We hear it every year at Christmas in in our services. Matthew Chapter 1, quoting the prophet Isaiah - “look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”.
Critics say there’s a problem: that the Isaiah passage is not talking about a virgin and Matthew misquotes him. So is it a problem for the virgin Birth? Is Christmas cancelled?
Alistair McKitterick is a theology lecturer at Moorlands College. He says there’s good reason why Matthew used, but adapted Isaiah’s prophecy in his birth narrative. Robert Stovold is a sceptic and atheist and believes that the first Christmas is an invention of the gospel writers.
For Alistair McKitterick: http://www.moorlands.ac.uk/staff/alistair-mckitterick/
For Robert Stovold: http://www.brightonhumanists.org/publications_and_downloads.html
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