> On a scale of 1 to 3, how trinitarian are you?

^ one-line christian joke with no context

Ha! That's a good one.

@PhiNotPi As a Catholic, I think I have to answer 3. looks around for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioc Oh, wait, was that 5?

@Mr.Bultitude Hope you'll check out the reorganization I did, with a bit of expansion on this and a few other points.

@Nathaniel Good edit. I would point out, though, that the final quotation, by George Barker Stevens, is really not all that similar to the preceding one, by J. Gresham Machen.

Machen speaks of Christ as a new beginning, and implicitly, as a divine being, and the incongruity of such a figure coming from ordinary human parentage. Stevens, by contrast, focuses specifically on the issue of Christ's sinlessness as inconsistent with human parentage. The two are not the same, or really, all that similar.

Stevens's argument is, I think, a much weaker one, relying as it does on much later concepts about Mary's nature, the Immaculate Conception (which, I realize, was not adopted in Protestantism, but which seems to have affected Protestantism), and the heritability of sin itself vs. tendencies toward sin. I don't think Paul was engaged with any of these concepts or controversies. Making an argument that he supported the Virgin Birth on this basis is, I believe, quite anachronistic.

Hmm, maybe that could be clearer... they are similar in that they both point to Paul's thought more generally to argue that he believed it. But it'd be worth me emphasizing that different routes are used to get there.

But I agree that Stevens isn't the best one to quote here, on further reflection. He will have to make an appearance elsewhere, however...

@LeeWoofenden My mistake was that I was working off of Sweet's citation of Barker, and didn't critically review his context. He doesn't actually think that Paul was aware of the virgin birth doctrine, so I've updated accordingly.

@Nathaniel I absolutely love it.

@Nathaniel Much better. Thanks.

@LeeWoofenden On the contrary, thanks for your helpful critique