Much contemporary preaching proceeds as if all that counts is selected sections or verses of the apostle Paul and the cross of Jesus. (Minister Anthony Buzzard, 1998)

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Virgin Birth Story and Worship of Isis

What is the perceived Pagan advantage of the virgin birth account? In his book Pagan and Christian Creeds, Edward Carpenter writes: "But it is well known as a matter of history that the worship of Isis and Horus descended in the early Christian centuries to Alexandria, where it took the form of the worship of the Virgin Mary and the infant Savior, and so passed into the European ceremonial. We have therefore the Virgin Mary connected by linear succession and descent with that remote Zodiacal cluster in the sky" (Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1920) at 32.)

The original Hebrew version of the gospel of Matthew did not contain the doctrine of the virgin birth, as reflected in the earliest surviving manuscript -- the Sinaiticus, as well as 2 ancient 'fathers' writing in the 100s and 200s. They quote Joseph "begat" Jesus. See S. Rives, The Original Gospel of Matthew (2012) Preface.

Under Pagan Christianity, the virgin birth allowed Mary to be elevated to a goddess -- or mother of god -- when she took the place of Isis in the minds of Gentile converts. This is documented in Everyman's Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, by Egerton Sykes, where he writes:

 
"In Roman times the worship of Isis was widespread on all the main lines of communication in Europe, usually in ports and important market towns on rivers. With the advent of Christianity many of the chapels of Isis were taken over, and the representations of the goddess with the infant Horus in her arms became pictures of the Virgin Mary carrying the Holy Child. As Isis was dark-skinned, they became famous Black Virgins. Notre Dame in Paris was built on the remains of a Temple of Isis; the original name of the city was Para Isidos, the Grove of Isis. There are Black Virgins near Marseilles, near Barcelona, at Czestochowa in Poland, and in numerous other cities in Europe."