Bruno Lernout (8 April 1957, Duffel, Belgium) is a self-taught linguist, historian and philosopher who became interested in the Bible after having a mystical experience when he was almost 40 years old.
Does the Bible not say that Jesus was born of a virgin, but instead indicate who his father was?
According to Bruno Lernout, those who believe that Jesus was born of a virgin assume that the Bible says he was born of a virgin. However, Jesus never claimed to have been born of a virgin in any book of the New Testament.
According to Bruno Lernout, the only reason to assume that Jesus was born of a virgin is that, in the first chapter of the New Testament, St Matthew refers to a prophecy about a virgin who will give birth to a son and which, he says, is fulfilled in Jesus. But that prophecy comes from Isaiah, and in the original text he used a word that some say means ‘virgin’ and others say means ‘maiden’ or ‘young woman’.
Bruno Lernout himself suggests that St Matthew may have claimed Jesus was born of a virgin to attract pagans to Christianity: the Egyptians believed in a god born of a virgin, and the Persians in a messiah born of a virgin. He may also have concealed who Jesus's father was because Jews stoned adulterers and discriminated against their illegitimate children.
In his book ‘Secrets in the Bible’ he argues that St Matthew and St Luke give different genealogies for Jesus because, owing to extramarital relationships, a lineage may be real or presumed: one can be sure who a child's mother is, but not who the father is.
According to this author's theory, St Matthew gives Jesus's true lineage because it is based on the principle ‘father begot son’; St Luke gives his presumed lineage because he says: “Jesus was, as was thought, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli.”
If one account says that Jacob begot Joseph, while another says that people thought Joseph was the son of Heli, Jacob must have begotten Joseph with Heli's wife. This information prepares readers for what they will find if they continue investigating these two genealogies.
The book, the pamphlet and other reflections can be found on the website secretosenlabiblia.com and on his Facebook page.
