A study of the construction of places of Yahweh-worship, including primitive altars, the tabernacle, Solomon’s temple, and The Second Temple all anticipate a future and final temple that would be made without human hands.

The virgin birth of Christ has always been proclaimed as a doctrine to be believed by the church. It is heralded as a historical event which must be accepted as a fundamental or core truth of the Christian faith. For example, The Apostles’ Creed states:

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary…

Similar statements appear in The Nicene Creed, The Chalcedonian Creed, and The Athanasian Creed.

Despite a long history of its proclamation, this doctrine is not often explained. Most Christians who adhere to the fundamentals of the faith know that there was a virgin birth, but it is simply not clear why Jesus’ incarnation had to occur this way.

This study offers a fresh look at this unique and important event in salvation-history and suggests a constructive reason for it that is based on Jesus’ identity as the temple of God and on a typological reading of temple building across the canon. The central thesis is that Jesus had to be conceived to a virgin mother by the immediate act of the Holy Spirit because of his identity as the heavenly temple of God.

This study focuses on the intersection between the doctrine of the virgin birth and the theological category of Temple Christology. It attempts to explain why Jesus-the-temple had to have a virgin mother by considering Jesus’ unique status as the temple of God who was “made without human hands.” According to this argument, the virginal conception of Jesus was necessary because the incarnation was a divine act of temple construction.

The argument is presented as a categorical syllogism in three parts:

• Major premise: A heavenly temple must be constructed directly by the Spirit
• Minor premise: Jesus is a heavenly temple
• Conclusion: Jesus had to be conceived of a virgin directly by the Spirit because of his identity as a heavenly temple.

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