Download The Illegitimacy of Jesus (Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition) eBook

Jane Schaberg's 1990 book is subtitled "A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives". Her thesis is that "texts dealing with the origin of Jesus...originally were about an illegitimate conception and not about a miraculous virginal conception... [and this fact] was lost to Christians, but it was passed on and developed in Jewish circles (1-2)."

The book is divided into 3 major sections: Matthew, Luke, and pre- and post-gospel traditions (Acts of Pilate, Gospel of Thomas, Rabbinic literature, and early Christians such as Justin, Irenaues, and Tertullian) followed by a brief epilogue and extensive notes. Unfortunately there is no reference list and no index.

The chapter on Matthew discusses his inclusion of "the four women" in his geneology of Jesus. While this issue has been discussed ad infinitum, Schaberg provides not only an extensive discussion, but a provocative one as well. She gets side-tracked by her own feminist concerns, but it is a side track that is interesting to pursue. She points out that all four "find themselves outside patriarchal family structures...are wronged or thwarted by the male world...risk damage to the social order [through their sexual activity]..." and "the situation of all four are righted by the actions of men who acknowledge guilt and/or accept responsibility for them (32-33)." It's an interesting analysis,. but doesn't add much to the discussion of Mary, as Schaberg readily admits.

Continuing with Matthew, she reviews the evidence vis-a-vis the mistaken geneology which she attributes to the illegitimacy (rather than Matthew's errors, of which they are many) or to the idea that Jesus is 13th and 14th (as Christ) in descent. Matthew's nativity scene (18-24) she insists is proof of the illegitimacy claim, at which point she goes into an extended section about the difference between rape and seduction according to Jewish law and customs in the 1st Century. Her discussion is scholarly and interesting, though hardly to her point.

Next she turns to Luke, which is the largest section in the book. Herein she tends to ramble (as does Luke) and this is probably her weakest section. The 3rd section concerns pre and post gospel sources, and here the most data for her claim is present.

Schaberg sees hints of Jesus' illegitimacy in John 8:41 ("We were not born of fornication") as well as John 7:53-8:11 (the adulteress). She claims Mark 6:3 ("son of Mary") is another veiled hint, yet she says "There is no certain evidence that the practice of identifying an illegitimate son by the name of his mother prevailed in first century Judaism (p. 161)." She quotes the Gospel of Thomas (v 105) "son of a harlot" to help make her case. She finds accusations in the Acts of Pilate (2:3) although she acknowledges that the claim is nullified by witnesses. She refers to Origen's Against Celsus to raise the Jewish slanders, yet she seems unaware that we have no Celus manuscripts to peruse. Finally, she settles into the Rabbinic literature.

This is certainly a scholarly book and one that offers a unique perspective. Unfortunately Schaberg refuses to consider the possibility that Joseph was the father but that the couple conceived prior to the accepted date; instead she only considers the idea that someone else fathered Jesus (Tabor, 2006, makes the same error). All her evidence can be used to make the former case as easily as it is used to make the latter.

Bottom line: there's lots of good scholarly evidence in this book, even if the conclusions are flawed and the lack of reference list and an index makes it cumbersome to followup. It's definitely worth reading.

Jane Schaberg is Professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. Her support of abortion (she is a member of Catholics for Free Choice) made her hiring controversial there, for conservative Catholics. She states in her Preface to this 1987 book, "What is presented here is a new interpretation of the New Testament Infancy Narratives--new claiming to be old. The hope is that it will send the general reader back to the biblical texts and to the work of other scholars, with lively interest in the basic issue raised."

In the Introduction to her explicitly "feminist work," she states plainly that "My claim is that the texts dealing with the origin of Jesus ... originally were about an illegitimate conception and not about a miraculous virginal conception. It was the intention ... of Matthew and Luke to pass down the tradition they inherited: that Jesus the messiah had been illegitimately conceived during the period when his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph. At the pre-gospel stage, this illegitimate conception had already been understood theologically as due in some unexplained way to the power of the Holy Spirit. Both evangelists worked further with this potentially damaging and potentially liberating material."

She rejects "literalism," suggesting that "the Matthean phrases should be read in a figurative or symbolic, not a literal, sense." "The Lucan annunciation ... borders on deception. It is not fully the story of a woman for women, but a story told by a man's world for a man's world."

She frankly admits, "If the virginal conception of Jesus is not historical and is not the creation of the authors of primitive tradition or the authors of the New Testament Infancy narratives, where does it come from, and why does it appear? I do not know the answers to these questions."

She suggests that "In her Magnificat, Mary preaches as the prophet of the poor. She represents the hope of the poor, but she represents that hope AS A WOMAN who has suffered and been vindicated as a woman." She concludes the illegitimacy tradition "presents us not with a Goddess, but with a woman in need of a Goddess, with a woman we look at, not up at."

Interested readers will probably want to explore her more recent book, Resurrection Of Mary Magdalene: Legands, Apocrypha, And The Christian Testament.