A reader writes:
I have been a sponsor for RCIA catechumens and candidates. Mary is a frequent topic of discussion with questions about immaculate conception, perpetual virginity and how do we know Jesus was not born vaginally.
Do you have any resources we might share with them, please?
Thank you for writing.
It is not Church teaching that Jesus was not born vaginally. What the Church teaches is that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after Christ’s birth. However, it does not have a teaching on specifically how Christ’s birth happened. This is left for theologians to speculate about.
(See Cardinal Avery Dulles’s remarks here.)
A common speculation is that Jesus came out of Mary’s womb miraculously and non-vaginally.
This speculation is found very early in Christian literature.
For example, the second century document known as the Infancy Gospel of James (aka the Protoevangelium of James) indicates a miraculous, non-vaginal birth, whereby there is a great light and Jesus suddenly appears outside of Mary’s womb and a later inspection confirms that she is still physically a virgin according to a common understanding of the time (see sections 19 and 20).
Even earlier than that, the first century document known as the Ascension of Isaiah–which likely was written in A.D. 67–similarly indicates a miraculous, non-vaginal birth where Jesus suddenly appears outside Mary’s womb (see 11:7-9).
We thus have very early Christian testimony to Jesus having a miraculous, non-vaginal birth, but this is still not Church teaching.
I hope this helps, and God bless you!
