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 instead of the necessary two; Mary's husband Joseph was his father only in the legal sense, owing to the fact 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, the narrative appears 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; this cultural milieu was conducive to many stories of miraculous births, and tales of virgin birth and the impregnation of mortal women by deities were well known in the 1st-century Greco-Roman world and Second Temple Jewish world.

The Islamic understanding of this event comes from the Quran, which also asserts the virgin birth of Jesus, deriving its narrative from the 2nd-century Protoevangelium of James. However, it explicitly rejects the Trinitarian interpretation of the Christian account, instead claiming that Jesus was nothing more than a human in service to God as a prophet and messenger.