The Virgin Birth in Luke's Gospel

There are some in High Critical Circles that want to discredit Luke's account of the virgin birth because, as they argue, Luke gives two different concepts of divine sonship. In verse 32 of Luke chapter 1 Jesus' sonship is linked to the fact that his is the Messiah. That is, Jesus is God's son because he is the messiah. Three verses later in verse 35, his sonship is linked to his miraculous conception. In other words, Jesus is God's son because he is born from the power on High.

In responding to this charge, Donald MacLeod states:

It is difficult to see any inconsistency between the two views. The Davidic sonship is surely no more incompatible with the divine sonship than it is with his being David's Lord. To invoke the idea that verse 32f. and 34f. represent two different sources is a desperate expedient. It is reasonable to assume that any discrepancy would have been as obvious to Luke as to modern scholars: and certainly difficult to believe that something so obvious would have taken 2,000 years to discover.

Further, I would add, that if Luke was trying to make a case for the virgin birth and the Messiahship of Jesus, it seems odd that he would contradict himself 3 verse apart. This argument wants the reader to believe that Luke was careless or perhaps dumb. I am not buying what the Higher Critics are selling.