The Virgin Birth of Christ in Matthew 1
The first chapter of Matthew is designed to tell us the origin of the person whom we call Savior and Lord. Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth. Note carefully the wording of verse 16. It relates that “Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.”
Prior to this there is an almost monotonous repetition of so-and-so begat so-and-so begat so-and-so for forty-two generations. The word “begat” occurs thirty-nine times. But in verse 16 the pattern changes. Any reader would expect the verse to read that Jacob begat Joseph and Joseph begat Jesus. Instead the verse reads that Joseph was the husband of Mary “of whom was born Jesus.”
The Greek language can convey the gender of the pronoun, and “whom” in Greek is a feminine pronoun. It’s clearly pointing back not to Joseph but to Mary. Also, the term “born” in verse 16 is the very same term translated “begat” thirty-nine previous times in the genealogy. So Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses the same term forty times. But on the fortieth time, he assigns the term to the mother alone. That is obviously a suggestion that there is something unusual here.
Matthew is writing to Jews. They are reading the genealogy of their Messiah. Any of those who had read carefully would have noted this aberration. That’s why Matthew then says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise” (1:18). He is going to do something he didn’t do with anyone else in the genealogy. Matthew will explain this one. In verses 18 through 24 Matthew gives six indications that this was definitely a virgin conception.
1. “When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child” (1:18).
This tells us the timing of the conception. It occurred during the espousal period. The espousal was entered into by the Jews when a young man gave to his prospective bride a sum of money and signed a document pledging his love and lifelong loyalty. When this brief ceremony was enacted, the man and woman had entered into an espousal period that lasted from a month to a year. It had much stricter obligations than do today’s engagements. When a couple entered into an espousal period, they were already considered man and wife. This was so much the case that if either one of them was unfaithful during this period, the unfaithfulness is termed and penalized as adultery (Deut. 22:13–29). At the same time intimacy between the couple was prohibited. The only way the covenant could be broken was by death or divorce (Deut. 24:1–4).
When Matthew says “before they came together,” he is communicating that there were no intimate relations between them. This is exactly what Mary has in mind when she reacts to Gabriel’s announcement that she will be with child: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” (Luke 1:34). This raises an important point. When someone raises the question of biological impossibility, recall that Mary herself raised that question. This is not a new question at all.
2. “She was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (1:18).
The answer of Heaven to Mary’s question about biological impossibility was “the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). It’s actually vague as to what the relationship is between the Holy Spirit and the conception. But the answer is intended to satisfy the question of biological impossibility. It will be a miracle from Heaven.
3. “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily” (1:19).
Joseph’s reaction communicates that he knows that Mary’s child is not his child. Luke’s Gospel states that immediately on hearing the news from Gabriel, Mary fled to the hill country to take up residence with her kinswoman Elizabeth. Luke states definitely that she was there three months. This provided the accountability that precluded all possibility that the child would be viewed as Joseph’s. Joseph knows they have not been together. His response is based on the view that the baby must be someone else’s.
For a long time there has been the accusation that Mary was immoral. This shows up in John’s Gospel when the Jews snidely say to Jesus in a discussion about paternity, “We be not born of fornication” (John 8:41). Matthew 1:19 reveals, however, that the first person to raise the moral objection was the first man to hear the news.
4. “The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, . . . that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (1:20).
God gives this righteous man an angelic verification that Mary has not been immoral. The term translated “conceived” here is Matthew’s old term “begat.” That which is begotten in her, the thing that occurred naturally from father to son, in this case is a product of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Luke uses a different term, the technical term, “conceive in thy womb.” The incarnation is literally what the Bible expresses it to be: “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). Or it’s literally what Paul writes in Galatians 4:4: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.” It is an absolute miracle. It is the Second Person of the Godhead somehow uniting with the physical reproductive cell of a human being. A literal conception takes place. And the only explanation is the Holy Spirit.
5. “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child” (1:21–23).
Joseph has received angelic verification. But the angel goes further in verses 21 and 22. The angel assigns the name of the baby, saying, “Thou shalt call his name JESUS.” The Greek word “Jesus” is the equivalent to the Old Testament word “Joshua,” which means “Jehovah saves.” The angel says to call the baby “Jehovah saves” because the baby will save. If Jehovah saves, and the baby saves, then who is the baby? Clearly the implication is exactly what is predicted with explicit clarity in the Old Testament. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given … and his name shall be called … mighty God” (Isa. 9:6).
The angel has Scripture to justify this naming. He quotes Isaiah 7:14. Seven hundred years earlier God said, “A virgin shall conceive.” Here, then, we have Old Testament Scriptural verification of the virgin conception.
6. “And [Joseph] knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS” (1:25).
Joseph called the name of that baby “Jehovah saves.” End of account.
Why end of story? When you tell a story, you recount the facts, climaxing the story with the point. The point comes last. The Holy Spirit is giving us the point of the miracle. In Matthew 1 the Holy Spirit follows Joseph’s story. We read of his initial rejection, then the angelic verification, the Scriptural verification, and then the question, “What’s Joseph going to do?” The story climaxes with Joseph’s response: he called that baby “Jehovah saves.”
Joseph’s response implies to every skeptical reader that he should do what Joseph did. He ought to accept that baby as the incarnate God who saves His people from their sins.
Dr. Mark Minnick serves as senior pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina.