* The poetical pieces are not confined to the 'Canticles' usual! V recognized, but include the words of the Annunciation (Lk I'-i'S- so-ss. »5-37) as well as other pieces.
t Briggs, Messiah 0/ the Gospels, p. 42 ff.
t Op. cit. p. 490.
808
VIRGIN BIRTH
VIRGIN BIRTH
soil for such beliefs in the popular feeling and consciousness was a fertile one. But this was not the case among the Jews. Such feeling assumed quite a different form among them, at any rate Avithin historical times. It is difficult to see how ideas of the kind prevalent in the pagan popular consciousness regarding the sons of the gods could have found an entrance into primitive Christian circles — least of all Jewish -Chvistisin circles. To borrow Dr. Weiss' words, ' The shameless glorify- ing of sensual desire in these myths could only provoke in the primitive Christian consciousness the deepest abhorrence ; every endeavour to refer any such idea to Jesus must have appeared a pro- fanation of what was most holy, by thus dragging it through the mire of sensuality.'* Cheyne, in- deed, following Gunkel, has made out a stronger case for the introduction of mythical material regarding tlie mother of the Messiah from Baby- lonian sources (cf. Bible Problems, p. 76 f.). As has already been pointed out, the ' woman clothed with the sun ' of Rev 12 is clearly mythological. And she was regarded by the author of the chapter as being the mother of the Messiah.
Now it is undoubtedly true that the Jewish Messianic idea bears traces of the influence of the universal myth of the World Redeemer. It is in- deed, when analyzed critically, found to be largely a transformed and refined edition of the old material. The universal craving which found vary- ing expression in the world-myth of the coming Deliverer assumed its highest and most spiritual phase in some forms of Jewish Messianic belief. One feature of the myth was tlie representation of the mother of the coming Deliverer. Tlie mother plays an important role, but no father is mentioned. Here in all probability we must see a survival of the idea of the goddess-mother as distinct from the later one of the goddess- wife, t In Is V^'* the goddess-mother has been transferred to earth, and has become simply the Israelitish woman who is to bear the wonderful child.
In Rabbinical literature this idea seems to have survived in the various forms in which the conception of the Messiah's earthly pre-existence comes to expression.
(1) He is represented as leading a hidden life and then suddenly manifests himself (cf. Mt 2427. 43. 44). in the Midrash Ex. Rabba, i., it is said that as Moses, the first deliverer, was reared at the court of Pharaoh, so the future Deliverer will grow up in the Roman capital. Another Midrash says that the Messiah will suddenly be revealed to Israel in Rome.
(2) The Messiah is represented as born, but not yet revealed. J Cf. the well-known passage Sank. 98b, where R. Joshua b. Levi is quoted as saying that the Messiah is already born and is living in concealment at the gates of Rome. According to the Targ. (Jerus.) on Mic. 4*, the Messiah is on the earth, but is still in concealment because of the sins of the people.
(3) The Messiah is represented as having been born at some time in the past (according to one account, born at Bethlehem on the day the Temple was destroyed ; according to another, born in the days of king David and now dwelling at Rome).§
In the curious story of the Messiah's birth quoted by Light- foot (Horce, on Mt 21), the birth of the Messiah (whose name is Menahem, son of Hezekiah) is connected with Bethlehem and the destruction of the Temple. His mother's name is not given, she being described simply as 'the mother of Menahem.' At Bethlehem she is found with her infant son by the Jew who has been mysteriously apprised of Messiah's birth. The Jew leaves, and ' after some days returns to that city, and says to her, ' ' How does the little infant?" And she said: "Prom the time you saw me last spirits and tempests came, and snatched him away out of my hands. " '
In all these forms of the myth it is to be observed that the mother of the Redeemer is nowhere called a ' virgin.' Where the mention of a father does not occur, this feature may be due to the prominence of the mother in an earlier social stage, surviving in
* Quoted by Knowling, Our Lord's Virgin Birth, p. 42 f.
t Cf. Barton, A Sketch, of Semitic Origins, ch. iii.
X Cf. Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph. viii.) : ' But Christ, if He is come, and is anywhere, is unknown ; nor does He know Him- self, nor can He be endued with any power till Elijah shall come and anoint Him, and make Him manifest to all men ' ; cf. also xlix.
§ Cf. JE viii. 511, where the above details are given.
the form of tlie goddess-mother ; an idea which later assumed the form of the Messiah's being concealed and unknown, and manifesting Himself suddenly. It is also to be observed that in Rev 12 the woman is a heavenly being : in other words, the conception in this passage is nearer the primi- tive myth than it is in Is V*. It is difficult to imagine how the representation in Rev 12 can have suggested the idea of the virgin birth, though it is easy to see that the prominence assigned to the virgin mother of Jesus in the Christian story may have influenced the author of Revelation in select- ing so crude a piece of mythological material for the purposes of his book. In other words, it was the Gospel story that suggested the selection of the mythical representation in Rev 12. It would be easier to suppose that the LXX of Is 7^^ had given rise to the story of the virgin birth than the mythical figure in Revelation.