2 John 3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God who is the Father and from Jesus Messiah, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

The New Testament teaches that God miraculously begat, procreated, i.e., fathered a unique human Son in Mary when she was still a virgin.

First, note how Matthew 1 ends the record of the genesis [not just genealogy] of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of both Abraham and king David:

“Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, out of whom was fathered Jesus, who is called the Messiah.” Mat 1.16

In the list preceding this verse, fathers beget or procreate sons, but in the case of Mary, the procreating is said to be by God Himself. The Word Biblical Commentary on Matthew rightly calls this “the biggest surprise in the genealogy. Having brought the genealogy down to Joseph, the evangelist identifies him as the husband of Mary, and the attention shifts to her (“from whom”). The repeated active verb “begot” gives way to a divine passive ([was begotten] i.e., God is the active agent). Joseph is important-it is his genealogy, after all, that is traced-but as the extraordinary change in the syntax indicates, he is not important as the physical father of Jesus but rather…as his legal parent. This notion of legal parentage is commonplace in rabbinic thought. The explanation of this surprising sentence is, of course, to be found in the account of the virgin birth contained in the next pericope.” That is, the next passage beginning with the angel saying to Joseph in Mat 1.20:

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is begotten [gennethen] in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

The word translated begotten is from the verb gennao which lexicons define as “to cause something to come into existence, primarily through procreation.” (Alfred Rahlfs, Genesis 1926, 39; Also, Liddell & Scott, “to generate, produce”; Webster & Strong, “to procreate.”) This is the same word used throughout genealogies in both Old and New Testaments to refer to fathers begetting, i.e., procreating children. For example, Isa. 9:6 speaks of the predicted Son to be born, with the same verb gennao [to beget] pointing to a moment in time. And the same word is used by the angel in Luke 1:35 in answer to Mary’s question of how she will become pregnant while remaining a virgin.

“Holy spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason the holy child to be fathered [procreated] will be called the Son of God.”

NOTE most translations hide the action of God the Father, the one who creates, via procreation, a unique human Son in the womb, with words like “born” or “conceived”. These two words (birth, conception) point to the action of the mother and not the father. For example, a mother conceives in her womb and later gives birth because the father has already procreated the child in her womb. And Matthew 1:22-23 adds that “all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet [i.e., Isaiah 7:14]: Look! The virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.”

NOTE how both Matthew and Luke define the word “virgin” used of Mary as someone who has not had any sexual relations: Luke 1:34 Mary asked the angel: “How will this be [become pregnant], since I have not known a man?” The NET Bible rightly points to “The expression in the Greek text [as] a euphemism for sexual relations.“

Similarly, Matthew 1:18 describes “the origin [once again genesis, v.1, not just birth, gennesis] of Jesus the Messiah happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together [i.e., had sexual relations], she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” NOTE the Greek verb translated engaged or betrothed is also used in reference to Mary in Luke 1:27, lit. “before they came together,” and refers to the beginning of sexual relations.

That the origin of the Messiah happened this way was also the understanding of other NT writers like John and Paul.

1 John 5:18 speaks of the Son of God, Jesus, as “the one who was begotten,” I.e., by God. Again, the Greek begotten points to a moment in time when this coming into existence took place, i.e., at his procreation by God in the womb of Mary. In Gal 4.4 Paul says “God sent forth [i.e., commissioned] His Son made [genomenon ek, literally coming into existence out of] a woman.” The Greek translated “made” is from the verb ginomai which means:

• “To come into being, existence through the process of birth.” Bauer’s Lexicon;
• “To become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being.” Thayers’ lexicon.

As a result, Paul says in Rom 1.3 that the Messiah came to be “the seed [descendant] of David, according to the flesh” i.e., by the miracle worked in Mary. This marks the ultimate fulfillment of the so-called proto-evangelion of Gen 3.15 where God says to Eve that her seed [i.e., descendant] would crush the seed of the Devil.