12. Rather than a unique inclusion in the Christian narrative, the virginal birth of Jesus actually borders on cliché among ancient religious traditions
Enshrined in the Nicaean Creed, the virgin birth of Jesus forms an important narrative turn of the Christian biblical story. Overlooking the patent implausibility of the claim, this element of Christianity is completely unoriginal and panders to the liturgical conventions of the time, with so-called “miraculous births” common features of the stories of mythological heroes dating from pre-antiquity. Whilst many of these stories involve literal sexual intercourse between divine beings and mortals, with biblical scholar M. David Litwa contending the Gospels of Matthew and Luke consciously sought to avoid comparison to pagan tales, virgin birth myths remain endemic within the genre.
Borrowing heavily from the birth of Zoroaster, who according to the eponymous religion’s tradition was born to Dughdova: a virgin impregnated by a shaft of light sent by Ahura Mazda. Spanning multiple other world religions, even the Greek tradition, which more commonly included literal physical acts of intercourse between deities and mortals, contains legendary stories of virginal births. Bearing similarities to the Bible, the birth of Erichthonius by Athena within the Greek tradition fits this narrative, whereby the semen of Hephaestus impregnates the Earth (Gaia) to permit Athena to adopt the resultant offspring as her own in a role similar to Joseph.