Ben C. Smith wrote:rakovsky wrote:I do think that Paul knew the story of the Virgin birth, as he writes in Galatians 4:4:
"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law."
There does not seem to me to be much point in Paul writing those underlined words unless he is referring to birth from a mother in particular, otherwise, why not say "born of a human father and mother"?
Because "born of (a) woman" was a common expression in antiquity. It had nothing to do with absent fathers or virgin births:
Job 14.1: For a mortal born of woman is short-lived, and full of wrath.
Job 15.14: What is a mortal that he should be blameless, or one born of woman that he would be just?
Job 25.4: How then is a mortal just before God? Or who born of woman can cleanse himself?
Sirach 10.18: Arrogance was not created for men, nor wrathful rage for the brood of women.
Euripides, Bacchae, lines 987-990: Who then bore him? For he was not produced from the blood of women, but is the offspring of some lioness or of Libyan gorgons.
1QS 11.21a: As what shall one born of woman be considered in your presence?
1QHa 5.20b: What is one born of woman among all your fearful works?
Matthew 11.11: Amen, I say to you, there is not greater than John the baptist among those born of women, but the lesser in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than him.
Luke 7.28: I say to you, no one is greater than John among those born of women, but the lesser in the kingdom of God is greater than him.
Thomas 15: When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves onto your faces and worship him; that one is your father.
Josephus, Antiquities 16.11.5 §382: Will you slay these two young men, born of a queenly woman, who are accomplished with every virtue in the highest degree, and leave yourself destitute in your old age, but exposed to one son who has very ill managed the hopes you have given him, and to relations whose death you have so often resolved on yourself?
Josephus, Wars 4.8.3 §460: The report is that this fountain at the beginning caused, not only the blasting of the earth and the trees, but also of the offspring of women, and that it was entirely of a sickly and corruptive nature to all things whatsoever, but that it was made gentle, and very wholesome and fruitful, by the prophet Elisha. This prophet was familiar with Elijah, and was his successor.
The expression simply means "human" or "mortal".
Ben.
I am familiar with these expressions. They are evidence that when Paul speaks of Jesus born of a woman, that is all he means. Still, it does not solve the issue for me, because the root factor for me is different, and is not just the expression itself.. Paul is setting up a paradigm and direct juxtaposition - Jesus is born of a heavenly father on one hand and a mortal human mother on the other. Within that paradigm, the question arises, what about the father?
Well, in Matthew's gospel, local people say things like
Isn't this the carpenter's son?, suggesting that he didn't seem to be anyone special growing up. Well in Matthew's eyes Jesus really was someone special.
54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses,[h] Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him.
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
~Matthew 13
In asking where he got the powers and whether his father was the carpenter and his mother's
name Mary, and whether these are his brothers and sisters, Matthew is implying hidden answers to these questions.
Matthew's hidden answers are that the wisdom and power are from God, that God is his real father, that his mother Mary's real name is something different, and that his brothers and sisters are those who "do the will of my father who is in heaven" (as he explains later).
Hence, Mary is really his mother, but she has some secret name, whereas Joseph is not really his father, he has a secret father. However, the local people don't believe any of these things that he is teaching them through his allusions.
This passage of Matthew 13 implying that the carpenter is not Jesus' "real" father and that the locals just think this shows up in Mark 6 too.
Additionally, the profession of a "carpenter" could itself be an allusion to something, just like a "fisherman" (an apostle) is. A fisherman is an allusion to catching people (fishers of men). A carpenter builds houses, so perhaps the "carpenter" profession is a reference to building God's house, like the Temple. Jesus talked about the wisdom of Solomon, who built the Temple, and Joseph descended from Solomon adopted Jesus, making him an adopted son of Solomon on Joseph's line.
So to get back to Paul's expression, woman
bears children, it's true, whereas a father
begets them.
To say "born of a woman", as opposed to born of a goddess, suggests human birth. However,
Paul is not just saying Jesus was born of a woman. He is making a juxtaposition where Jesus has God as his father and a human woman as his mother. This paradigm fits within pagan motifs by the way where a hero like Hercules was born of a God like Zeus and a human mortal woman.
Further, this motif was actually not totally limited to paganism as is commonly expected. In Genesis we read about the "gods" having sex with human women and giving birth to the "giants" (Nephilim?). In the beginning of Genesis we also read a curious passage about the "seed of the woman" having enmity with the serpeant. What is curious about this is that women do not have seed. I would be interested to see if the Bible ever else refers to a woman as having seed? I know that seed can be an expression for descendants (eg. the seed of Abraham), so I wouldn't be totally surprised.
To say Jesus was born under the Law/Torah in connection with Paul's paradigm of God-father Woman-mother is also curious. Jewish males are technically not born into the Mosaic covenant, they only enter it on the 8th day circumcision, I think. Zeus having sex with a human mother would not be lawful. However, one could conceive of the holy spirit prompting Mary to give birth virginally as something not involving unlawful sex. He would not have what is called an "illegitimate birth", but a lawful one.