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The Second Lesson: The Mystery of the Virgin Birth.947
sources, toward the end of the first century, and received credence owing
to the influx of converts from the “heathen” peoples who found in the idea
a correspondence with their former beliefs. As Rev. R. J. Campbell, minister
of the City Temple, London, says in his “New Theology,” “No New Testament
passage whatever is directly or indirectly a prophecy of the virgin birth of
Jesus. To insist upon this may seem to many like beating a man of straw, but
if so, the man of straw still retains a good deal of vitality.”
Let us now turn to the second account of the Virgin Birth, in the Gospels—
the only other place that it is mentioned, outside of the story in Matthew,
above considered. We find this second mention in Luke 1:26–35, the verses
having been quoted in the first part of this lesson.
There has been much dispute regarding the real authorship of the Gospel
commonly accredited to Luke, but it is generally agreed upon by Biblical
scholars that it was the latest of the first three Gospels (generally known as
“the Synoptic Gospels”). It is also generally agreed upon, by such scholars,
that the author, whoever he may have been, was not an eye witness of the
events in the Life of Christ. Some of the best authorities hold that he was a
Gentile (non-Hebrew), probably a Greek, for his Greek literary style is far
above the average, his vocabulary being very rich and his diction admirable.
It is also generally believed that the same hand wrote the Book of Acts.
Tradition holds that the author was one Luke, a Christian convert after the
death of Jesus, who was one of Paul’s missionary band which traveled from
Troas to Macedonia, and who shared Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea;
and who shared Paul’s shipwreck experiences on the voyage to Rome. He
is thought to have written his Gospel long after the death of Paul, for the
benefit and instruction of one Theophilus, a man of rank residing in Antioch.
It is held by writers of the Higher Criticism that the account of the Virgin
Birth was either injected in Luke’s narrative, by some later writer, or else that
Luke in his old age adopted this view which was beginning to gain credence
among the converted Christians of pagan origin, Luke himself being of this
class. It is pointed out that as Paul, who was Luke’s close friend and teacher,