The doctrine that Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit without any human father. Prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 (Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel); fulfilled and explicitly applied in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38 (Gabriel's annunciation: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, Luke 1:35). The Hebrew almah in Isaiah 7:14 (translated parthenos, virgin, in the LXX) became one of the most contested words in OT-NT continuity. The doctrine is essential to orthodox Christology: the Virgin Birth secures Christ's sinlessness (He was not in Adam's line by ordinary generation), His divine origin (His Father is God), and His true humanity (He took flesh from Mary, the daughter of Adam). To deny the Virgin Birth is to lose the incarnation as Scripture presents it.