
It comes
through
the
contemplation
and
study of
believers
who
ponder
these
things
in their
hearts
(cf. Lk.
2:19 and
51). It
comes
from the
intimate
sense of
spiritual
realities
which
they
experience.
And it
comes
from the
preaching
of those
who have
received,
along
with
their
right of
succession
in the
episcopate,
the sure
charism
of
truth.
Thus as
the
centuries
go by,
the
Church
is
always
advancing
towards
the
plenitude
of
divine
truth,
until
eventually
the
words of
God are
fulfilled
in her.[4]
In these paragraphs we have two very important assertions: (1) what we have received from the apostolic preaching must be handed on in its integrity and (2) by the assistance of the Holy Spirit “there is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on”. On this matter the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a helpful clarification:
Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.[5]
In the course of this study we will see that there have been many intuitions regarding the virginal conception and birth of Christ in the course of the centuries, but not all of them have been genuine developments of the faith once delivered to the apostles. Some of these intuitions have proven to be aberrations, heresies which have distorted and misrepresented the faith. For this reason the Church has constant need of authoritative guidance in order to distinguish genuine developments from false ones. Hence...
the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office [Magisterium] of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this [Word of God] devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.
It is
clear,
therefore,
that, in
the
supremely
wise
arrangement
of God,
sacred
Tradition,
sacred
Scripture
and the
Magisterium
of the
Church
are so
connected
and
associated
that one
of them
cannot
stand
without
the
others.
Working
together,
each in
its own
way
under
the
action
of the
one Holy
Spirit,
they all
contribute
effectively
to the
salvation
of
souls.[6]
The magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church as exercised by Popes and Councils, then, will provide the fundamental framework for this study and in this regard we are fortunate to have recent authoritative statements of the papal magisterium on the virginal conception and birth of Christ. Among these I assign a very important place to the discourse given by Pope John Paul II at Capua (near Naples) on 24 May 1992 to commemorate the 16th centenary of the Plenary Council of Capua, a discourse which recapitulates the tradition and offers us at the same time valuable orientations for our investigation. Among the literally thousands of other papal documents, addresses and homilies devoted primarily or partially to Our Lady by John Paul II, I would also signal for special attention the seventy Marian catecheses which he delivered at general audiences from 6 September 1995 to 12 November 1997. These constitute a veritable compendium of Mariology, touching upon all of the major questions and providing a remarkable summary of his own teaching and a further consolidation of that of his predecessors and that of the Second Vatican Council. These catecheses may be justly regarded as an important exercise of the ordinary magisterium of the Roman Pontiff and thus should be received by the faithful “with religious submission of mind and will” (cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium #25).[7]
I further wish to emphasize that in treating of the Incarnation, we are dealing with a mystery of faith, a truth which admits of rational explanation, but which is so profound that we can never fully exhaust it. John Saward puts it beautifully:
The human birth of the Son of God is a mystery in the strict theological sense: a divinely revealed reality that little ones can understand but not even learned ones can comprehend. Theological mysteries are truth and therefore light for the mind, but the truth is so vast, the light of such intensity, that the mind is dazzled and amazed. When a man meets a mystery of the faith, he finds not a deficiency but an excess of intelligibility: there is just too much to understand. Reverence for supernaturally revealed mysteries is therefore not reason’s abdication, but reason's recognition, through faith, of a grandeur transcending its powers.[8]
Happily, the interested reader who would like to pursue the theological concept of mystery in greater depth may refer to the first chapter of Cradle of Redeeming Love where the author develops it in a masterly fashion and with particular reference to the mystery of the Incarnation.[9] It will be noted that the above quote is in full harmony with what Pope John Paul II said in his discourse at Capua on 24 May 1992:
The theologian must approach the mystery of Mary's fruitful virginity with a deep sense of veneration for God's free, holy and sovereign action. Reading through the writings of the holy Fathers and the liturgical texts we notice that few of the saving mysteries have caused so much amazement, admiration or praise as the incarnation of God's Son in Mary’s virginal womb ...
The theologian, however, who approaches the mystery of Mary's virginity with a heart full of faith and adoring respect, does not thereby forego the duty of studying the data of Revelation and showing their harmony and interrelationship; rather, following the Spirit, ... he puts himself in the great and fruitful theological tradition of fides quærens intellectum.
When theological reflection becomes a moment of doxology and latria, the mystery of Mary’s virginity is disclosed, allowing one to catch a glimpse of other aspects and other depths.[10]
One who is not willing to recognize that in attempting to scrutinize the mystery of the Incarnation he is treading on sacred ground (cf. Ex. 3:5) and, therefore, must approach with reverence and awe is doomed to remain in the darkness of agnosticism or worse. In fact, the concept of sacred ground brings us remarkably close to an allied notion very dear to the Fathers of the Church, viz. that Mary is terra virgo, the virgin earth from which emerged the Son of God.[11] Her fruitful virginity cannot be separated from the blessed fruit of which it is the sign.
The Catholic tradition always witnesses to an indissoluble link between Mary’s virginity and the Incarnate Word. This is clearly attested to by John Paul II in his discourse at Capua:
For a fruitful theological reflection on Mary’s virginity it is first of all essential to have a correct point of departure. Actually, in its interwoven aspects the question of Mary’s virginity cannot be adequately treated by beginning with her person alone, her people's culture or the social conditions of her time. The Fathers of the Church had already clearly seen that Mary’s virginity was a “Christological theme” before being a “Mariological question”. They observed that the virginity of the Mother is a requirement flowing from the divine nature of the Son; it is the concrete condition in which, according to a free and wise divine plan, the incarnation of the eternal Son took place ... As a consequence, for Christian tradition Mary’s virginal womb, made fruitful by the divine Pneuma without human intervention (cf. Lk. 1:34-35), became, like the wood of the cross (cf. Mk. 15:39) or the wrappings in the tomb (cf. Jn. 20:5-8), a reason and sign for recognizing in Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God.[12]
The fact that in studying the virginal conception and birth of Jesus Christ we are dealing first of all with a Christological theme is cogently brought home by John Henry Newman in one of his first Catholic sermons entitled “The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son”:
They [the prerogatives with which the Church invests the Blessed Mother of God] are startling and difficult to those whose imagination is not accustomed to them, and whose reason has not reflected on them; but the more carefully and religiously they are dwelt on, the more, I am sure, will they be found essential to the Catholic faith, and integral to the worship of Christ. This simply is the point which I shall insist on – disputable indeed by aliens from the Church, but most clear to her children – that the glories of Mary are for the sake of Jesus; and that we praise and bless her as the first of creatures, that we may duly confess Him as our sole Creator.[13]
The link is indeed indissoluble and further on in the same sermon Newman did not hesitate to draw a very specific conclusion from it which is far more readily verifiable today than when he uttered it: “Catholics who have honoured the Mother, still worship the Son, while Protestants, who now have ceased to confess the Son, began then by scoffing at the Mother”.[14]
II. The Mystery of the Virginal Conception
In his Marian catechesis of 10 July 1996, in which he dealt with the virginal conception as a biological fact, Pope John Paul II made this very straightforward declaration:
The Church has constantly held that Mary’s virginity is a truth of faith, as the Church has received and reflected on the witness of the Gospels of Luke, of Matthew and probably also of John. In the episode of the annunciation, the evangelist Luke calls Mary a “virgin,” referring both to her intention to persevere in virginity, as well as to the divine plan which reconciled this intention with her miraculous motherhood. The affirmation of the virginal conception, due to the action of the Holy Spirit, excludes every hypothesis of natural parthenogenesis and rejects the attempts to explain Luke’s account as the development of a Jewish theme or as the derivation of a pagan mythological legend.
The structure of the Lucan text resists any reductive interpretation (cf. Lk. 1:26-38; 2:19, 51). Its coherence does not validly support any mutilation of the terms or expressions which affirm the virginal conception brought about by the Holy Spirit.[15]
The Pope’s language is unmistakably clear. He discounts any attempt to explain the virginal conception of Jesus in terms of (1) parthenogenesis,[16] (2) midrash (development of a Jewish theme)[17] or (3) derivation of a pagan mythological legend.[18] Further on in the same discourse he explicitly rejects a further and lethal hypothesis which undermines belief in the virginal conception of Jesus as the Church has always understood it:
the opinion – that the account of the virginal conception would instead be a theologoumenon, that is, a way of expressing a theological doctrine, that of Jesus’ divine sonship, or would be a mythological portrayal of him.[19]
A. Questionable Assumptions
Referring to the Gospel references to the miraculous conception of Jesus as a theologoumenon is the result of the program of radical demythologizing of the Gospels championed by Lutheran Scripture scholars Martin Dibelius (1883-1947), Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) and their followers. According to them, the belief that Jesus had no human father was a theological fabrication of the early Christian community in order to heighten Jesus’ importance, in other words to “mythologize” him. Having established such assumptions, these scholars set about to de-mythologize the New Testament. Dibelius specifically maintained that the virginal conception is an entirely Christian legend resulting from a theologoumenon of Judeo-Hellenistic provenance. Bultmann went on to insist that it was a late excrescence which is in contradiction to the internal evidence of the Gospels.[20]
While I have no desire to judge the intentions of these men, neither, following the lead of the Holy Father, do I have any intention of giving them serious attention: a theory which flies in the face of the New Testament evidence and the unbroken testimony of the great tradition may be readily dismissed. In fact, much subsequent biblical scholarship since Dibelius and Bultmann first advanced their positions demonstrates precisely why the Pope deemed it necessary in that same catechesis to affirm that:
The uniform Gospel witness testifies how faith in the virginal conception of Jesus was firmly rooted in various milieus of the early Church. This deprives of any foundation several recent interpretations which understand the virginal conception not in a physical or biological sense, but only as symbolic or metaphorical.[21]
Unfortunately, once the de-mythologizing currents were in the air, it was only a matter of time before they were passed off as compatible with Catholic belief in the so-called Dutch Catechism of 1966 and in the writings of Hans Küng, Piet Schoonenberg, Edward Schillebeeckx and numerous other Catholic theologians.[22]
Even more complex was the approach to the virginal conception of Jesus taken by the late noted American Sulpician exegete, Raymond E. Brown, S.S. (+1998). In a major essay on this topic he concluded thus:
My judgment, in conclusion, is that the totality of the scientifically controllable evidence leaves an unresolved problem – a conclusion that should not disappoint since I used the word “problem” in my title – and that is why I want to induce an honest, ecumenical discussion of it. Part of the difficulty is that past discussions have often been conducted by people who were interpreting ambiguous evidence to favor positions already taken.[23]
He quoted that conclusion again in the appendix to his second edition of The Birth of the Messiah[24] in the course of a further treatment of the “Historicity of the Virginal Conception”[25]. I must humbly confess that that treatment baffles me as much as this statement in his earlier essay:
Please understand: I am not saying that there is no longer impressive evidence for the virginal conception – personally I think that it is far more impressive than many who deny the virginal conception will admit. Nor am I saying that the Catholic position is dependent on the impressiveness of the scientifically controllable evidence, for I have just mentioned the Catholic belief that the Holy Spirit can give to the Church a deeper perception than would be warranted by the evidence alone. I am simply asking whether for Catholics a modern evaluation of the evidence is irrelevant because the answer is already decided through past Church teaching. The very fact that theologians are discussing the limits of infallibility and how well the criteria for judging infallibility have been applied suggests that further investigation is not necessarily foreclosed.[26]
In effect, Father Brown's work in this area seems to have been based on a number of working principles which I find it necessary to question: (1) the assumption that what he considered the “scientifically controllable” study of the Scriptures, largely following the canons of the Bultmannian school, may be separate from and independent of the content of Catholic faith; (2) the employment of a reductionistic and minimizing approach to Catholic dogma similar to that of Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. who, while not directly denying Catholic dogma, was prepared to challenge its weight on the basis of his evaluation of how it was defined[27] and following from these (3) an ecumenical methodology which might be described as consensus based on the “lowest common denominator”.
While I appreciate the vast apparatus of Father Brown’s critical scholarship and the enormous accumulation of data which his publications have made available to the scholarly world, of which his monumental volume The Birth of the Messiah is an outstanding example, I cannot pass over his fundamental assumptions in silence precisely because of his towering influence in the world of biblical scholarship and his membership on the Pontifical Biblical Commission.[28] His name, more than any other, is identified with the acclaimed collaborative assessment by Protestant and Roman Catholic scholars entitled Mary in the New Testament. While he was not its sole author, he was a principal participant, coordinator, discussion leader and editor and, since the conclusions were always arrived at by the consensus of the participants, we may assume that he was in accord with the working hypotheses adopted. Here are some of them:
While we do not exclude the possibility and even the likelihood that some items of historical information about Jesus’ birth have come to Luke, we are not working with the hypothesis that he is giving us substantially the memoirs of Mary. Rather, the possibility that he constructed his narrative in the light of OT themes and stories will be stressed. ...
Our
contention,
then, is
that the
Lucan
annunciation
message
is a
reflection
of the
christological
language
and
formulas
of the
post-resurrectional
church.
To put
it in
another
way, the
angel’s
words to
Mary
dramatize
vividly
what the
church
has said
about
Jesus
after
the
resurrection
and
about
Jesus
during
his
ministry
after
the
baptism.
Now this
christology
has been
carried
back to
Jesus at
the very
moment
of
conception
in his
mother’s
womb.
...
All of
this
means
that [Lk.]
1:32.33,
35 are
scarcely
the
explicit
words of
a divine
revelation
to Mary
prior to
Jesus’
birth;
and
hence
one
ought
not to
assume
that
Mary had
explicit
knowledge
of Jesus
as “the
Son of
God”
during
his
lifetime.
... We
do not
deny the
possibility
of a
revelation
to Mary
at the
conception
of her
son, but
in the
Lucan
annunciation
we are
hearing
a
revelation
phrased
in post-resurrectional
language.
...
Finally,
in
interpreting
the
virginal
conception
of Jesus
as the
begetting
of God’s
Son, we
recognize
that
Luke is
not
talking
about
the
incarnation
of a
pre-existent
divine
being.[29]
Where do such assumptions leave one? The answer, I'm afraid, is "nowhere". This or that datum of the tradition may or may not be true. About what is true we can have no real certitude. This is the reductio ad absurdum which so much post-Bultmannian exegesis leaves us with. This de-stabilizing approach to the Word of God provides no satisfactory basis for either the study of Scripture or the practice of genuine ecumenism.[30] With regard to this state of affairs Professor Saward offers some very astute remarks:
Sadly, Liberal Protestant and Modernist Biblical scholars have seemed, for a large part of the last two centuries, to be determined to separate the evangelists as far as possible, in space and time as well as in direct contact, from the Jesus whose life and teaching they set forth. First, the critics “prescind” from the dogmatic faith and Tradition of the Church, in order, so they allege, to attain a scientific reading of the texts. Secondly, they give prominence to what they take to be contradictions of fact or opinion between the sacred authors, or between the Bible and natural science. Thirdly, they destroy the historical identity of the evangelists. The Gospels – so they claim – were written, not by recognized disciples of Truth but by unknown and unknowable devisers of myth. The evangelists composed their narratives not in order to tell the honest truth about the Lord but to promote the religious interests (or ‘theologies’, as the critics like to say) of particular communities in the early Church. The Higher Critics are embarrassed by every physical marvel in the life of Jesus – His miracles, His bodily Resurrection, and the virginity of His Blessed Mother; like the Gnostics of old, they seem repelled by the Word’s deep descent into the world of matter.[31]
These “Higher Critics”as John Saward justly concludes, “cannot teach us how to read the Holy Gospels”.[32] They have not placed themselves, as the Pope exhorted theologians in Capua, “in the great and fruitful theological tradition of fides quærens intellectum” precisely because they do not approach the mystery “with a heart full of faith and adoring respect”.[33] Happily, however, there are exegetes who have acquired the necessary technical skills and who also stand “in the great and fruitful theological tradition”. From them we can learn as we shall see.
B. The Biblical Witness
Let us turn once again to the Pope’s discourse of 24 May 1992 in Capua.
In our day the Church has deemed it necessary to recall the reality of Christ’s virginal conception, pointing out that the texts of Lk. 1:26-38 and Mt. 1:18-25 cannot be reduced to simple etiological accounts meant to make it easier for the faithful to believe in Christ’s divinity. More than the literary genre used by Matthew and Luke, they are instead the expression of a biblical tradition of apostolic origin.
To affirm the reality of Christ’s virginal conception does not mean that an apodictic proof of the rational sort can be provided for it. In fact, the virginal conception of Christ is a truth revealed by God, which the human person accepts through the obedience of faith (cf. Rom. 16:26). Only the person who is willing to believe that God acts within the reality of this world and that with him “nothing is impossible” (Lk. 1:37) can, with devout gratitude, accept the truths of the kenosis of God’s eternal Son, of his virginal conception-birth, of the universal salvific value of his death on the cross and of the true resurrection in his own body of him who was hung and died on the wood of the cross.[34]
In this illuminating statement the Pope makes several important points among which are the following: (1) the fundamental biblical texts regarding the virginal conception are Lk. 1:26-38 and Mt. 1:18-25; (2) they constitute “a biblical tradition of apostolic origin”; (3) these texts do not provide “an apodictic proof of the rational sort”, rather they require faith in the God who reveals. This third point is very appropriately made in the light of the presuppositions of the kind of biblical studies represented by the Catholic-Protestant collaborative volume Mary in the New Testament. This foundational assertion was already made with great clarity in the Profession of Faith of the Eleventh Council of Toledo of 675 which declares that the virginal conception is
neither proved by reason nor demonstrated from precedent. Were it proved by reason, it would not be miraculous; were it demonstrated from precedent, it would not be unique.[35]
Now let us consider some of the principal biblical evidence for the virginal conception of Jesus insofar as space permits, recognizing that in particular as we explore the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke we are dealing with Scripture texts which are extremely dense, whose fundamental sense has been understood from the earliest days of the Church’s life, but which continue to reveal their hidden treasures to those who approach with reverence and faith (cf. Mt. 13:52). I believe that what Canon René Laurentin says in the following statement about the infancy narrative of Luke applies to all of the Old and New Testament Scriptures which have reference to the virginal conception and birth of Christ:
Luke 1-2 is a surprisingly rich Gospel. The more one delves into it, the more one is overwhelmed and surprised at the liberty with which criticism has attempted to pull it to pieces. Fortunately, unlike a monument or an organism, a text survives the violence to which it is subjected. It survives the autopsies and ends up intact after dissection. Interpretations come and go but the Gospel remains, bearer of a witness which goes beyond it.[36]
I begin with a recent insight by Father Ignace de la Potterie, S.J. into Luke 1:31, arguably the first explicit reference to the virginal conception in the Lucan infancy narrative. The angel says to Mary “you will conceive in your womb”, but the words “in your womb” are omitted in many modern translations as being redundant.[37] Where else does a woman conceive, except in her womb, many would ask, but Father de la Potterie argues that Saint Luke was very particular about his vocabulary:
“To conceive in your womb” is a paradoxical and new formula which is only found here in the entire Bible. For what reason did Luke introduce this strange, totally new and seemingly redundant expression? The reason is evident enough. To speak of the ordinary conception of a woman the Old Testament habitually employed two formulas: “to receive in her womb”, e.g. Gen. 25:22, Is. 8:3 etc. in reference to the man from whom the woman receives the seed into her womb (the name of the man is sometimes indicated); or else “to have in her womb”, after the woman’s sexual relationship with the man, but here also, after having “received” the seed from the man; in this way it was indicated that a woman was now pregnant, e.g. Gen. 38:25, Am. 1:3 etc.[38]
He points out that the expression “conceive in your womb” has an indirect reference to the Greek text of Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23[39] and he goes on to draw out the implications:
For Mary, by contrast [with Elizabeth] Luke employs twice the verb “to conceive”, but here with the addition of “in your womb”; the first text is precisely the one under consideration: “you will conceive in your womb” (1:31); further on, we read again: “... he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb [of Mary]” (2:21). This formula “in your womb”, seemingly useless and pleonastic, is unique in the entire Bible; it is the sign of a particular meaning, a sign which becomes still more clear when we note that it is found uniquely in these two adjacent texts (1:31; 2:21) both of which concern Mary: they announce precisely her virginal conception.
From the perspective of salvation history and theology, these two “linguistic facts” (retaining the verb “to conceive”, but with the specification “in your womb”) must have a double signification in the case of Mary: on the one hand, the use of the traditional verb “to conceive” commonly used for many other women, indicated for Mary also, the physical realism of a real bodily conception, not a mythical one as some would maintain (we are not dealing here with a theologoumenon!). On the other hand, the expression “in your womb”, added for her alone, reveals that this physical conception had to be entirely within (“in your womb”), without the previous penetration of any “masculine semen” coming from without. Such a totally interior conception would have to be accomplished by a real power, certainly, but a non-physical one; it obviously required a fecundating action, but a spiritual one. Moreover, our text thus prepared and anticipated verse 1:35 where it would be explained that the Holy Spirit would descend on Mary, to activate in her, that is to say “in the womb” of Mary, a real, but purely interior conception. Such a conception, without sexual contact, due to the “power of the Most High”, must necessarily be a virginal conception.[40]
Of course, those who want to scrutinize Father de la Potterie’s argument in detail should read the entire article,[41] but I trust that I have supplied the gist of it here and would now like to present his final word:
The conclusion of all of this is that the evangelist, in verse 1:31, is rigorously inspired by the formulas of the biblical tradition, but by way of some truly radical modifications he succeeds already here in stating the Christian newness: the virginal conception of Mary and the imposition on her son of the name of Jesus will henceforth allow the world to understand the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. And this woman who subsequently brings forth her son Jesus virginally into the world thus becomes the Mother of God.[42]
Now let us consider Luke 1:34, a text most crucial to our argument, in which Mary asks her question: “How shall this be since I do not know man?” Here is how the Holy Father outlined the matter in his catechesis of 24 July 1996:
Such a query seems surprising, to say the least, if we call to mind the biblical accounts that relate the announcement of an extraordinary birth to a childless woman. Those cases concerned married women who were naturally sterile, to whom God gave the gift of a child through their normal conjugal life (1 Sm. 1:19-20), in response to their anguished prayers (cf. Gen. 15:2; 30:22-23; 1 Sm. 1:10; Lk. 1:13).
Mary
received
the
angel’s
message
in a
different
situation.
She was
not a
married
woman
with
problems
of
sterility;
by a
voluntary
choice
she
intended
to
remain a
virgin.
Therefore,
her
intention
of
virginity,
the
fruit of
her love
for the
Lord,
appeared
to be an
obstacle
to the
motherhood
announced
to her.
At first
sight,
Mary's
words
would
seem
merely
to
express
only her
present
state of
virginity
...
Nevertheless,
the
context
in which
the
question
was
asked:
“How can
this
be?” and
the
affirmation
that
follows:
“since I
do not
know
man,”
emphasize
both
Mary’s
present
virginity
and her
intention
to
remain a
virgin.
The
expression
she
used,
with the
verb in
the
present
tense,
reveals
the
permanence
and
continuity
of her
state.
...
To some,
Mary's
words
and
intentions
appear
improbable
since in
the
Jewish
world
virginity
was
considered
neither
a value
nor an
ideal to
be
pursued.
The same
Old
Testament
writings
confirm
this in
several
well-known
episodes
and
expressions.[43]
This entire catechesis is strikingly incisive in its transmission of the Church’s tradition as well as in its grasp of the state of much modern scholarship on this question.[44] Interestingly, the Holy Father's brief analysis of Our Lady’s declaration follows what I believe is still the classic and most complete analysis of the matter, that written by Father Geoffrey Graystone, S.M.[45]
The Pope continues with an explanation of Mary’s resolve which indicates how the understanding of “full of grace” [κεχαριτωμένη][46] has continued to develop under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church:
However, the extraordinary case of the Virgin of Nazareth must not lead us into the error of tying her inner dispositions completely to the mentality of her surroundings, thereby eliminating the uniqueness of the mystery that came to pass in her. In particular, we must not forget that, from the very beginning of her life, Mary received a wondrous grace, recognized by the angel at the moment of the annunciation. “Full of grace” (Lk. 1:28). Mary was enriched with a perfection of holiness that, according to the Church’s interpretation, goes back to the very first moment of her existence. The unique privilege of the immaculate conception influences the whole development of the young woman of Nazareth's spiritual life.
Thus, it should be maintained that Mary was guided to the ideal of virginity by an exceptional inspiration of [the] Holy Spirit.[47]
Appropriately, in speaking of Mary’s intention of virginity the Pope points to “the uniqueness of the mystery that came to pass” in Mary and this as a direct consequence of her immaculate conception.
Obviously it took time, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the Church as listener to the Word of God and Teacher (Ecclesia discens et docens) to penetrate ever more deeply into the understanding of Mary’s determination to remain a virgin and of her virginal marriage to Joseph. Once again the Holy Father summarizes the development of this tradition beautifully in his catechesis of 21 August 1996:
In presenting Mary as a “virgin”, the Gospel of Luke adds that she was “betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David” (Lk. 1:27). These two pieces of information at first sight seem contradictory. The Greek word used in this passage does not indicate the situation of a woman who has contracted marriage and therefore lives in the marital state, but that of betrothal. Unlike what occurs in modern cultures, however, the ancient Jewish custom of betrothal provided for a contract and normally had definitive value. It actually introduced the betrothed to the marital state, even if the marriage was brought to full completion only when the young man took the girl to his home.
At the
time of
the
Annunciation,
Mary
thus had
the
status
of one
betrothed.
We can
wonder
why she
would
accept
betrothal,
since
she had
the
intention
of
remaining
a virgin
forever.
Luke is
aware of
this
difficulty,
but
merely
notes
the
situation
without
offering
any
explanation.
The fact
that the
Evangelist,
while
stressing
Mary’s
intention
of
virginity,
also
presents
her as
Joseph’s
spouse,
is a
sign of
the
historical
reliability
of the
two
pieces
of
information.
It may
be
presumed
that at
the time
of their
betrothal
there
was an
understanding
between
Joseph
and Mary
about
the plan
to live
as a
virgin.
Moreover,
the Holy
Spirit,
who had
inspired
Mary to
choose
virginity
in view
of the
mystery
of the
Incarnation
and who
wanted
the
latter
to come
about in
a family
setting
suited
to the
Child's
growth,
was
quite
able to
instill
in
Joseph
the
ideal of
virginity
as well.[48]
The seeming contradiction between Mary’s disposition to remain a virgin and her betrothal to Joseph may cause endless difficulties for the “Higher Critics” and lead to bizarre hypotheses,[49] but it can also lead faithful Christians to an ever more profound appreciation of the multi-faceted mystery of the Incarnation, as the Pope indicated. Indeed, as he subsequently affirmed:
This type of marriage to which the Holy Spirit led Mary and Joseph can only be understood in the context of the saving plan and of a lofty spirituality. The concrete realization of the mystery of the Incarnation called for a virgin birth which would highlight the divine sonship and, at the same time, for a family that could provide for the normal development of the child’s personality.[50]
III. The Mystery of the Virginal Birth
The words of the Holy Father cited above lead us appropriately to the mystery of the virgin birth which is described in this way in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary's real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ's birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.’[51]
Tertullian put it succinctly: “It was necessary for the author of a new birth to be born in a new way.”[52] Literally hundreds of similar illuminating statements such as this can be found throughout the entire tradition.[53] Effectively this new birth “without corruption” has always been understood to refer to the “birth of the Child without bodily lesion of the Mother, and absence of all pain and afterbirth”.[54] In summarizing the Patristic, scholastic and more recent tradition on this matter John Saward states:
According to the Church’s Doctors, this freedom from corruption means that the God-Man leaves His Mother’s womb without opening it (utero clauso vel obsignato), without inflecting any injury to her bodily virginity (sine violatione claustri virginalis), and therefore without causing her any pain.[55]
Evidently the same questionable assumptions which undermine belief in the virginal conception are at work in this area as well[56] with the addition of a major challenge which emerged with the publication of Dr. Albert Mitterer’s 1952 study Dogma und Biologie which questioned Our Lady’s physical integrity and the absence of pain.[57] Mitterer's work and the discussion which it provoked resulted in a monitum issued by the Holy Office (now Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) stating that theological works are being published in which the delicate question of Mary’s virginity in partu is treated with a deplorable crudeness of expression and, what is more serious, in flagrant contradiction to the doctrinal tradition of the Church and to the sense of respect the faithful have and thus prohibiting the publication of such dissertations in the future.[58] Unfortunately, in the light of the general confusion which has afflicted the Church for the past forty years this prohibition has been effectively ignored by many well known theologians[59] including the late Karl Rahner, S.J.[60] whose authority is readily invoked by many others.
A. The Magisterium
The Church’s Magisterium has been entirely consistent and unflagging in upholding belief in Mary’s virginity in childbirth.[61] In commenting on the re-statement of this article of faith made in Lumen Gentium #57 and subsequently quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #499 Father Fehlner states:
After the phrase “sanctified it” the Council appended references to indicate the precise sense in which virginal integrity at the time of Christ’s birth is to be understood. Three references are given by the Council in note 10: to canon 3 of the Lateran Synod of 649, to the Dogmatic Tome of Saint Leo the Great to Flavian, and to the passage of Saint Ambrose in his work on the education of virgins. ...
From all
the
references
which
Vatican
II might
have
chosen
to
illustrate
the
faith of
the
Church
in our
Lady’s
virginal
integrity
at
childbirth
these
three,
utterly
unequivocal,
are
found in
the
definitive
text.
No
clearer
indication
could
have
been
given
that
this
mystery,
inseparable
from the
Nativity
of the
Savior,
is of
crucial
importance
to faith
as
such.
Even the
slightest
question
or doubt
about
the
reality
of
meaning
of that
mystery,
whether
it
concerns
the
Mother
or the
Child,
cannot
be
tolerated.[62]
In his discourse in Capua on 24 May 1992 Pope John Paul II noted a highly significant correlation with regard to Patristic teaching on the virginitas in partu and the Resurrection, thus linking his magisterium with the teaching of the Fathers:
It is a well-known fact that some Church Fathers set up a significant parallel between the begetting of Christ ex intacta Virgine [from the untouched Virgin] and his resurrection ex intacto sepulcro [from the intact sepulchre]. In the parallelism relative to the begetting of Christ, some Fathers put the emphasis on the virginal conception, others on the virgin birth, others on the subsequent perpetual virginity of the Mother, but they all testify to the conviction that between the two saving events – the generation-birth of Christ and his resurrection from the dead – there exists an intrinsic connection which corresponds to a precise plan of God: a connection which the Church, led by the Spirit, has discovered, not created.[63]
How important it is to grasp in this case – as well as with regard to all that I have tried to convey thus far – that, under the guidance of the Spirit, the Church receives and discovers, but does not create.
In that same discourse the Holy Father points out precisely how the insight into this correlation comes about:
In adoring reflection on the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, one discerns a particularly important relationship between the beginning and the end of Christ’s earthly life, that is, between his virginal conception and his resurrection from the dead, two truths which are closely connected with faith in Jesus' divinity.
They belong to the deposit of faith; they are professed by the whole Church and they have been expressly stated in the creeds. History shows that doubts or uncertainty about one has inevitable repercussions on the other, just as, on the contrary, humble and strong assent to one of them fosters the warm acceptance of the other.[64]
In reflecting on this converging evidence[65] I cannot help but be struck by the juxtaposition of these same themes in the late Raymond E. Brown’s controversial essays published together under the title of The Virginal Conception & Bodily Resurrection of Jesus. Quite evidently there is a profound link between these complimentary mysteries which touch the beginning and end of Christ's earthly life. Those who treat them without “adoring reflection” and as expendable assumptions should not be surprised to arrive at “shipwreck of the faith” (cf. 1 Tim. 2:19) or to lead others to it. Without any anathema, this is, nonetheless, the solemn warning of the magisterium.
B. The Biblical Witness
Two very prominent Old Testament messianic texts point to the mystery of the virginal birth of Christ. The first occurs immediately after Genesis 3:15, known in the tradition as the protoevangelium, which speaks of the “woman,” the “New Eve” through whom redemption will come.[66] In the following verse the Lord God addresses Eve stating “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Father Stefano Manelli’s comment on these two verses is very insightful:
The two verses of Genesis 3:15 and 16, so sharply contrasting one another, make it psychologically impossible for them to refer to one and the same person. Immediately after having spoken so solemnly of how the “woman” with her “seed” is to triumph over the serpent, God speaks of how Eve must endure suffering and humiliation for the rest of her life. On what grounds is it possible to understand in each the same “woman”? Nor, similarly, can one, with any kind of consistency, suppose in the same person, Eve, a plan of life to unfold simultaneously under the sign of victory (Gen. 3:15) and the sign of subjection to suffering and man (Gen. 3:16).
Rather,
the
point of
departure
for the
logical
development
of this
powerful
and
fruitful
antithesis
between
Eve and
Mary,
noted by
the
earliest
Fathers,
such as
St.
Justin
and St.
Irenaeus,
and
commented
upon
down the
centuries
since,
is the
reality
of that
contrast
between
Eve and
the
“woman”
of
Genesis
3:15.[67]
The Roman Catechism (also known as The Catechism of the Council of Trent) draws out the Marian implications of verse 16:
To Eve it was said: “In pain you shall bring forth children” (Gen. 3:16). Mary was exempt from this law, for preserving her virginal integrity inviolate, she brought forth Jesus the Son of God, without experiencing, as we have already said, any sense of pain.[68]
With a genial intuition which can serve as a way of summarizing what we have just presented, Haymo of Halberstadt (+853) stated: “"Just as she conceived without pleasure, so she gave birth without pain.”[69]
The other major Old Testament prediction which sheds light on the mystery of the virgin birth is that of Isaiah 7:14.[70] I believe that John Saward is right in stating that
Isaiah prophesied that the Mother of Emmanuel would be a virgin not only in conceiving Him in the womb (Ecce virgo concipiet) but also in bringing Him forth from the womb (et virgo pariet, cf. Is. 7:14).[71]
With regard to the Gospel witness, one should not be surprised that the Holy Spirit might continue to bring to light treasures once known to the saints, but overlooked by the “Higher Critics” as well as those which can be acquired by pondering in one’s heart after the manner of the Virgin herself (cf. Lk. 2:19, 51). With regard to the exegesis of the Fathers, I find the reasoning of Ignace de la Potterie on the best translation of Luke 1:35b very cogent:
We discover, however, since the time of the Fathers up to the present, four different versions. One either makes “hagion” (“holy”) the subject and translates as Legrand does: “that is why the holy (child) who is to be born will be called Son of God”; or one makes of “hagios” an attribute of “will be,” as in the Jerusalem Bible and the lectionary: “And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God”; or one also reads “holy” an attribute of “called”; this latter is the translation recently proposed by A. Médebielle in his article “Annunciation” in the Supplément au dictionnaire de la Bible: “This is why the one to be born will be called holy, Son of God.” These are the usual three translations. At the same time there is a fourth possibility which modern authors no longer think of, but which was very popular among the Fathers of the Church and during the Middle Ages. This reading, we think, is philologically the only one that is satisfactory; we then consider “holy,” not as a complement of “will be” (this word is not found in the Greek text), nor of “will be called”; “holy” is rather to be taken as the complement of “will be born.”
The word
“holy,”
in this
instance,
informs
us about
the
manner
in which
the
child
will be
born,
that is
to say
in a
“holy”
manner.
We
therefore
translate
it so:
“This is
why
the one
who will
be born
holy
will be
called
Son of
God.”
Here it
is not
question
of the
future
holiness
of
Jesus:
that is
totally
outside
of the
perspective
of the
Annunciation
and of
the
birth of
the
child.
The
child of
Mary
“will be
born
holy” in
the
levitical
meaning:
it is
the
birth of
Jesus
that
will be
“holy”,
without
blemish,
intact,
that is
“pure”
in the
ritual
sense.
If we
read the
text in
this
way, we
set up
here a
biblical
argument
favoring
that
which
the
theologians
call “virginitas
in partu,”
the
virginity
of Mary
while
giving
birth.
The
message
of the
angel to
Mary
contains
then not
only the
announcement
of the
virginal
conception,
but also
of the
virginal
birth
of
Jesus.[72]
Father de la Potterie’s years of patient study have yielded other fruit in this area as well, especially his extensive analysis of John 1:13. Here I can only hope to indicate some of the major components of his argument, referring the interested reader to de la Potterie’s own exposition.[73] In effect, what he proposes is that this controverted verse of the prologue to Saint John's Gospel should be translated thus:
He is not born of blood(s),
nor of the will of the flesh
nor of the will of man,
but he was begotten of God.[74]
In defending this translation as a reference to the virginal conception and birth of Christ, the first major objection to be overcome is that the Greek manuscripts of Saint John’s Gospel all give this text in the plural as a reference to the children of God referred to in Jn. 1.12: they “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. Here is de la Potterie’s response:
Since the Greek manuscripts are fifty or one hundred years more recent, it is really too simple to want to relate to them, and ignore a period that precedes them. The reality is that all the texts from the second century witnessing to our passage have the singular. And in addition, it is interesting to notice that all these witnesses, when they are localized geographically, are not concentrated in one area, but are diffused all over the Mediterranean basin: in Asia Minor, most likely also in Palestine (Justin), at Rome (Hippolytus), in Gaul (Irenaeus), in Northern Africa (Tertullian), and at Alexandria in Egypt. That is a very important fact because it demonstrates that in the second century, during a time in which rapid means of communication did not yet exist, this text was universally read only in the singular. And this within one century of the composition of the Fourth Gospel.
We find
that,
for the
first
time,
the
plural
form
occurs
only at
the end
of the
second
century;
and
these
two or
three
witnesses
are
all
concentrated
at
Alexandria
in
Egypt.
One
could
conclude
that the
plural
form
took
birth in
this
milieu,
where
the
polemic
battles
with the
Gnostics
were in
full
force.
...
Tertullian
maintains
then
that the
Valentinians
have
falsified
the text
of John
1:13 in
order to
be able,
after
the
fact, to
base
their
Gnostic
doctrine
of the
rebirth
of the
“Spirituals”
or
“Perfect”
on it.
But
then,
obviously
the
question
arises:
how did
it
happen
that the
singular
original
form was
lost?
This is
not easy
to
answer
because
there
are very
few
traces
available.
However,
we
believe
– and
this
remains
partially
a
hypothesis
– that
the
reason
for the
change
is above
all to
be
looked
for in
the fact
that the
earliest
Church
Fathers,
who were
still
reading
the text
in the
singular,
did not
know how
to
explain
the
first of
three
negatives
in verse
13:
“non ex
sanguinibus.”[75]
In explaining the original sense of “non ex sanguinibus” de la Potterie has recourse to the doctoral thesis of Peter Hofrichter[76] who points out that
in
several
texts of
the Old
Testament,
and
later in
the
Jewish
tradition,
the word
“blood”
is also
used in
the
plural
for the
loss of
blood
which is
linked
with a
women’s
period;
that is
with
menstruation
and
childbirth,
hence of
a
birth.
The
basic
text for
this is
found in
Leviticus
12:4-7.[77]
What conclusion can we make from this text for the interpretation of the first negation in verse 13 of the prologue: “not born of blood(s)”? In the context for the laws of purification it signifies that Jesus, in being born, did not cause an effusion of blood in his mother; in other words, at the birth of Jesus there would not have been any ritual impurity in his mother because in her there would not have taken place any shedding of blood. There would then be here a scriptural indication for what the theologians have in mind when they speak of the “virginitas in partu,” the virginity of the birthing of Jesus.[78]
The author then goes on to cite the testimonies of Hippolytus, Ambrose, Jerome, John Damascene and Thomas Aquinas in support of his argumentation.[79] Quite evidently it is this thesis of Ignace de la Potterie which Pope John Paul II had in mind in his Marian catechesis of 10 July 1996:
This truth [of the virginal conception], according to a recent exegetical discovery, would be explicitly contained in verse 13 of the Prologue of John’s Gospel, which some ancient authoritative authors (for example, Irenaeus and Tertullian) present, not in the usual plural form, but in the singular: “He, who was born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” This version in the singular would make the Johannine Prologue one of the major attestations of Jesus' virginal conception, placed in the context of the mystery of the Incarnation.[80]
It should simply be pointed out that Father de la Potterie’s “exegetical discovery” bears as much on the virginal birth as on the virginal conception, whereas the subject of the Pope’s catechesis of 10 July 1996 was the conception.
C. The Allegorical Sense of Scripture
Constraint of space does not allow me to present an exposition of the Fathers on this subject. Here I wish simply to underscore that much of the Patristic treatment of the virginal conception and birth of Christ is based on what the Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the tradition, calls the allegorical sense of Scripture.[81] It is precisely the allegorical sense of Scripture which the Roman Catechism proposes with regard to our subject:
Since the mysteries of this admirable conception and nativity are so great and so numerous, it accorded with Divine Providence to signify them by many types and prophecies. Hence the Fathers of the Church understood many things which we meet in the Sacred Scriptures to relate to them, particularly that gate of the Sanctuary which Ezekiel saw closed (see Ezk. 44:2) ... Likewise the bush which Moses saw burn without being consumed (see Ex. 3.2).[82]
It is by means of this allegorical sense, as John Saward tells us, that
The Fathers find types of the virginity in partu in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the closed gate of the Temple (cf. Ezek. 44:2) and in the ‘garden enclosed’ and ‘fountain sealed up’ of Solomon’s canticle (cf. Song 4:12).[83]
IV. Conclusion
By way of conclusion, I would like to quote again from the magisterium of Pope John Paul II. In referring to the “parallel between the begetting of Christ ex intacta Virgine [from the untouched Virgin] and his resurrection ex intacto sepulcro [from the intact sepulchre]”, he stated that there is “an intrinsic connection which corresponds to a precise plan of God: a connection which the Church, led by the Spirit, has discovered, not created”.[84] I believe that this statement may also be predicated of the two facets of the mystery of the Incarnation which we have been studying. The Church has received the revelation of this mystery as handed on by the Apostles and their successors; it is the recipient and custodian of the mysteries, but not their fabricator.
Laus Cordibus Jesu et Mariæ
[1] Heinrich Denzinger, S.I., Enchiridion Symbolorum Definitionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum: Edizione Bilingue (XXXVII) a cura di Peter Hünermann (Bologna: Edizioni Dehoniane, 2000) [=D-H ] #10-64; Jacques Dupuis, S.J. (ed.), The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church Originally Prepared by Josef Neuner, S.J. & Jacques Dupuis; Sixth Revised and Enlarged Edition (New York: Alba House, 1998) [=TCF] #2-11].
[2] D-H #150; TCF #12.
[3] John Saward, Cradle of Redeeming Love: The Theology of the Christmas Mystery (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002) [=Saward] 14.
[4] Dei Verbum #8.
[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church [= CCC] #66.
[6] Dei Verbum #10.
[7] These seventy discourses are available in English as Theotókos - Woman, Mother, Disciple: A Catechesis on Mary, Mother of God with a Foreword by Eamon R. Carroll, O.Carm, S.T.D. (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2000) [= MCat]. The translation varies in only minor details from the translation provided in the English edition of L’Osservatore Romano [= ORE].
[8] Saward 47-48.
[9] Saward 47-120.
[10] Acta Apostolicae Sedis [= AAS] 85 (1993) 664; ORE 1244:13 [First number = cumulative edition number; second number = page].
[11] Cf. Emmanuele Testa, O.F.M., Maria Terra Vergine, Vol. I: I rapporti della Madre di Dio con la SS. Trinità (Sec. I-IX) (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1984) 416-432. On St. Irenaeus’ treatment of Mary as the virgin earth for the new Adam, cf. François-Marie Léthel, O.C.D., Connaître l’amour du Christ qui surpasse toute connaissance: La Théologie des Saints (Venasque: Éditions du Carmel, 1989) 77-88.
[12] AAS 85 (1993) 663; ORE 1244:13.
[13] Philip Boyce, O.C.D. (ed.), Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman (Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing Publishing; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001) 131-132.
[14] Ibid., 37. Cf. the strikingly similar comment made by Tatthias Joseph Scheeben quoted in Saward 175.
[15] Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II [= Inseg] XIX/2 (1996) 75; ORE 1450:11; MCat 112.
[16] Cf. Salvatore M. Perrella, O.S.M., Maria Vergine e Madre. La verginità feconda di Maria tra fede, storia e teologia (Cinisello Balsamo: Edizione San Paolo, 2003) [= Perrella] 111-116. As Father Perrella points out on p. 12, even though no cases of parthenogenesis can be adduced within the human species, if such were to be the case the sex of the one generated would have to be female. Dr. Catherine Brown Tkacz comes to the same conclusion in her article, “Reproductive Science and the Incarnation,” Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly 25 (Fall 2002) 17-19.
[17] Cf. Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on theInfancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. New Updated Edition (New York: Doubleday, 1993) [= Birth] 557-563.
[18] Cf. Perrella 108-110.
[19] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 77; ORE 1450:11; MCat 114.
[20] Cf. Stefano De Fiores’ preface to Perrella, Maria Vergine e Madre 6-9.
[21] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 76-77; ORE 1450:11; MCat 114.
[22] Cf. De Fiores in Perrella, Maria Vergine e Madre 9-12: Brunero Gherardini, La Madre. Maria in una sintesi storico-teologica (Frigento (AV): Casa Mariana Editrice, 1989) [= Gherardini] 93-95.
[23] Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus (New York: Paulist Press, 1973) [= Virginal Conception] 66-76.
[24] Birth 698.
[25] Birth 698-708.
[26] Virginal Conception 37-38.
[27] On Father Sullivan’s work, cf. Perrella 52-55, 172, 217.
[28] Cf. John F. McCarthy, “The Pontifical Biblical Commission – Yesterday and Today,” Homiletic & Pastoral Review (January 2003) 8-13.
[29] Raymond E. Brown, Karl P. Donfried, Joseph A Fitzmyer, John Reumann (eds.), Mary in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press; New York: Paulist Press, 1978) [= MNT] 11, 118-119, 122.
[30] For a critique of much of what has passed for ecumenism among Catholics in recent years cf. Brunero Gherardini, “Sulla Lettera Enciclica Ut Unum Sint di Papa Giovanni Paolo II,” Divinitas 40 (1997) 3-12; Una sola Fede – una sola Chiesa. La Chiesa Cattolica dinanz all’ecumensmo (Castelpetroso (IS): Casa Editrice Mariana, 2000).
[31] Saward 110.
[32] Saward 113.
[33] AAS 85 (1993) 664; ORE 1244:13. For further reflection on the mystery of the virgina. Conception in terms of objections and reasons of fittingness, cf. Saward 184-206.
[34] AAS 85 (1993) 666-667; ORE 1244:14.
[35] D-H #533 [translation in Saward 187].
[36] René Laurentin, The Truth of Christmas Beyond the Myths: The Gospels of the Infancy of Christ trans. by Michael J. Wrenn and associates (Petersham, MA: St. Bede’s Publications, 1986) 2.
[37] Ignace de la Potterie, S.J., “‘Et voici que tu concevras en ton sein’ (Lc 1, 31): l’ange annonce à Marie sa conception virginale,” Marianum 61 (1999) 100.
[38] de la Potterie, “Et voice,” 101-102 (my trans.).
[39] de la Potterie, “Et voici” 101. Interestingly, Raymond Brown duly notes this terminology in Birth 145 (footnote 34) and 300 (footnote 11), but draws no conclusion.
[40] de la Potterie, “Et voici” 102 (my trans.).
[41] Marianum 61 (1999) 99-111.
[42] de la Potterie, “Et voici” 110 (my trans.).
[43] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 103, 104; ORE 1452:7; MCat 116, 117.
[44] Cf. Birth 298-309; MNT 114-126.
[45] Virgin of All Virgins: The Interpretation of Luke 1:34 (Rome: Doctoral Dissertation presentation to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, 1968).
[46] Cf. Ignace de la Potterie, S.J., Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant trans. by Bertrand Buby, S.M. (New York: Alba House, 1992) [= MMC] 17-20. Cf. also Ignace de la Potterie, S.J., “Kecharitoméne en Lc 1,28: Étude philologique,” Biblica 68 (1987) 357-382; “Kecharitoméne en Lc 1,28: Étude exégétique et théologique,” Biblica 68 (1987) 480-508; Ernesto della Corte, “Kecharitoméne (Lc 1, 28) Crux interpretum,” Marianum 52 (1990) 101-148.
[47] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 105; ORE 1452:7; Mcat 118.
[48] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 214-215; ORE 1455:7; MCat 127-128.
[49] Cf. Birth 303-309; MNT 114-115. Manuel Miguens, O.F.M. considers the biblical evidence in responding to Raymond Brown’s provocative essay on “The Virginal Conception” in his The Virgin Birth: An Evaluation of Scriptural Evidence second edition (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1981). It is only to be regretted that in the final section of the book he shows himself ready to accept a very “low” Christology.
[50] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 215; ORE 1455:7; MCat 128.
[51] CCC #499. Cf. Lumen Gentium #57 which likewise speaks of “the birth of Our Lord, who did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.”
[52] Nove nasci debebat novæ nativitatis dedicator. De Carne Christi 17 [CorpusChristianorum Latinorum 2, 903.
[53] Saward 206-217.
[54] Peter Damian Fehlner, Virgin Mother: The Great Sign (Washington, NJ: AMI Press, 1993) [= Fehlner] 1-2.
[55] Saward 206.
[56] Cf. Cardinal Leo Scheffczyk, Maria, Crocevia della Fede Cattolica trans. from German by Manfred Hauke (Lugano: Eupress, 2002) 88-90.
[57] Cf. Perrella 9, 204-205, 215-216; Fehlner 1-4.
[58] Cf. Ephemerides Mariologicæ 11 (1961) 137-138; René Laurentin, A Short Treatiseon the Virgin Mary trans. Charles Neumann, S.M.(Washington, NJ: AMI Press, 1991) [= Treatise] 328-329. Cf. also the commentary in Fehlner 19-21.
[59] Cf. Fehlner 2-4; Perrella 204-218.
[60] “Virginitas in Partu,” Theological Investigations Vol. 4 (Baltimore: Helicon, 1966) 134-162.
[61] Fehlner 6-20.
[62] Fehlner 21-22.
[63] AAS 85 (1993) 665; ORE 1244:13.
[64] AAS 85 (1993) 554-665; ORE 1244:13.
[65] Cf. Perrella 222-226; Saward 237, 239-240.
[66] Cf. the Pope’s catechesis of 24 January 1966, Inseg XIX/1 (1996) 115-117; ORE 1426:11; MCat 61-63.
[67] Stefano M. Manelli, F.I., All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed: BiblicalMariology revised and enlarged second edition trans. by Peter Damian Fehlner, F.I. (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2005) [= Manelli] 26-27.
[68] Robert I. Bradley, S.J. and Eugene Kevane (eds.), The Roman Catechism (Boston, MA: St. Paul Editions, 1985) [= Roman Catechism] 50. Cf. also Treatise 64, 333, 338.
[69] Expositio in Apocalypsim 3, 12; PL 117:1081D-1082A [quoted in John Saward, The Way of the Lamb: The Spirit of Childhood and the End of the Age (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1999) 153 (footnote 9).
[70] Cf. Manelli 38-53.
[71] Saward 208. Cf. also Saward 210 (footnote 123); Manelli 44-50.
[72] MMC 31; cf. his entire treatment of this text in MMC 30-33 and also Saward 208.
[73] Cf. “Il parto verginale del Verbo incarnato: ‘Non ex sanguinibus ... sed ex Deo natus est’ (Gv 1,13),” Marianum 45 (1983) 127-174; MMC 96-122.
[74] MMC 98; cf. also 96.
[75] MMC 99-101.
[76] Nicht aus Blut sondern monogen aus Gott geboren. Textkritische, dogmengeschichtliche und exegetische Untersuchung zu Joh 1, 13-14 (Würzburg: “Forschung zur Bible” 31, 1978).
[77] MMC 111.
[78] MMC 112.
[79] MMC 112-113. He cites even more authorities in his article “Il parto verginale del Verbo incarnato: ‘Non ex sanguinibus ... sed ex Deo natus est’ (Gv 1,13),” Marianum 45 (1983) 153-158.
[80] Inseg XIX/2 (1996) 76; ORE 1450:11; MCat 113.
[81] CCC #115-118.
[82] Roman Catechism 50.
[83] Saward 208. Cf. Saward passim 208-217. On Ezek 44:2, cf. Manelli 87-90.
[84] AAS 85 (1993) 665; ORE 1244:13.
Monsignor Arthur B. Calkins