Here is why I am not troubled realizing many of the stories in the Bible may be allegory or metaphor, including the Virgin Birth.
There is information we read in a newspaper and then there is reading a poem or watching a movie. If the reporter is honest the newspaper just tells us some facts. But I have watched movies that have changed my life. I watched the movie Rocky 4 in the theater as a kid and it inspired me to become stronger and exercise and fight back against bullies in Middle School. I have read poems that generate strong emotions in me. I think that "God" can work through the equivalent of movies and poems which is what the New Testament is to me.
The New Testament is not a newspaper article just telling you some facts. That would be boring. Nobody puts down the newspaper and feels inspired to change their life. The New Testament inspires people to change their lives because the writers were using creative writing techniques and were experts at telling a story and using metaphorical language. God could have given the message in mathematical equations but that would be boring and stale. I choose to believe that there is a Divine Power that worked through the individual humans that wrote the New Testament. It was a combination of divine inspiration and human creativity. So in my view, I give credit to both a Divinity and the creative genius of the human authors who were like artists painting on their canvas.
So my opinion is we should not worry about how "literally true" it is and be more interested in the creativity of the poetry and symbols; and notice how it inspires us and those around us to be more good, loyal, fair-minded, and happier, etc.
Historians and scholars have been working to distinguish between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith for over 200 years. I have read the literature on the topic. I choose to believe in both the historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith. But my version of the Christ of Faith is different from Fundamentalists (literal believers). I have been influenced by many Christian historians and scholars, the one I like the best is Marcus Borg; his website: marcusjborg.org
The simple facts are that Jesus died around 30 AD. Paul was writing in the 50s AD. Most of the New Testament is the writings of Paul. Paul did not discuss Jesus' life or what he said or did in any detail. Paul focuses more on the resurrected Christ that is a spirit. The first Gospel about Jesus' life was not written until 70 AD. So basically you have 40 years after Jesus died before Jesus's words and actions are written down. During that time those who knew Jesus had died. But before they died they shared their experiences of being around Jesus. Those who converted to the Jesus-Movement were told the stories about Jesus but did not write anything down. I believe that if we jumped in a time machine and went back to when Jesus lived we would simply see Jesus being a really good Jewish Rabbi. But he was not normal, he was very special and talked about very important things. I think we would see him healing people and not understand how he does it. I think we would see him criticizing religious dogmatism and those who focus on the "rules" too much and forget about actually loving each other.
After he died his followers had visions of him resurrected. Overtime they felt inspired to practice what is called midrash or "narrative scripturalization." I collected several articles on this topic on my Christian blog in recommended reading section here. Scroll down to:
On the New Testament as Parabolic Scripturalization (or Midrash; a.k.a Figural Reading)
These articles explain that it was a Jewish practice to retell the Old Testament stories in new ways. Paul would take a story in the Old Testament and retell it in a new way, feeling that he was inspired by the Christ Spirit to do so. This was not considered writing fiction but inspired retelling of old stories in new ways. So for example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus becomes a new and greater Moses, as the stories of Moses are retold in a new way where Jesus replaces Moses as the heroic leader. The readers at the time the Gospel of Matthew was written would have noticed this and realized this, and not been bothered or troubled by this.
As you can see things were not meant to be taken literally from the start but they were using poetry and retelling stories from the beginning.
I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have read several books by historians and scholars about the "historical Jesus." Most historians have different opinions on who the historical Jesus was and what he really said and did, however there is a consensus. The consensus among historians is that the "historical Jesus" probably did not believe he was born of a virgin. Historians do not think that Joseph and Mary told Jesus he was born of a virgin and was the Son of God. This is what I think happened based on my research. It is only my opinion.
I think Jesus was simply "born of a woman" (see Galatians 4:4; Paul wrote this around 50 AD). Paul never mentions the "virgin birth." The first Gospel written around 70 AD, the gospel of Mark, does not mention the virgin birth. The author of The Gospel of Matthew (written around 80 AD) read in the Septuagint (the Greek New Testament), in Isaiah, that the Messiah would be born of a "virgin." However, many scholars say that Matthew misunderstood that in Isaiah the word was not virgin but a "young woman." Or Matthew knew that, but wanted to compare Jesus to Augustus who was said to be born of a virgin and a Son of God. In other words, Matthew was trying to say the pagan emperor Augustus is not the true divine "son of God" and "born of a virgin," but Jesus was. See God in a Manger: The Message of the Gospels and the Problem of the Virgin Birth by N.T. Wright.
Once Matthew started the story of the Virgin Birth then everyone repeated it. However you do not find the story of Jesus being born of a virgin before Matthew. I personally think it is just a symbolic way of Mathew saying that Jesus was given divine powers.
What I think happened was Jesus simply grew up as a normal Jewish male; and at one point he felt inspired by God to liberate his people from oppression. He was against the corruptions among religious elites running the Temple and so he turned over the tables in the temple and that led to him getting killed.
I very much admire the historical Jesus. I think he was a theologically- liberal Jew, meaning he practiced Judaism in a very non-literal, non-dogmatic way. He was always interpreting the Torah in the most liberal way possible which emphasized loving others as yourself.
When Jesus died he had such an impact on his followers that they had visions of him as the Resurrected Christ. I choose to believe these Visions really happened. I choose to believe something happened that made Jesus' disciples believe he was divine and resurrected. I cannot prove it. I choose to have faith which is the substance of things hoped for without evidence. When I exercise faith in the resurrection it just makes me feel better and I am less afraid of death and losing my loved ones in the grave. The resurrection simply means to me the hope that I will experience my loved ones again after I die. I did not like being an atheist for several years and believing that when we die we rot in the ground and are eaten by worms and we cease to exist. That was very morbid and depressing. I was never happy believing that. I like believing that we will live beyond the grave. It gives me hope and meaning and more happiness in my life.
As I talk about on this blog, I do believe that something powerful happened in the first century when Christian Scripture was produced. The god Zeus was a rapist. The Roman Emperor was called a "son of God" and he was a bully and a tyrant. When they said Jesus was a son of God and he was divine like Zeus, they were turning everything upside down. Why did the definition of what is a divine being change so radically all of a sudden between 50 - 130 AD? Before the New Testament, a Divinity or God was almost always described as a rich and powerful, conquering his enemies violently and many times enslaving and raping victims. Why did the New Testament authors all of a sudden feel inspired to reverse this definition of a Divinity? Never before (to my knowledge) had a God-man been described as a kind and charitable healer preaching fair-mindedness. The pagan gods were always rewarding the bullies and the rich. But here was Jesus being called divine and caring about everyone.
I believe that the authors of the New Testament were inspired to create an algorithm in the language of parable and allegory, that produces good people. Just as an architect will follow an architecture plan to build a home, I believe that the symbolic architecture of the New Testament produces good people.
I remember when I was a missionary in Brazil, and offering to help a man carry his job equipment home one day. He was an alcoholic and not the best father. After he started reading the scriptures with us, I remember the atmosphere of his home changed and there was more love and unity.
In my view, the New Testament revolutionized human consciousness and changed society. The pagan gods represented the ethical culture of their times. The pagan gods before Christianity were often cruel and capricious and rewarded the rich, the tyrants and rapists. The Christian authors felt inspired to use poetic language in describing Jesus as the real God-man and not these other Pagan God-men. By changing what it meant to be divine they changed human consciousness; as the new vision of deity transformed what it meant to be favored by the gods. For instead of the Pagan Gods favoring cruelty and violence and oppressing others, embracing Christ as divine led to people focusing on being kinder and generous and more fair-minded, as Christians sought to imitate the example of Peter, Paul, James and Jesus. This became the way to gain favor with divinity, by being forgiving not revengeful, being benevolent not a tyrant, and loving women and children rather than treating them like second class citizens which was common in that time. Who is to say that a real divine power did not inspire them to do this?
I think Jesus lived thinking that he was inspired by God and called by God to be a liberator of the oppressed. As we read in Luke 4: 17-19 (ESV):
17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He [Jesus] unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
I believe that Jesus indeed accomplished his mission. Because of Jesus, today we are more compassionate as a society, we have hospitals and charities and a political ideals that seek to manifest what Jesus taught. Before Jesus people would put unwanted babies outside to die, but Christians started adopting these babies. Because of Christianity people began to abolish slavery. Christianity changed human consciousness in the last 2,000 years. If that's not a miracle I don't know what is.
