Abstract:
In order to be born fully human (Latin: vere homo) X and Y
chromosomes are needed. Without the involvement of chromosomes,
Jesus of Nazareth would have had no ties to humanity. Aristotelian
(“On the generation of animals” / “Peri zōōn geneseōs”) and ancient
Hellenistic (Galen on the Hippocratic Corpus) views on how the vere
homo came into being differ much from today’s knowledge of
biology. In the Hebrew Scriptures, rabbinic traditions and Graeco-
Roman literature, vere homo was the result not only of a male and
female contribution; the third component was divine involvement.
This article revisits the textual evidence of the conception of Jesus in
the New Testament. The results are compared to propositions in the
Athanasian Creed (Quicunque Vult) and the exegetical and/or
dogmatic/socio-cultural views of Friedrich Schleiermacher, Karl
Barth and Rudolf Bultmann. The article explores the ethical and
cultural relevance of the Christian belief that Jesus was both vere
homo and vere Deus, and enters into critical discussion with British
New Testament scholar Andrew Lincoln and his idea of “DNA in
antiquity.”
Description:
This article was initially presented at the NTSSA section Gender and Human
Sexuality & Jesus and the Gospels subgroups, at the Joint Conference of South African
scholarly societies, University of Pretoria, 11–15 July 2016.
