The Virgin Birth and the Earliest Christian Tradition

by K. D. Sethna

In this study on the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, the author stresses that the focus must be not on the "manner in which orthodox Christians understand Mary's child to have emerged from her womb" but on "the nature of the conception by which that child is said to have been born virginally". He states, "the more correct term, therefore, would be the Virginal Conception of Jesus." The study is not from a rationalist angle but "to find if the basic Christian tradition itself affords ground for belief in such a beginning of life".

The subject is considered through the eyes of the scholar and ordained minister of the Roman Catholic Church, Father Raymond E. Brown, because he has given "an admirably many-sided treatment to the problem".