The Purpose of the Virginal Conception Perhaps we should begin our answer to this question by underscoring two things that we must not say its purpose was. First, we must not understand the birth narratives as teaching that Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus was the efficient cause or source of his deity. Geerhardus Vos quite properly declares that while “there is truth in the close connection established between the virgin birth of our Lord and His Deity,” it would be “a mistake to suspend the