In saying this we are not guilty of imposing modern canons of accuracy upon an ancient writer. The difficulties we ourselves feel have long been felt. “It is very noteworthy that six old Latin codices in ii. 41 have _Ioseph et Maria_ for ‘his parents’ (οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ); most uncials in ii. 33 substitute ‘Joseph’ (ὁ ιωσηφ) for ‘his father’ (ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ)” (Schmiedel, EB., col. 2955). None of these readings can claim, of course, to be original, since admittedly they represent attempts to remove difficulties. Their significance lies in the fact that they indicate that those difficulties have long been felt. They show that we are not asking an ancient writer to conform to modern standards, when we assert that St. Luke has expressed himself with an ambiguity which it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand, if he wrote from the first in the knowledge of the Virgin Birth. The impression made by the narratives of Lk. ii is thus deepened and confirmed by the several references to Joseph and Mary. (e) Lk. ii. 5 The bearing of the facts examined thus far is in the direction of showing the Virgin Birth to belong to a later stratum in the Gospel. One passage in Lk. ii might seem to invalidate this view. In the Revised Version, verse 5 reads: “_to enrol himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child_”. These words, if they must stand, imply that the Virgin Birth is known to the writer. But, apart altogether from the historical character of the miracle, it is highly probable that we ought to read: “_with Mary his wife_”.(32) This is the reading of the Sinaitic Syriac and of the Old Latin MSS. a, b, c; and the word “wife” together with “betrothed”, also appears in AC2ΓΔΛ, l, q*, Syrp, vulg., goth., aeth. (Moffatt, INT., p. 269). There is much to be said for the view that this is one of the cases in which “Western” readings, where Old Syriac and Old Latin MSS. agree, probably preserve an original text.(33) When we add the argument of transcriptional probability, it is difficult to resist this conclusion. One can easily understand how the reading “with Mary his wife” could come to be altered to “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” by those who imagined that the former was inconsistent with the Virgin Birth. But, if the words “with Mary, who was betrothed to him” stood in the primitive text, can we give any satisfactory explanation of the change? When we consider that from New Testament times the Virgin Birth was part of the faith of the Church, questioned by few save the Ebionites and some of the Gnostic sects, the supposition that “with Mary his wife” is a later corruption, becomes improbable in the extreme. It is hardly sufficient to adopt Plummer’s suggestion, that “the γυναικί of A. Vulg. Syr. and Aeth. is a gloss, but a correct one” (op. cit., p. 53). Must we not find more than a gloss? Moreover, is this a satisfactory explanation of the Sin. Syr. and of those Old Latin MSS. which have “wife” without “betrothed”? We