International Standard Bible Encyclopedia " I. DEFINITION II.
THE TEXTUAL QUESTION III. THE HISTORICAL QUESTION 1. Statement
Not Dogmatic but Vital as History 2. Its Importance to Leaders
of the Early Church 3. Hypothesis of Invention Discredits the
Church IV. THE CRITICAL QUESTION 1. Basis of Virgin-Birth
Statement 2. Interrelationship of Narratives 3. Sources, Origin
and age of Documents V. THE DOCTRINAL QUESTION 1. In the New
Testament 2. Portrait of Jesus in Synoptic Gospels 3. In Rest of
the New Testament 4. Oppositions to the Doctrine 5. Its
Importance to Modern Thought "Virgin-birth" is the correct and
only correct designation of the birth statement contained in the
Gospels of Matthew and Luke. "Immaculate conception" is of
course manifestly a blunder due to the confusion of one idea
with another. "Supernatural or miraculous birth" will not do,
because there is no intimation that the process of birth was in
any way exceptional. "Supernatural or miraculous conception" is
equally unsatisfactory as it inv