How do Catholics explain the fact that Jesus is male yet he has no human biological father?
Upvote:3
The Catholic Church has no official position on this, since it is of minor importance (albeit an interesting problem).
The consensus of theologians who have studied the problem (Catholic and non-Catholic, who hold the Church’s firm belief in the Virgin Birth and the maleness of Jesus) is that, presumably, the genetic material for Jesus’s paternal complement of DNA was created miraculously.
This is likely to be the case, because the result of a parthenogenesis (viable parthenogenesis is extremely rare, if not nonexistent, in humans) would be a woman, not a man.
Moreover, it is unlikely that any of Mary’s DNA was simply “duplicated” in order to fill out any part Jesus’ paternal complement: generally, when maternal DNA is accidentally duplicated (even when there are no “extra” chromosomes), there are grave birth defects due to a phenomenon called genomic imprinting.
The fact that the Son was conceived as a healthy man would, therefore, be further confirmation of the miraculousness of Jesus’ conception and birth.
(For a decent overview of various positions, see http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/lifestyle/ci_3207769. Note that the article represents a diversity of opinions, some of which are not compatible with orthodox belief in the Virgin Birth. Among those cited in the article, David Wilcox and Ronald Cole-Turner uphold the Virgin Birth; Wesley Wildman does not.1)
Some apologists, such as Tim Staples, mentioned by the O.P., would argue that all of the genetic material came from Mary (presumably with some kind of miraculous transformation that would account for the maleness and lack of problems caused by genomic imprinting, although he does not address this issue in the video).
1 Also, the article misrepresents the reason for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception: it has nothing to do with the supposed evilness of male seed—after all, Mary herself was conceived by a normal sexual act—but stems from the belief that Mary, in view of her divine motherhood, is all holy (panagia), and hence is exempt even from the effects of Original Sin.
More post
- 📝 Has the Catholic Church ever attempted a local substitute for the word Amen?
- 📝 When Did Israel First Expect Deliverance from Egypt?
- 📝 Is the prayer "Mother of Perpetual Help" blasphemous?
- 📝 Is there a significant difference between salvation by faith with works and salvation by faith and works?
- 📝 What have Christians taught during past plagues and pandemics?
- 📝 Why were verses taken out of the Bible when it was being formed? Was there any major stuff taken out?
- 📝 Does the Old Testament word Sheol have Greek or Hebrew origins?
- 📝 Are there any Christian denominations that believe in sex and marriage in the afterlife?
- 📝 Who said that the smallest spiritual progress of a religious merits more than that of a thousand laymen?
- 📝 What are the significant differences between the Priesthood of the Israelites and the Priesthood of the Catholic Church?
- 📝 Why is death a vital piece of God's plan in LDS theology?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for considering gender to be not merely physical/biological?
- 📝 Is there any theological reason for not drinking the communion wine?
- 📝 Does the Eastern Orthodox Church believe in Aerial Toll Houses?
- 📝 If Jesus ascended to heaven as Michael the angel why is he still called a man?
- 📝 How do Biblical Unitarians respond to translations of Hebrews 1:8 which have God calling the Son 'God'?
- 📝 Did Thomas Pearne do anything other than contradict Granville Sharp?
- 📝 St. Thomas Aquinas on the Question: "What Must I Do to Go to Heaven?''
- 📝 Is there a record of an association of prayer with pain?
- 📝 Why (how) does Jesus' coat have no seam?
- 📝 Could Luke 3 be Joseph's genealogy?
- 📝 Is Catholicism the only religion to uphold the indissolubility of marriage?
- 📝 Are there any positive statements of the golden rule in extra-biblical literature?
- 📝 Who are the Nicholaitans
- 📝 How do Christians who insist upon keeping the 7th day Sabbath explain Acts 15?
- 📝 How did the disciples hear God's voice and live?
- 📝 Does a history exist of the origin and development of the Latter-day Saint teaching of a premortal existence?
- 📝 What is the Biblical Basis for Prima Scriptura?
- 📝 What is the Orthodox teaching about touching Jesus' body?
- 📝 Are those who have a history of eating disorders excused from obligatory Roman Catholic fasts?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How do Catholics explain the fact that Jesus is male yet he has no human biological father?
- 📝 How do Continuationists explain the fact that the vast majority of Christians have never personally experienced "overtly miraculous" spiritual gifts?
- 📝 John 1:18 - "No one has ever seen God" - How do Trinitarians reconcile this scripture with the belief that the Lord Jesus Christ is God?
- 📝 How do deniers of Jesus' divinity explain that the angel at Revelation 22:9 did not include Jesus in the list of beings that can be worshipped?
- 📝 How do Christians who believe that eternal life begins now explain the fact that Christians die?
- 📝 How do Catholics respond to the claims that the cross has pagan origins?
- 📝 How do believers in Jesus' deity explain that Jesus is never claimed to be God/divine in the Old Roman Creed and the Didache?
- 📝 How do Christians respond to and/or explain the similarities between other societies' Gods and that of Jesus
- 📝 How does the Catholic Church explain their belief that Jesus chose Peter to build upon?
- 📝 How do Catholics explain that the fighting leaders of the Hebrews were old men?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain that Jesus himself claims He is a man who has heard things from God at John 8:40?
- 📝 How do the proponents of the idea that salvation once received cannot be lost explain Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26-29?
- 📝 How similar was the resurrected body of Jesus to his physical human body?
- 📝 How do Christians respond to the criticism that Jesus of Nazareth did not bring world peace?
- 📝 How is it significant that Jesus rose on the 3rd day?
- 📝 Why did Jesus say that "Mary has chosen the better part"?
- 📝 Does the fact that Joseph was a *tekton* require that Jesus was as well?
- 📝 How do opponents of Penal Substitution explain God's declaration that He "will not leave the guilty unpunished"?
- 📝 The Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus Christ existed eternally or everlastingly, how do they reconcile this with Micah 5:2?
- 📝 How does the Swedenborgian Church explain passages where Jesus talks/prays to the Father?
- 📝 How do Biblical Unitarians deal with the fact that the early church accepted the divinity of Christ?
- 📝 How do Eastern Christians explain Jesus "sending" the Holy Spirit in John 15:26?
- 📝 How do Christians rebut Matt Dillahunty's objection that the resurrection of Jesus is untestable, unfalsifiable and thus unreasonable to believe?
- 📝 How do adherents to inerrancy reconcile the fact that some part of the bible were added later?
- 📝 Troubled people showing interest in reading the Bible: how to explain to them that faith is a lifestyle and not an "ATM"?
- 📝 How do Catholics explain Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, in light of the doctrine of Purgatory?
- 📝 If only those who died after Jesus death are among the ones that go to heaven, how do JWs view the ascension of Elijah?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain the Athanasian Creed saying that the "one God" is the Trinity rather than the Father as in the Nicene Creed?
- 📝 Why did the Jews comment that Jesus was not yet fifty years of age?
- 📝 Don't the questions of Hebrews 1:5 and 1:13 demand an answer of 'None'? So how can Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus is the archangel Michael?