Virgin Birth questioned: the research

[Timotheist]

Originally Posted by Timotheist

It remains to me a mystery then why Mark would quote Psalm 2:7 incorrectly. Maybe more research will one day lead to an answer to that question.

Surely the author of the Luke variant had Psalm 2 in mind when the "correction" was made.

OK, here is part of the answer. Paul in Acts 13:33 quotes Psalm 2:7 (correctly) and links it to to Jesus' resurrection. For Paul to make this link is OK, for the second birth is like the first. There are two parts to being "begotten", the impregnation and the delivery. We call ourselves "born again", but the actual birth of the new creation will occur at our resurrection.

Today, we are pregnant, in an in-between state.

Since Paul (and similarly the author of Hebrews 5:5) both link Psalm 2:7 to the resurrection, then Mark perhaps felt obligated to cite only the first half of the verse. The second half could have come from Isaiah:

Isaiah 42:1 "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isa 42:1 NAU)

linking "putting My Spirit upon Him" with his baptism.

(source for this half-and-half explanation for Mark 1:11: "The Praxis of New Testament Criticism")