importance, and it is for that reason that we introduce it here. (2) We take a really decisive step when we instance what already has been found, namely that _verse 34 follows quite unnaturally upon Lk. i. 30‐3_. We have seen that Mary’s question implies the announcement of an immediate conception, and we have failed to find any such announcement in the angel’s words. There is thus a complete difference of point of view in the two passages. No possible ground is provided in the angelic announcement for the objection raised in verse 34. It is difficult, therefore, to deny the suggestion that Mary’s question already implies a knowledge of what is told for the first time in verse 35. But this view, if we accept it, is to say that Mary’s question could not possibly have been present to the mind of Mary in the connexion in which it stands; it was the last question she would have thought of asking. The question can only have been put into her mouth by one who already knew of the Virgin Birth, and wished to introduce that doctrine into a context in which originally it did not appear. On the interpretation which we have given to Lk. i. 30‐3 and Lk. i. 34 f., this conclusion is inevitable, unless we prefer to find in St. Luke an utter inconsecutiveness of thought which does him no credit as writer, and which neither of his works justify us in attributing to him. (3) We are unable to attach the same force to the contention that verse 35 is followed unnaturally by verses 36 and 37 (so Schmiedel), though this view has something to be said for it. Verse 35 announces the virgin birth of the promised Messiah, a doctrine which is not found in Jewish literature and tradition, and for which, therefore, the mind of Mary must have been utterly unprepared.(38) As the section now stands, the statement of verses 36 and 37 is added as a sign that what has just been promised will surely come to pass. This sign, we have already argued, would be quite natural, according to OT. modes of thought, as authenticating such a message as that given in Lk. i. 30‐3. But can we say this in reference to the promise of a virgin birth? To the modern mind at least the argument seems faulty and unconvincing. Mary is bidden to accept as the divine promise what is so remarkable as to be otherwise unknown to her, on the ground of what is certainly remarkable but familiar to her mind and outlook. In truth, this seems a remarkable argument with which to credit an angel! At the same time, it has to be admitted that such an objection may be too stringent, and that it may not allow sufficiently for ancient modes of thought, according to which the argument from the less to the greater is by no means uncommon. For this reason the present writer would not feel confident in pressing the argument sketched above.(39)