Virgin Birth in Early Christian Writings

Tatian, The Diatessaron Direct teaching

1 [Arabic, p. 7] Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah was on this wise: In the time when his mother was given in marriage to Joseph, before they came together, 2 she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Supporting witness

..."The Holy Spirit will come, and the power of the Most High will rest upon you. Therefore, he who is born of you will be pure and will be called the Son of God." And look, Elizabeth your kinswoman, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, she who is called barren. For nothing is difficult for God." Mary said, "Look, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Supporting witness

Then Mary got up in those days and hurried into the hill country, to a city of Judah. She entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She cried out with a loud voice and said to Mary, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit in your womb. Why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her from the Lord would be fulfilled." And Mary said,

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

...he last first. The prophet also indicates the same, saying, "instead of fathers, children have been born to you." For the Lord, having been born "the First-born of the dead," and receiving into His care the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having become the beginning of those that live, just as Adam became the beginning of those who die. Therefore, Luke starts the genealogy with the Lord and traces it back to Adam, showing that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, not they Him. Thus, the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary free through faith.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book V Supporting witness

...ected with a tree through His own obedience on the tree, thus undoing the deception that misled the virgin Eve, who was engaged to a man. This was joyfully announced through the truth spoken by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was also engaged to a man. Just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel and fled from God after disobeying His command, the latter received the news through an angelic message that she would bear God, being obedient to His word. While the former disobeyed God, the latter chose to be obedient, so that the Virgin Mary might become the advocate for the virgin Eve. Thus, as humanity fell into the captivity of death by a virgin, it is redeemed by a virgin; virginal disobedience is countered by virginal obedience. Similarly, the sin of the first-created man is corrected by the First-begotten, and the serpent's deception is overcome by the innocence of the dove, breaking the chains that bound us to death.

Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes Supporting witness

Therefore He was born a second time as man, of a virgin, without a father, that, as in His first spiritual birth, being born of God alone, He was made a sacred spirit, so in His second and fleshly birth, being born of a mother only, He might become holy flesh, that through Him the flesh, which had become subject to sin, might be freed from destruction.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

But in His second, which was in the flesh, He was born of a virgin's womb without the office of a father, that, bearing a middle substance between God and man, He might be able, as it were, to take by the hand this frail and weak nature of ours, and raise it to immortality.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

...decide whether they should believe it or not, that the prophet spoke about this man being born of a virgin because at His birth the words “God with us” were spoken, let us prove our point from the words themselves. The Lord is said to have spoken to Ahaz in this way: “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, either in the depth or in the height above.” After that, the sign is given: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” What kind of sign, then, would it have been if a young woman who was not a virgin gave birth to a child? And which of the two is more fitting as the mother of Immanuel, that is, “God with us”? Is it a woman who has had relations with a man, and who has conceived in the usual way for women, or one who is still a pure and holy virgin? Surely only the latter is fitting to bring forth one at whose birth it is said, “God with us.” And if he is so argumentative as to say that the command, “Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God,” is addressed to Ahaz, we will ask in return: who in the time of Ahaz bore a son at whose birth the words “Immanuel,” that is, “God with us,” were used? And if no one can be found, then clearly what was said to Ahaz w

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

What kind of sign, then, would that have been — a young woman who was not a virgin giving birth to a child?

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Supporting witness

IV. Therefore the prophet brought the virgin from Nazareth, so that she might give birth in Bethlehem to her child who brings salvation, and brought her back again to Nazareth, so that the hope of life might be made known to the world. For this reason the ark of God moved from the inn at Bethlehem. For there He paid to the law that debt of the forty days, due not to justice but to grace, and rested on the mountains of Zion. There, receiving into her pure bosom, as on a lofty throne and one beyond the nature of man, the Monarch of all, she presented Him there to God the Father as the joint-partner of His throne and inseparable from His nature, together with that pure and undefiled flesh which He had assumed from her substance. The holy mother goes up to the temple to show to the law a new and strange wonder, that child long expected, who opened the virgin's womb and yet did not break the barriers of virginity; that child who was above the law and yet fulfilled the law; that child who was at once before the law and yet after it; that child, in short, who was incarnate from her beyond the law of nature. For in other cases, every womb is first opened by union with a man and, being made

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Supporting witness

But the womb of this virgin, without being opened before, or being impregnated with seed, gave birth to an offspring that transcended nature, while at the same time it was cognate to it, and that without detriment to the indivisible unity, so that the miracle was the more stupendous, the prerogative of virginity likewise remaining intact.

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Supporting witness

The must holy virgin mother, therefore, escaped entirely the manner of women even before she brought forth: doubtless, in order that the Holy Spirit, betrothing her unto Himself, and sanctifying her, she might conceive without intercourse with man.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness

...e, and together with the Father He is without beginning. This Word took our substance of the Virgin Mary. And in so far as He is spiritual indeed, He is indivisibly equal with the Father. But in so far as He is bodily, He is in like manner inseparably equal with us. And again, in so far as He is spiritual, He supplies in the same equality the Holy Spirit, inseparably and without limit. Neither were there two natures, but only one nature of the Holy Trinity before the incarnation of the Word, the Son. And the nature of the Trinity remained one also after the incarnation of the Son. But if anyone, moreover, believes that any increment has been given to the Trinity by reason of the assumption of humanity by the Word, he is an alien from us, and from the ministry of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is the perfect, holy, Apostolic faith of the holy God. Praise to the Holy Trinity forever through the ages of the ages. Amen.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness

Moreover, the chief foundation of our salvation is the incarnation of the Word. Therefore, we believe that the incarnation of the Word took place without any change in His divinity, for the renewal of humanity. For there was no change, no transfer, and no limitation of will in the holy power of God. Instead, while that remained the same in itself, it also accomplished the work of the incarnation for the salvation of the world. And the Word of God, living on earth in human manner, also continued in the full divine presence, fulfilling all things, and being properly and individually united with flesh. And while the feelings proper to the flesh were present, the divine power kept the impassibility proper to itself. Therefore, the man who brings passibility into that power is impious. For the Lord of glory appeared in the form of a man when He undertook the divine arrangement on the earth. He fulfilled the law for men by His deeds, and by His sufferings He removed man's sufferings, and by His death He abolished death, and by His resurrection He brought life to light. And now we look for His appearing from heaven in glory, for the life and judgment of all, when the resurrection of the d

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness

There is one Son, both before the incarnation and after the incarnation. The same Son is both man and God, both together as one. The God the Word is not one person, and the man Jesus another person. Rather, the same one who existed as Son before was made one with flesh through Mary. In this way, He made Himself a perfect, holy, and sinless man, and used that divine arrangement for the renewal of mankind and the salvation of the whole world. God the Father, being Himself the perfect Person, thus has the perfect Word truly begotten from Him. He is not like a spoken word, nor like a son by adoption, in the sense in which angels and men are called sons of God, but as a Son who is by nature God. And there is also the perfect Holy Spirit, given by God through the Son to the sons of adoption, living and life-giving, holy and giving holiness to those who share in Him. He is not like an unsubstantial breath breathed into them by man, but is the living Breath proceeding from God. Therefore the Trinity is to be adored, glorified, honored, and reverenced. The Father is understood in the Son, just as the Son is of Him. And the Son is glorified in the Father, since He is of the Father, and is ma

Luke 1:27 Supporting witness

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

Isaiah 7:14 Direct teaching

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ Direct teaching

...e sign of Christ’s birth, as Isaiah says: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: look, a virgin will conceive and bear a son." Isaiah 7:14 So then, we find what the sign is that will be spoken against: the conception and the giving birth of the Virgin Mary. About this, these sophists say, "She was a virgin and yet not a virgin; she gave birth and yet did not give birth," as though such language, if it must be spoken at all, would not fit us better than them. For she gave birth, because she brought forth offspring from her own flesh. Yet she did not give birth, since she did not bring Him forth from a husband’s seed. She was a virgin in regard to abstaining from a husband, and yet not a virgin in regard to bearing a child. However, there is not the equal line of reasoning that the heretics claim. In other words, it does not follow that, because she did not give birth in one sense, she who was not a virgin was still a virgin, simply because she became a mother without the fruit of her own womb. But with us there is no double meaning, nothing twisted into two senses. Light is light, and darkness is darkness. Yes is yes, and no, no. Whatever is more than these comes from

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

Wherefore also the Lord Himself gave us a sign, in the depth below, and in the height above, which man did not ask for, because he never expected that a virgin could conceive, or that it was possible that one remaining a virgin could bring forth a son, and that what was thus born should be “God with us,” and descend to those things which are of the earth beneath, seeking the sheep which had perished, which was indeed His own peculiar handiwork, and ascend to the height above, offering and commending to His Father that human nature (hominem) which had been found, making in His own person the first-fruits of the resurrection of man;

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

...ys, were fanatics and mob leaders, and who claimed that they had come from heaven, unless it were clearly shown that He had been born in Bethlehem, or, as another might say, had come forth from Bethlehem to be the leader of the people. With respect to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, if anyone desires, after the prophecy of Micah and after the history recorded in the Gospels by the disciples of Jesus, to have additional evidence from other sources, let him know that, in agreement with the narrative in the Gospel regarding His birth, the cave where He was born is shown at Bethlehem, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling-clothes. And this sight is greatly talked of in the surrounding places, even among the enemies of the faith, it being said that in this cave was born that Jesus who is worshipped and reverenced by the Christians. Moreover, I think that before the coming of Christ, the chief priests and scribes of the people, because of the distinctness and clearness of this prophecy, taught that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. And this opinion had also become widespread among the Jews. For this reason, it is related that Herod, when inquiring of the

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Supporting witness

and who on earth, in the virgin's nuptial chamber, joined to Himself the nature of Adam, like a bridegroom, by an inalienable union, and preserved His mother's purity uncorrupt and un injured — Him, in short, who in heaven was begotten without corruption, and on earth brought forth in a manner quite unspeakable. But to return to our subject.

Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness

who submitted for our salvation to become flesh of the holy God-mother, and ever-virgin Mary;