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THE KING’ S BUSINESS'
It is agreed among scholars that John’s Gospel was supplementary to the other Gospels. John knew what Matthew and Luke had written regarding the Virgin Birth. If what they had written was wrong, it was John’s duty to have contradicted it and to have so stated in his gospel. On the contrary, he seems to confirm the miraculous birth o f Christ in the following way: The bitterest enemy o f the apostle John was Cerinthus, the famous gnostic, whose principal objection to Christianity was the doctrine o f the Virgin Birth. Cerinthus taught that Jesus was the son o f Mary by ordinary generation and that the Spirit came on Jesus at baptism and left Him at the Cross. In other words, that Jesus was j ust an ordinary man when He came to the baptism and an ordinary man when He died on the Cross. This doctrine John very positively denies in his first epis tle: “ This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood” (5 :6 ). See also 4 :2, 3: “ Here by know ye the Spirit o f G od : Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is o f G od : And every spirit that confesseth not (or annulleth, i. e. separat- eth, between Jesus and the Christ) that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” John wrote his gospel at the close o f the first century. He knew that for many years the Church had believed in the doc trine o f the Virgin Birth and had accepted it as a part o f its creed. If the Church was wrong in its belief, John should have corrected the error. Further, did not John owe it to the mother o f Jesus, who lived with him from the day o f Christ’s crucifixion until her death, to protect her from this calumny and to repudiate the story o f the Virgin Birth, if it was false? The silefice o f John indicates his acceptance o f the fact. That John was thoroughly conversant with the birth o f Christ at Bethlehem is evident from the reference to that fact: “ Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out o f Galilee? Hath
at his mother’s house, and1 Mary was among the number who met there. , Again it is worth our note that Matthew, in citing the question of the people regard ing Christ, asks, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” while Mark, recording the same question, says, “Is not this the carpenter, the son o f Mary ?” The introduction to Mark’s gospel, in which Jesus is called the Son o f God and is linked with Old Testa ment prophecy, also leads us to infer Mark’s knowledge o f Christ’s supernatural birth. (b ) The Silence of John. Again we must remember the purpose of John’s gospel, which was to present the divine and heavenly, not the human and earthly, descent o f our Lord. Not Christ’s humanity but His deity is the purpose John sets himself to reveal, hence his gospel begins (1:1) with the statement o f Christ’s' deity, and ends (20:28, i. e. considering c. 21 as an epilogue) with an assertion o f the same. But do not the words o f John 1 :14, “And the W ord was made flesh,” hint at the Incarnation? There is a reading set forth by some o f the Church fathers (Jus tin, Iranaeus, Tertullian) o f John 1:13 which is interesting, and while it may not be exegetically correct, it is nevertheless suggestive in this particular connection. John 1 :12 reads: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons o f God, even to them that believe on his name.” This is followed by the words o f the 13th verse: “Which were born, not o f blood, nor o f the wdl o f the flesh, nor of the will o f man, but o f God.” ^ The fathers, to whom reference has been made, instead o f the words “ which were born,” make the passage read, "'Who was born, not o f blood, nor o f the will o f the flesh, nor o f the will o f man, but o f God,” thus making the verse refer to Christ. Here “natural gen eration by a human father is denied and excluded in the most categorical manner.” Why not? Why may not the supernatural birth o f Christ be a type o f the new birth o f the children o f God? As He was born in a supernatural way, so. are they—not according to natural but supernatural means.
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