My Real Memoir
My first semester of college was ending and Winter Break was looming like mistletoe. So my Folklore and Mythology teacher Dr. Glickman, to whom Christianity was the biggest myth of all, decided to treat us to a farewell holiday message.
For centuries, he said, preachers had taught that Jesus was divine—due almost entirely to the mistranslation of a single word! They’d translated the Hebrew word almah (in Isaiah 7:14) and its Greek equivalent parthenos (in Matthew 1:23) as “virgin,” when, in fact, these words simply meant “young woman!” Ta-da! End of message. Loud applause rewarded the stately pedagogue’s surgical extraction of this false fact from our poor, religiously inflamed minds. Then Dr. G sent us off to enjoy belief-free “happy holidays!”
Having never read the Bible, and still regarding myself an atheist—although I tended to recoil at Dr. G’s dogmatic disbelief—I was impressed with this unassailable fact I could share with my deluded religious friends. I’ve seen many atheists use it since.
Seven years later, however, I would read the Bible and become increasingly impressed with the character and teachings of Jesus. At one point, Dr. G’s “proof” that Mary wasn’t a virgin came back to me. So I studied the passages Dr. G had used.
Here’s what I learned:
The Hebrew word almah literally means “hidden” or “veiled.” Used only a handful of times in the Old Testament, it can be translated “maiden” or “young woman,” but always signifies celibacy, since those who had lost their virginity were no longer allowed to wear a veil; in fact, according to Jewish law, they were to be stoned to death. Its Greek equivalent is identical in meaning. Hence, Greece’s Parthenon was called that because it was served by parthenos—young virgins–and later became a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
So, does everything hang on these two words? Hardly. In Luke 1:28-34 the angel Gabriel comes to Mary, telling her she is going to conceive a child. Her response? “How can this be, since I have never known a man?” (Apparently Dr. G missed this passage.) “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” Gabriel explains, “and that which shall be born shall be called the son of God.”
And what about Joseph, the poor-but-honorable carpenter to whom Mary was betrothed? According to Matthew 1:18-23, “Before they came together (in other words, they hadn’t had sex yet), she was found to be with child.” Oops! Joe prepared to quietly break it off so that Mary wouldn’t be disgraced (or stoned to death). But then an angel appeared to him, saying, “That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” in order that Isaiah’s prophecy of “Emmanuel, ‘God with us’ might be fulfilled.”
You may choose to disbelieve the Bible, Dr. G. But can we skip the simplistic misstatements about what it actually says? And “Merry Christmas!” by the way, from your formerly atheist student,
Mitch
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
Loved reading!! Merry Christmas 🎄
Thank you, Ehna, and Merry Christmas to you!
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Points well taken Mitch. I have read the Bible or passages from it quite often. I am true to my faith and believe I have a friend in Jesus. I believe that when it comes to the Lord anything is possible, Therefore I believe both Mary and Joseph were chosen to be the parents and it would have been wrong for Joseph not to believe, I think they made very good parents for Jesus. A very Merry Christmas to you!
Thank you, RasmaSandra, and a Merry Christmas to you!
I attended college in 1970-73 and experienced the same indoctrinations from the professors. Most of my classmates were Christians, so it didn’t float well with us. Same thing is happening today, only more rabid.
Really interesting!
Such a common thing, unbelievers powered by the “scholarship” of one or two words to debunk scripture. I inquire what they think of Melchizedek who knew Abraham while he was still in his father’s loins. (Hebrews 7)
Mitch, as you point out there is much to show in the Bible of the virgin conception of Jesus, the son of God. Your professor wanted to have converts to atheism and hit during the season of Christmas. If Jesus is not real, why spend so much time on trying to prove his non existence?
Indeed, Hazel.
I guess after years of agnosticism and searching, once I experienced that incredible love that God fleshed out in Jesus, it became for me a moot point. And when I began to recognize that the humanity of Jesus is most important in following His WAY and recognizing that he outgrew even the limits of his own people and became open to all people, I heard the challenge not only to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but to grow and expand my capacity for loving those different from me. His WAY is what we are called to. And knowing and keeping open to His Love is the grace to follow, to the best of our individual and very different gifts and capacity for loving. No one dies perfect, but we are each called to become the people we were uniquely created to be.
But I recognize that many theologians and probably many people care about the details and miss the point of learning to love even those who are so different from us that they are scary and those that are so broken that they are dangerous. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Now that’s apologetics. Well clarified, Mitch
My privilege, Bob.
I’m glad you eventually dug deeper, Mitch. I heard a sincere Christian say it didn’t matter if Mary was a virgin, but I think it does. Mary’s virginity leaves no room for Jesus to be anything but divine.
True, Priscilla.
luke 1:53, matthew 1:43-48, isaiah chapters 32 & 34
Merry Christmas, indeed!
Love this❤️
Thank you, Natasha.
You slam dunked it, Mitch. Kudos to you for sharing the Truth. Hopefully, your former professor converted to Christianity along the way and has accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. 🙂
Thanks, Nancy. And, yes, it would certainly be wonderful to meet him as a brother on the other side.
The matter of virginity for Mary was never a concern for me. You can believe it or not believe it and still be a Christian. The real issue is that some Christian “authorities” and denominations insist that people embrace hocus pocus as a legitimate and required demonstration of faith. They ignore the “way of living” part or at least give it low consideration. The virginity is not about Mary. Jesus is the message of God to show the way. That does come from man. It does not depend on a pregnancy. The way is from God. It is unique and has nothing to do with insemination and a physical birth. The ideas and expressions of man are contaminated by our impurities in thought and action. But the incarnation of God does not have those human contaminates and the virginity lies in birth not through man but gifted to us by God in His grace.
my physics teacher, when I was about 14, during class told a story where she had told her (smaller) children if they wanted they could go on believing. Much later, I realised that story at that time may just have been prompted by me being provocative dealing with the poor RE teacher. It helped my interrogative mind no end.
Wonderful post.
Thank you, Julie.
🙂
I never understood the part when Joseph planned to “quietly” leave Mary
Continuing my comment, Joseph would leave a pregnant unmarried woman behind? It wouldn’t be a disgrace for her?
To “quietly” break off the betrothal would allow her to leave and start life again somewhere else. If the community knew she’d gotten pregnant by another man she’d be a complete outcast.
A young, pregnant woman, starting a new life, all by herself, it’s hard nowadays, let alone 2000 years ago, in the Middle East. I don’t think Joe thought through his plans.
Great points!
Thanks, Harry!
Merry Christmas, Mitch! What a great post! It goes to show how often people base their beliefs on part of the whole and how often faith is based on what we cannot see.
Very true, Crystal. And a Merry Christmas to you!
Well done!
Love this blog, Mitch!! Thank you and Merry Christmas!!
My privilege, and the same to you, Katie!
A wonderful post – Mery Christmas!
Thank you, AW, and Merry Christmas to you!
Great post. Three strikes and that lie is out!
This is why I started committing to memory longer passages of Scripture and not just random verses that could be pulled out of context. (That poor professor must have really not wanted to see all the evidence that contradicted his point. I wonder what he’s up to these days?)
I’m not sure I can associate spiritual purity with abstinence and traditional concepts of virginity. The very first commandment listed in Genesis was : “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” 1:28. Repeated again in 9:7, “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.” Whatever the physical act was where Mary conceived, at some point involved one of her eggs being fertilized, certainly her child was the physical offspring of the Heavenly deity… there must be some expectation that the Savior shared DNA with his Father. As this same deity also commanded Mary and all mankind to multiply, I can’t imagine what constitutes the impurity of the act, nor that we should be debating that no act of intercourse at some level occurred that caused her to conceive and give birth. The debate sort of reminds me of Fathers all over the country who deny Fatherhood because the woman could have slept with anyone. In this case, the ‘Father’ commanded the woman to conceive, and indeed proceeded to provide the DNA so that she can obey his commandment… and then we believers debate the purity of the act; this entire debate is somewhat pointless. The only impurity I see is Father’s who deny their paternity. It is my experience that most of us know the truth of any and all our paternity and then try to wiggle out of the truth.
It seems you may missing the point a bit here, Chuck.
This part I never understood: “Joe prepared to quietly break it off so that Mary wouldn’t be disgraced (or stoned to death).”
But what would happen to her to be pregnant and with no husband? Since Joe left…
Ups, it looks like I have already asked this question.