Give Us This Day ...

Notes on

The Meaning Of Jesus:  Two Visions

by

Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright

Note 1:  These notes follow the outline given in the Table of Contents.

Note 2:  Most, if not all, of the sentences and phrases in the following pages were

pulled directly from the book and are placed within quotes.

Note 3:  The grey highlighted items can be considered primary key points.

Note 4:  The yellow highlighted items can be considered secondary key points.

PART VI:  THE BIRTH OF JESUS

11.  Born of a Virgin? (by N. T. Wright): 

“Christmas looms large in our culture, outshining even Easter in the popular mind.”

“God’s glory is revealed, not in the manger, but on the cross.”

“….the birth stories are insignificant in themselves; they function as a test for beliefs about the Bible.”

“Those who have emphasized Jesus’ divinity have sometimes made the virginal conception central.  Those who have emphasized Jesus’ humanity have often felt that the virginal conception would mark him off from the rest of us.”

“….the virginal conception of Jesus, not, strictly, of the ‘virgin birth.’  Even if I come to believe in the former, the latter would remain a different sort of thing altogether.  Neither, of course, should be confused with the ‘immaculate conception,’ a Roman Catholic dogma about the conception, not of Jesus, but of Mary.”

“Because I am convinced that the creator God raised Jesus bodily from the dead, and because I am convinced that Jesus was and is the embodiment of this God, Israel’s God, my worldview is forced to reactivate various things in the suspense account, the birth narratives included.”

The Birth Narratives

“Matthew’s whole book is about the scriptures being fulfilled in Jesus.”

“….the righteous couple doing what they are told….the true king of the Jews is born under the nose of the wicked king, Herod.”

“….Jesus fulfills at least three biblical themes.  He brings Israel into the promised land; Jesus is the Greek for Joshua.  As Immanuel, he embodies God’s presence with his people.  As the new David, he is the messiah born at Bethlehem.”

“…the exile was the last significant event before Jesus; when the angel says that Jesus will ‘save his people from their sins,’ liberation from exile is in view.  Jesus, David’s true descendant, will fulfill the Abrahamic covenant by undoing the exile and all that it means.” 

“Why does the genealogy finish with Joseph if Matthew is going to say that he wasn’t after all Jesus’ father?...It was enough that Jesus was born into the Davidic family; adoption brought legitimation.”

“….this birth is a direct challenge to the pagan power:  in other words, to Caesar.”

“Israel’s god is the king of the world; now, Jesus is the king of the world.”

The Virginal Conception

“Matthew and Luke declare unambiguously that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived.”

“What matters is the powerful, mysterious presence of the God of Israel, the creator God, bringing Israel’s story to its climax by doing a new thing, bringing the story of creation to its height by a new creation from the womb of the old.”

“No one can prove, historically, that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived.  No one can prove, historically, that she wasn’t.  Science studies the repeatable; history bumps its nose against the unrepeatable.”

“…since for quite other reasons I have come to believe that the God of Israel, the world’s creator, was personally and fully revealed in and as Jesus of Nazareth, I hold open my historical judgment and say:  if that’s what God deemed appropriate, who am I to object?”

12.  The Meaning of the Birth Stories (by Marcus Borg):

“Tom and I see the birth stories quite differently…..I do not think they are historically factual, but I think they are profoundly true in another and more important sense….I do not think the virginal conception is historical, and I do not think there was a special star or wise men or shepherds or birth in a stable in Bethlehem.”

“…metaphorical narratives using ancient religious imagery to express central truths about Jesus’ significance.”

Why Not Historical

“The tradition that Jesus had a remarkable birth is relatively late….Earlier writers…do not refer to a special birth….the reason most New Testament authors do not mention it is because the stores did not yet exist.”

“…the striking differences between Matthew’s birth story and Luke’s birth story.”

“The genealogy of Jesus.  Both Matthew and Luke trace the genealogy of Jesus back through Joseph to King David and beyond.  But the genealogies differ significantly.  Matthew takes Jesus’ ancestry back to Abraham, the father of Israel; Luke takes it back to Adam, the father of the human race.  Moreover, the genealogies differ even when they are covering the same period of time.  From David forward, Solomon and the kings of Judah are the ancestors of Jesus in Matthew; in Luke, the lineage goes through the prophet Nathan, not King Solomon.”

“The home of Mary and Joseph….In Matthew, Mary and Joseph live in Bethlehem and the birth occurs at home (not in a stable).  The family then moves to Nazareth after spending time in Egypt.  Matthew has no trip to Bethlehem.”

“Birth visitors.  In Matthew, ‘wise men from the East’ follow a special star to the place of Jesus’ birth.  Luke has neither wise men nor star but instead angels singing in the night sky to shepherds who then come to the manger.”

“Herod’s plot.  In Matthew, Herod the great orders the killing of all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem.  The family of Jesus escapes by fleeing to Egypt.  Luke’s story has neither Herod’s plot nor a trip to Egypt.”

“Use of the Hebrew Bible.  Both Matthew and Luke use the Hebrew Bible extensively….Matthew uses a prediction-fulfillment formula five times in his birth story: ‘This took place to fulfill that which was spoken by the prophet.’ ”

“…the stories look like they have been composed to be overtures to each gospel.  That is, the central themes of each birth story reflect the central themes of the gospel of which they are a part.  For example, for Matthew Jesus is ‘the king of the Jews,’ and so his ancestry is traced through the kings of Judah.  For Luke, Jesus is a Spirit-anointed social prophet, and so his ancestry includes prophets….Luke emphasizes the spread of the gospel into the Gentile world….In short, the stories look like the literary creation of each author.”

“….there are some similarities.  These include the names of Jesus’ parents, his birth while Herod the Great was still king, and the tradition of Jesus growing up in Nazareth.  Beyond these details, there are two major similarities:  conception by the Spirit, and birth in Bethlehem.”

“A….possibility is that Jesus was born in Nazareth, but the story of his birth in Bethlehem arose because of Bethlehem’s significance in the Hebrew Bible.  It was the ancestral home of King David, and there was a tradition that the great and future king of Israel would be descended from David….By the time of Jesus, many thought of the great and future Davidic King as the messiah.” 

“What then is left historically from these stories?  Jesus was born before the death of Herod the Great, and thus probably not later than 4 b.c.e.  His parents were Mary and Joseph.  He was probably born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem.  He was born into a marginalized peasant class.”

The Truth of the Birth Stories

“…I see these stories as history metaphorized, that is, as metaphorical narratives.”

Light in the Darkness

“Light shining in the darkness is a central image in the birth stories.”

“The symbolism of light and darkness is ancient, archetypal, and cross-cultural.  It has many rich resonances of meaning.  Darkness….is a striking image of the human condition.  Light is seen as the antidote to the above and is thus an image of salvation.”

“Jesus is the light shining in the darkness….he is ‘the light of the world.’  This is the truth of this theme of the birth stories.  And it is true independent of their historical factuality.”

A Tale of Two Lordships

“The conflict between two lordships runs through the birth stories…rival claims to be ‘king of the Jews.’  Herod the Great saw himself as the king of the Jews.”

“For Luke, the conflict is between the lordship of Caesar and the lordship of Christ.”

“…Caesar…is also spoken of as divine…By echoing language used about the Roman emperor, Luke affirms that Jesus, not Caesar, is the good news, the true savior and Son of God who brings peace.”

“The theme of two lordships is powerful and central to the biblical tradition as a whole….where are you going to see your lord?  In the power and wealth of Herod and Caesar, of kingship and empire?  Or in this Galilean Jewish peasant who saw things very differently?  Where are you going to see the decisive manifestation of God?  In the domination system?  Or in Jesus who was executed by the domination system?”

“…the lordship of Christ is the path of personal liberation.  Politically, the lordship of Christ challenges systems of domination in the name of God’s passion for justice.  It is no accident that the rulers of this world, both at the beginning of Jesus’ life and at the end, seek to destroy him.”

Virginal Conception

“…the theme of remarkable births is part of the tradition of Israel….Abraham the father of Israel was given the promise that he would have many descendants.  Yet he and his immediate descendants (the patriarchs of Israel) all have difficulty having children.”

“This repeating theme suggests that the people of God come into existence and are sustained in their existence by the grace of God.  Humanly speaking, it was impossible that God’s promise would be fulfilled, but by God it was.”

“Just as God had acted in the history of Israel to create and sustain the people of God through remarkable births, so also God had now acted in the birth of Jesus.  Just as Israel came into existence through the grace of God when humanly speaking it was impossible, so the early Christian community as the continuation of Israel came into existence through the grace of God.”

“…the story of Jesus being conceived by the Spirit affirms that what happened in Jesus was ‘of God.’  The activity of the Spirit of God in his life was projected back to the beginning of his life.  What happened in Jesus was not ‘of the flesh’ but ‘of the Spirit.’  The story of Jesus’ virginal conception affirms that Jesus was ‘born not of blood or the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.’  It is a metaphorical affirmation of Jesus’ identity and significance.”

“…I do not see the story of the virginal conception as a marvel of biology that, if true, proves that Jesus really was the Son of God.  Rather, it is an early Christian narratival confession of faith and affirmation of allegiance to Jesus….a way of seeing Jesus that immediately involves seeing him as the decisive disclosure of God.”

“The important questions are, ‘Is Jesus the light of the world?  Is he the true Lord?  Is what happened in him ‘of God’?’  Answering these questions affirmatively lays claim to our whole lives.”

“Like all good stories, their resonances are many….the story of the virgin birth is the story of Christ being born within us through the union of the Spirit of God with our flesh. Ultimately the story of Jesus’ birth is not just about the past but about the internal birth in us in the present.”