Virgin birth of Jesus

In Christianity and Islam, it is asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was conceived by his mother Mary solely through divine intervention and without sexual intercourse, thus resulting in his virgin birth. In accordance with these beliefs, Jesus had just one biological parent; Mary's husband Joseph was his father only in the familial and legal sense. Most Christians hold that Mary's virginity was perpetual. Though not biologically related, Jesus being Joseph's adoptive son is cited as linking him to the Davidic line.

The Christian understanding is that the birth of Jesus by a virgin woman was made possible by the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Christians regard the doctrine as an explanation of the combination of the human and divine natures emanating from Jesus Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Churches accept the doctrine as authoritative by reason of its inclusion in the Nicene Creed, and the Catholic Church holds it authoritative for faith through the Apostles' Creed as well as the Nicene. Nevertheless, there are many contemporary churches in which it is considered orthodox to accept the virgin birth, but not heretical to deny it.

In the New Testament, narratives that include the virgin birth appear only in Matthew 1:18–25 and Luke 1:26–38, and the modern scholarly consensus is that it rests on slender historical foundations, though conservative scholars maintain its historicity. The ancient world did not possess the thoroughly modern understanding that a male's sperm and a female's egg are both needed to form an embryo, although in the apocryphal Gospel of the Birth of Mary, Mary is reported to remark that she "[cannot] bear a child without the addition of a man's seed".