(d) The References to Joseph and Mary in Lk. ii
These passages are as follows: ii. 27, “the parents”; ii. 41 and 43, “his parents”; ii. 33, “his father and his mother”; and ii. 48, “thy father and I”. The point to be considered is whether we can suppose St. Luke to have known of the Virgin Birth at the time when he used these expressions.
The last passage (ii. 48) differs from the rest, and should not be pressed. It is reasonable to urge that, in addressing the boy Jesus, Mary would naturally speak in this way, even if the Virgin Birth is historically true; and that it is conceivable that [pg 031] St. Luke, while himself holding the doctrine, should have been so far faithful to his sources as to preserve Mary's words in this form.
In this respect the four passages which remain are quite different, in that they are expressions which St. Luke himself employs. This gives them a distinctive character which has often been overlooked. It has been too frequently assumed that these passages are of like character to those which belong to the story of Jesus at the synagogue at Nazareth. In this incident the Jews speak of Jesus as “the carpenter's son” (Mt. xiii. 55. Cf. Mk. vi. 3, “the carpenter, the son of Mary”). St. Luke, who records the same incident, but perhaps follows a special source of his own (Lk. iv. 16 ff.), gives the question in the form, “Is not this Joseph's son?” With regard to these passages, it is open to any one to urge that in them we have instances of the accuracy with which the Gospels record contemporary beliefs, which were natural but erroneous. The language of the Jews, it may be said, is justified by ignorance of the true facts, and its retention by Evangelists who teach the Virgin Birth is evidence of their fidelity to detail. This is a reasonable argument, and it cannot be gainsaid, until the whole question has been faced (again, as in the case of ii. 48). But the four passages in Lk. ii stand upon an entirely different footing. In these passages it is not a question of what is justified by ignorance, but of what is possible in the light of knowledge. Assuming that we have to do with a writer who believes Jesus to be the son of Mary by the direct operation of the Holy Ghost, we have to ask whether, believing this, and having (on this assumption) just stated this very thing, that writer would be at all likely to speak of “the parents”, “his parents”, and, indeed, to use an expression so definite as “his father and his mother”. In short, granting that St. Luke has recorded the language of the Nazarenes, can we suppose that he would have used the same language himself in the light of the Virgin Birth? It is not as if these modes of speech were indispensable. The words “Joseph and Mary” could easily have been employed, and in this way all danger of ambiguity removed. In the face of a fact so unique as a virgin birth, one would expect an effort to avoid ambiguity; all the more, in the case of a writer, with [pg 032] whose apt choice of words and delicacy of expression scholars like Ramsay and Harnack have made us familiar.
In saying this we are not guilty of imposing modern canons of accuracy upon an ancient writer. The difficulties we ourselves feel have long been felt. “It is very noteworthy that six old Latin codices in ii. 41 have Ioseph et Maria for ‘his parents’ (οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ); most uncials in ii. 33 substitute ‘Joseph’ (ὁ ιωσηφ) for ‘his father’ (ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ)” (Schmiedel, EB., col. 2955). None of these readings can claim, of course, to be original, since admittedly they represent attempts to remove difficulties. Their significance lies in the fact that they indicate that those difficulties have long been felt. They show that we are not asking an ancient writer to conform to modern standards, when we assert that St. Luke has expressed himself with an ambiguity which it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand, if he wrote from the first in the knowledge of the Virgin Birth.
The impression made by the narratives of Lk. ii is thus deepened and confirmed by the several references to Joseph and Mary.
(e) Lk. ii. 5
The bearing of the facts examined thus far is in the direction of showing the Virgin Birth to belong to a later stratum in the Gospel. One passage in Lk. ii might seem to invalidate this view. In the Revised Version, verse 5 reads: “to enrol himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child”. These words, if they must stand, imply that the Virgin Birth is known to the writer. But, apart altogether from the historical character of the miracle, it is highly probable that we ought to read: “with Mary his wife”.[32] This is the reading of the Sinaitic Syriac and of the Old Latin MSS. a, b, c; and the word “wife” together with “betrothed”, also appears in AC2ΓΔΛ, l, q*, Syrp, vulg., goth., aeth. (Moffatt, INT., p. 269). There [pg 033] is much to be said for the view that this is one of the cases in which “Western” readings, where Old Syriac and Old Latin MSS. agree, probably preserve an original text.[33] When we add the argument of transcriptional probability, it is difficult to resist this conclusion. One can easily understand how the reading “with Mary his wife” could come to be altered to “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” by those who imagined that the former was inconsistent with the Virgin Birth. But, if the words “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” stood in the primitive text, can we give any satisfactory explanation of the change? When we consider that from New Testament times the Virgin Birth was part of the faith of the Church, questioned by few save the Ebionites and some of the Gnostic sects, the supposition that “with Mary his wife” is a later corruption, becomes improbable in the extreme. It is hardly sufficient to adopt Plummer's suggestion, that “the γυναικί of A. Vulg. Syr. and Aeth. is a gloss, but a correct one” (op. cit., p. 53). Must we not find more than a gloss? Moreover, is this a satisfactory explanation of the Sin. Syr. and of those Old Latin MSS. which have “wife” without “betrothed”? We should probably conclude that in this instance the “Western” reading, supported by transcriptional probability, must outweigh the evidence of even the great uncials, and that what St. Luke wrote was “with Mary his wife”.