3. Justin Martyr.
In his Apologies and in his Dialogue with Trypho he has three summaries of the Christian Faith, in all of which the Virgin-Birth, the Crucifixion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension are the chief points of belief about Christ.
In his First Apology (written between 140 and 150) he says: "We find it foretold in the Books of the Prophets that Jesus our Christ should come born of a Virgin . . . be crucified and should die and rise again, and go up to Heaven, and should both be and be called the 'Son of God.'" * And a little later in the same work he says: "He was born as man of a Virgin, and was called Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again, and has gone up into heaven."+
— * Apol., i. 31. "En dê tais tôn prophêtôn biblois heuromen prokêrussomenon paraginomenon gennômenon dia parthenou . . . stauroumenon Iesoun ton hemeteron Christon, kai apothnêskonta, kai anegeiromenon, kai eis ouranous anerchomenon, ai huion theou onta kai keklêmenon." + Apol., i. 46. "Dia parthenou anthrôpos apekuêthê, kai Iesous epônomasthê, kai staurôtheis kai apothanôn anestê, kai anelêluthen eis ouranon." —
In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (written after the First Apology) he says: "For through the name of this very Son of God, who is also the First-born of every creature, and who was born of a Virgin, and made a man subject to suffering, and was crucified by your nation in the time of Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, every evil spirit is exorcised and overcome and subdued."#
— # Dial., 85. "kata gar tou omonatos autou toutou tou huiou tou theou, kai prôtotokou pases ktiseôs, kai dia parthenou gennêthentos kai pathêtou genomenou anthrôpou, kai staurôthentos epi Pontiou Pilatou hupo tou laou humôn kai apothanontos kai anastantos ek nekrôn, kai anabantos eis ton ouranon, pan daimonion exorkizomenon nikatai kai hupotassetai." —
4. St. Irenaeus.
Writing not later than 190, he makes constant reference to the Virgin-Birth as an integral portion of the Faith of Christendom. He says: "The Church, though scattered over the whole world to the ends of the earth, yet having received from the Apostles and their disciples the Faith—
In one God the Father Almighty… and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation: and in the Holy Ghost, who by the Prophets announced His dispensations and His comings; and the birth of the Virgin (kai tên ek Parthenou gennêsin), and the Passion, and Resurrection from the dead, and the bodily assumption into heaven of the beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, and His appearance from heaven in the glory of the Father . . .
having received, as we said, this preaching and this Faith, the Church, though scattered over the whole world, guards it diligently, as inhabiting one house, and believes in accordance with these words as having one soul and the same heart; and with one voice preaches and teaches and hands on these things, as if possessing one mouth. For the languages of the world are unlike, but the force of the tradition is one and the same."*