A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
As early as the Apostles’ Creed, the virgin birth of Christ has been proclaimed as a doctrine to be believed. It is heralded as a historical event which must be accepted as a fundamental or core truth of the Christian faith. Despite a long history of its proclamation, this doctrine is not often explained. It is simply not clear why Jesus’ incarnation had to occur this way. This study offers a fresh look at this unique and important event in salvation-history and suggests a constructive reason for it that is based on Jesus’ identity as the temple of God and on a typological reading of temple building across the canon. The central thesis is that Jesus had to be conceived to a virgin mother by the immediate act of the Holy Spirit because of his identity as the heavenly temple of God.
This study focuses on the intersection between the doctrine of the virgin birth and the theological category of Temple Christology. It attempts to explain why Jesus-the-temple had to have a virgin mother by considering Jesus’ unique status as the temple of God who was “made without human hands.” According to this argument, the virginal conception of Jesus was necessary because the incarnation was a divine act of temple construction.
Unfortunately, for most of the history of the Christian church, Christology and typology have often gone their separate ways. This divergence is so stark that some of the imagery, phraseology, and words of the scripture have lost their voice amongst theological formulations. The approach of this study demonstrates that a typological study of biblical persons, events, and institutions can increase our understanding of Jesus, especially of his virginal conception. . . .
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