The view that Lk. i. 34 f. is an interpolation made by St. Luke himself was put forward by Zimmermann in _Studien und Kritiken_ (p. 273 f.) in 1903. His treatment (cf. Moffatt, INT., p. 269 n.) differs in several respects from that outlined above. Zimmermann posits an Aramaic Jewish‐ Christian source which described a natural birth, and suggests that it was in the course of translating this document that St. Luke added i. 34 f. The Evangelist is also credited with having altered i. 27 and ii. 5, so as to describe Mary as betrothed to Joseph. Zimmermann also explains ii. 22 (αὐτῶν) as a mistranslation, and ascribes to St. Luke the parenthesis of ii. 35 a, and the chronology of iii. 1‐2, which he holds is inaccurate. According to this hypothesis St. Luke must have been acquainted with the Virgin Birth _before_ he began to translate the supposed Aramaic document. This view is encumbered with difficulty; for, if Zimmermann is right, we should certainly expect a much more drastic editing of the document than can be shown. The extent to which this difficulty appears in the case of our own theory is one for which we think that justification can be given.(71) In the case of Zimmermann’s hypothesis the obstacle is too great. On this view we cannot understand how the Evangelist allowed himself to write down those expressions which are incompatible with the Miraculous Conception.(72) The view we have preferred agrees with that of Zimmermann in positing a source or sources which described a natural birth. It differs from it in denying that the Evangelist knew of the Virgin Birth at the time when he made use of those sources. We prefer to think that it was after cc. i, ii had attained what is substantially its present form in Greek, that St. Luke came to hear of the Virgin Birth, and that it was then that he inserted i. 34 f. This supposition includes the positive advantages of Zimmermann’s theory, and it agrees better with the existing literary phenomena of Lk. i, ii.(73) II. Literary Conditions Under Which the Gospels Were Written In holding the view we have outlined, we have no thought of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. Our theory is not intended as an eirenicon. It is not an attempt to make the best of two worlds, the critical and the dogmatic. If we appear to have introduced the Virgin Birth into the Third Gospel by the back door, after we have bowed it out at the front, this is simply because the evidence leaves us no alternative. Our theory makes room for the twofold fact, as it seems to us, (1) that the Virgin Birth is not an original element in the Third Gospel, and (2) that St. Luke wrote the one passage in the Gospel which asserts the doctrine; thus for us it is inevitable.