Did New Testament writers engage in mythmaking, deliberately making Jesus Christ larger than life? Was he simply a “human prophet,” an “ordinary man of his time” who was later invested with a supernatural aura by well-meaning followers to “buttress their Christological dogma”?
Such theories are impossible to sustain. The two infancy accounts in Matthew and Luke—with their differing content and perspectives—are independent of each other. The miracle of Jesus’ conception is almost the only point in common between them. This indicates that the Virgin Birth is based on an earlier, common tradition, not a later theological interpolation or doctrinal development.