MARY’S VIRGINITY BEFORE THE BIRTH
by Giuseppe Monno
THE VIRGINAL CONCEPTION OF JESUS
In the Gospel according to Matthew we read:
“All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’” (Matthew 1:22–23).
The evangelist sees in the conception of Jesus the fulfilment of Isaiah 7:14, understood in the light of Christian revelation.
THE FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH’S PROPHECY
The text of Isaiah states:
“Look! the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
In its original historical setting, the prophet speaks during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis (8th century BC), offering King Ahaz a sign of God’s faithfulness to the house of David. The child announced is, first of all, a concrete historical assurance of God’s presence.
Christian tradition, however, recognises in this passage a deeper and fuller meaning, definitively revealed in Christ. In this way, the prophecy is not set aside in its original context, but brought to completion in its fullest sense.
LINGUISTIC AND PHILOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
The exegetical discussion centres on the Hebrew terms:
– ‘almâ: a young woman of marriageable age, without explicitly indicating virginity
– betûlâ: more properly denotes a virgin, though not always in a strictly technical sense
A notable example is Rebecca (Genesis 24), who is described using both terms, suggesting a degree of semantic overlap.
In the Greek Septuagint, ‘almâ is translated as parthenos (“virgin”), a choice that is both deliberate and significant. Elsewhere, the translators employ more general terms such as neanis.
This rendering may reflect an understanding of the passage as pointing to an extraordinary sign, although the extent of such an interpretation in pre-Christian Judaism remains debated.
It is Matthew, however, who, under divine inspiration, recognises the full weight of this linguistic choice and explicitly applies it to the birth of Christ.
THE VIRGINAL CONCEPTION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Gospels of Matthew (1:18–25) and Luke (1:26–38) both testify that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, without human intervention.
Mary herself asks:
“How can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?” (Luke 1:34)
The angel replies:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow” (Luke 1:35)
The conception of Christ is therefore a divine act, recalling the creative work of the Spirit and inaugurating the new creation (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Matthew 1:25 (“he had no knowledge of her until she had given birth to a son”) clearly affirms virginity in the conception; the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity, however, rests on the wider witness of Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church.
THE THEOLOGICAL MEANING OF IMMANUEL
The name Immanuel (“God-with-us”) expresses a reality which, in Christ, is not merely symbolic but ontological.
In light of the mystery of the hypostatic union, Jesus is truly God present in human nature:
“The Word became flesh, he lived among us” (John 1:14)
In him the promise of God’s presence reaches its fulfilment: in his birth (Matthew 1:23), in the life of the community (Matthew 18:20), and in the final promise (Matthew 28:20).
MARY, THE NEW EVE
Patristic tradition presents Mary as the new Eve.
Just as Eve, still a virgin, shared in the fall through disobedience, so Mary shares in the work of salvation through obedience:
“The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience” (Adversus haereses III, 22, 4).
The virginal conception is thus not only an extraordinary biological event, but a profoundly theological one: Mary conceives through faith and obedience to the Word (Luke 1:38), thereby inaugurating a new humanity.
THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH
From the earliest centuries, the Church has unanimously professed the virginal conception of Christ as a fundamental truth of the faith.
The Fathers of the Church—from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to Saint Augustine—consistently affirm that Christ was conceived without human seed, that this is the work of the Holy Spirit, and that it marks the beginning of a new creation.
This broad and consistent witness attests to the firmness of the apostolic Tradition on this point.
Matthew thus recognises in Jesus the true Immanuel: God who not only accompanies his people, but truly enters into human history.
Read in the light of Christian revelation, the Septuagint translation appears as a providential preparation for the mystery of the Incarnation.
In the virginal womb of Mary, the promise is definitively fulfilled: God is with us—not merely as a sign, but as a personal and incarnate presence.
“Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: he was made visible in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).