One interesting question about Jesus is his genetic makeup. What did Jesus’ DNA look like? The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin mother (Mary). She did not have sexual relations with anyone previously. This means that Jesus did not have any DNA from a human male.
Of course, the Bible does not give details about how the virgin birth occurred (biologically speaking), nor does it go on into detail about it. So this article is just speculation based on a few potential ways it COULD have happened. Here are 3 basic ways it could have happened:
- Jesus received all of Mary’s genetics
- Jesus received half of Mary’s genetics and half of a special set from God (miraculously of course)
- Jesus received all of his DNA uniquely from God, and Mary simply carried him until birth.
The First Method-Jesus could have had all of Mary’s DNA. There is a natural process that occurs in many species of amphibians and fish called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is the process of reproduction without contribution of sperm from a male organism.
The process works like this: In normal reproduction, a female released an egg, and sperm from a male fertilizes the egg and produces offspring. However, in parthenogenesis, a female egg is released, and part of the female egg fertilizes it and gives a complete genetic DNA code. Thus, a baby can be born with no actual father.
This phenomenon has been observed multiple times in non-mammals. Although it has never been witnessed in humans, God could have chosen this method to bring our Messiah into the world.
The Second Method-God could have supernaturally implanted half of the genetic information into Mary, and used her other half to make Jesus. Thus, it would have produced a normal male, but he would have unique genetic information. He would have a “Heavenly” father.
The Third Method– God could have supernaturally implanted a full genetic code inside of Mary’s womb. This means she would have only been a “surrogate” mother to Jesus.
All of the above could explain how Jesus was born of a virgin mother. The Bible doesn’t tell us how (biologically) it occurred. However, it does say that this was God’s plan. God revealed to Mary that she would be found with child. The prophet Isaiah recorded a prophecy concerning a virgin birth hundreds of years before it happened.
One fact does remain, Jesus was unique. He was born of a virgin, lived sinless life, died on a cross, was resurrected bodily, and ascended to the Father. Thank God that He loves us so much He was willing to die for our sins.