The Virgin In The New Testament

Excerpt from Bishop Spong.

Last week we looked at the New Testament's portrait of the mother of Jesus and the Virgin Birth. It is scant, late developing material filled with mythological details. That quick analysis served to make us aware that most of the images we hold of the mother of Jesus are not biblical at all. They are the creations of Christian history and they incorporate many elements of the pagan goddess figures that thrived in Europe before Christianity became the dominant religion of that region. Whether Christianity conquered these pagan ideas or was conquered by them is a debate that is ongoing. What can be said without fear or contradiction is that the Bible as we know it does not support the myth of the Virgin as it was developed in Christian history.