Abstract:
The article is a contribution to the 450 year celebrations of the Heidelberg Catechism (HC).
Sunday 14, Questions and Answers 35 and 36 receive attention. It deals with the two statements
of the creed ‘… conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary’. The exposition
of the HC is compared to the catechisms of Zacharias Ursinus and John Calvin in order to
capture something about the historicity of the text. The exposition of the creed is an on-going
process. Karl Barth, Eberhard Busch and Jan Milič Lochman are good examples of Reformed
theologians who remain faithful to the intention of the HC, but who explain these statements
with present-day criticism in mind. The exposition of Peter Berger is valuable because this
sceptic argues that the opinion of modern, liberal Protestantism is of no value. The article
concludes that the ‘virgin birth’ as such has no great value. It is only one aspect of the Christian
gospel. It also does not proof the divinity of Christ. The divinity of Christ is presupposed.
