ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Matthew 1.20

Book: Matthew · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Verse

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ASV:

"20. He when he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:20, ASV)

WEB:

"20. But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:20, WEB)

KJV:

"20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." (Matthew 1:20, KJV)

YLT:

"20. And on his thinking of these things, lo, a messenger of the Lord in a dream appeared to him, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, thou mayest not fear to receive Mary thy wife, for that which in her was begotten [is] of the Holy Spirit," (Matthew 1:20, YLT)

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV:

"18. And, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 20. He when he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. 22. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying," (Matthew 1:18-22, ASV)

WEB:

"18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this; for after his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19. Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. 20. But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21. She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” 22. Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying," (Matthew 1:18-22, WEB)

KJV:

"18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying," (Matthew 1:18-22, KJV)

YLT:

"18. And of Jesus Christ, the birth was thus: For his mother Mary having been betrothed to Joseph, before their coming together she was found to have conceived from the Holy Spirit, 19. and Joseph her husband being righteous, and not willing to make her an example, did wish privately to send her away. 20. And on his thinking of these things, lo, a messenger of the Lord in a dream appeared to him, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, thou mayest not fear to receive Mary thy wife, for that which in her was begotten [is] of the Holy Spirit, 21. and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' 22. And all this hath come to pass, that it may be fulfilled that was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying," (Matthew 1:18-22, YLT)

Setting

  • Speaker: Matthew the narrator; the angel speaking to Joseph in a dream
  • Audience: Matthew's Jewish-Christian readership receiving the Matthean infancy narrative
  • Location: the Nazareth household of Joseph (the engagement period); the dream-revelation occurs at night
  • Time period: events c. 6-4 BC (Jesus's birth dating); composed c. AD 60-80
  • Narrative context: the angelic-annunciation-to-Joseph in the Matthean infancy narrative. Mary's pregnancy has been discovered; she is engaged but not yet married to Joseph. Joseph is preparing to "put her away privily", a legal divorce, which in first-century Jewish law was the appropriate response to perceived adultery while avoiding public scandal. The angelic intervention (v. 20) reveals the supernatural origin of the pregnancy AND instructs Joseph to receive Mary as his wife. The full annunciation includes: (a) the address, "Joseph, thou son of David" (placing him in the Davidic-Messianic lineage); (b) the reassurance, "fear not"; (c) the revelation, the conception is of the Holy Spirit; (d) the naming, "thou shalt call his name JESUS" (Hebrew Yeshua = "YHWH saves"); (e) the mission-summary, "he shall save his people from their sins"; (f) the prophetic-fulfillment claim (v. 22) leading to the Isaiah 7:14 Immanuel citation (v. 23).

Theological reading

Matthew 1:20 is the principal NT statement of the virgin-conception of Jesus (the Lukan parallel is Luke 1:34-35). The verse identifies the origin of Jesus's physical-conception as the Holy Spirit, not a human father. The doctrinal claim is foundational to Christian Christology and has been a contested point in Christian-vs-skeptic apologetics since the Enlightenment.

Virgin conception vs virgin birth

A vocabulary clarification: the doctrine is most precisely the virgin conception, Mary conceived without sexual intercourse with a man. The virgin birth (delivery while remaining virginal) is a Catholic and Eastern Orthodox extension (virgo intacta, the perpetual-virginity-of-Mary tradition). Protestant traditions generally affirm the virgin conception but do not require the perpetual-virginity claim (cf. Matt 13:55-56, Jesus's brothers and sisters mentioned by name; some traditions read these as half-siblings via Joseph's previous marriage, others as cousins-by-Hellenistic-usage, Protestants typically as full-biological-siblings post-Jesus's birth).

The biblical claim of the verse is the virgin-conception. "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit", the origin of the pregnancy is supernatural, not human-paternal.

The Isaiah 7:14 fulfillment claim (v. 23)

Matthew's immediate next verse cites Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." The Christological deployment of Isaiah 7:14 has been historically contested:

Skeptical reading: the Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 uses almah (young woman of marriageable age) not bethulah (specifically virgin). Therefore Isaiah does not specifically prophesy a virgin-birth. The LXX translators chose parthenos (virgin) for almah, and Matthew followed the LXX. The skeptical conclusion: Matthew's claim of fulfillment depends on a translation choice, not on Isaiah's intent.

Christian response:

  1. Almah in Hebrew usage refers to a young woman who is presumed to be a virgin (virginity being the cultural default for young unmarried women in that society). The semantic range includes virginity even if it doesn't specify it.
  2. The LXX translators (3rd c. BC Jewish scholars) chose parthenos, confirming that the Jewish-tradition reading of almah in Isa 7:14 included virginity.
  3. The Isaiah 7:14 prophecy has a near-and-far fulfillment pattern (cf. typological prophecy). The near-fulfillment in Isaiah's time (probably Isaiah's own son via Isaiah's wife / the prophetess of Isa 8:3) functioned as the sign-given-to-Ahaz. The far-fulfillment in Matthew is the full Immanuel (God-with-us), the incarnation. The double-fulfillment pattern is consistent with broader prophetic-fulfillment patterns (cf. Joel 2 / Acts 2; many others).

Why does the virgin-conception matter theologically?

Three theological reasons converge:

  1. Sinlessness. The orthodox tradition has read the virgin-conception as the means by which Jesus does not inherit Adam's sin via natural-procreation. The doctrine is articulated more explicitly in Catholic tradition (with the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a logical extension to make Mary herself uninfected); Protestant traditions are more varied. But the virgin-conception is consistently held as part of the framework explaining Christ's sinlessness.

  2. Christological identity. The virgin-conception identifies Jesus as the unique Son of God in His humanity-and-divinity. He is not merely an adopted-Son or an exalted-prophet; He is the One whose very physical existence began by direct divine action. The supernatural-origin grounds the supernatural-identity.

  3. Messianic prophetic fulfillment. The Isaiah 7:14 prophecy + the broader Davidic-Messianic-lineage trajectory point toward the Messiah's unique conception-origin. Matthew's narrative establishes Jesus's fulfillment of this trajectory.

The "fear not", the angelic-reassurance pattern

Joseph's situation involves real anxieties: the social shame of marrying a woman pregnant by another (apparent) man; the religious-legal complications; the future practical implications for the child. The angel's "fear not" echoes the broader biblical-angelic-pattern (Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10; Matt 28:5; Acts 27:24; Rev 1:17, rich hub), divine messengers consistently open with reassurance because divine encounter is overwhelming.

The pastoral note: God's revelation to humans is often paired with "fear not" because God's purposes for us frequently involve circumstances that would otherwise be fearful. The reassurance is not absence-of-difficulty but presence-of-God-in-the-difficulty.

Joseph as "son of David"

The angel's address, "Joseph, thou son of David", is theologically loaded. The Davidic-Messianic lineage requires the Messiah to be a son of David (cf. 2 Sam 7:12-16; Isa 9:7; Jer 23:5). The genealogy of Matthew 1:1-17 establishes Joseph's Davidic descent. The annunciation to Joseph as "son of David" implicitly establishes that Jesus, by Joseph's adoption / legal-fatherhood, inherits the Davidic-Messianic-royal claim.

The legal-vs-biological-fatherhood distinction is significant. Jesus is not Joseph's biological son (the virgin-conception); but He is Joseph's legal / adopted son, which in first-century Jewish law fully transmits inheritance-rights, including the Davidic-Messianic claim. The Christological argument from the genealogies depends on this legal-fatherhood mechanism.

Patristic and Reformed reading

Ignatius of Antioch (To the Ephesians 19, c. AD 107): the virgin-conception is one of the three principal mysteries ("three mysteries of renown... were wrought in stillness by God"): Mary's virginity, her child-bearing, and the death of the Lord. The doctrine is in the earliest sub-apostolic confessions.

Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.21, c. AD 180): the virgin-conception is foundational to the recapitulation doctrine, Mary as the new Eve who reverses the disobedience of the first Eve.

Augustine (On the Trinity 4.4): the virgin-conception is fitting because the Incarnation is the unique union of divine and human; no merely-natural-conception could be the means.

John Calvin (Institutes 2.13.4): the virgin-conception is essential for Christological orthodoxy. Without it, Jesus's identity as the unique God-man is compromised.

Apologetic deployment

The verse is foundational for:

  1. Defense of the historical virgin-conception against Enlightenment-and-modern skepticism. The verse + the Lukan parallel (Luke 1:34-35) constitute the dual-Gospel witness. The skeptical reduction to "later doctrinal development" is incompatible with the early Lukan and Matthean narratives.

  2. Defense against Mormon Christology (which teaches that God the Father physically conceived Jesus with Mary). Counter: the verse explicitly identifies the Holy Spirit as the conceiving agent, not a physical action by the Father. The orthodox Christian view is supernatural-Spirit-conception, not divine-human procreation.

  3. Defense against Muslim Christology (which affirms the virgin-birth but denies Jesus's divinity). The Muslim affirmation of the virgin-birth is a useful apologetic common-ground; the Christian point: if you affirm the virgin-birth (as the Quran does, Surah 19:20-21; 3:47), what worldview-context best makes sense of it? Christian Christology (Jesus as God-incarnate) provides a coherent context; Islamic prophet-only Christology doesn't fully account for the unique-conception.

  4. Defense of Christological orthodoxy. The virgin-conception is part of the minimum Christological confession of the historic creeds (Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed). Denying it places one outside the boundaries of historic Christianity.

Trinitarian / Oneness reading

The Trinitarian reads the verse as: the Father's plan, executed by the Spirit's overshadowing of Mary, resulting in the conception of the eternal Son in human nature. The Oneness reads the verse as: the one God's plan, executed by the one God's Spirit-mode, resulting in the Son-manifestation in human nature. Both readings affirm the supernatural-conception and the resulting Christ-identity; they differ in metaphysical analysis. See Trinity vs Oneness vs Modalism vs Arianism.

Canonical-theological connections

  • Luke 1:34-35, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" + "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee" (Lukan parallel)
  • Isaiah 7:14, "a virgin shall conceive" (OT prophecy cited in Matt 1:23)
  • Galatians 4:4, "made of a woman, made under the law" (Pauline reference)
  • Romans 1:3, "made of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Davidic-lineage)
  • 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Davidic-covenant promise
  • John 1:14, "the Word was made flesh" (rich hub: John 1.1-14)
  • Hebrews 10:5-7, "a body hast thou prepared me"
  • Matthew 1:1-17, the Matthean genealogy establishing Davidic descent
  • Luke 3:23-38, the Lukan genealogy (different framework)

Key words

See also

Quoted in