We hear it every year at Christmas in in our services. Matthew Chapter 1, quoting the prophet Isaiah - “look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”.

Critics say there’s a problem: that the Isaiah passage is not talking about a virgin and Matthew misquotes him. So is it a problem for the virgin Birth? Is Christmas cancelled?

Alistair McKitterick is a theology lecturer at Moorlands College. He says there’s good reason why Matthew used, but adapted Isaiah’s prophecy in his birth narrative. Robert Stovold is a sceptic and atheist and believes that the first Christmas is an invention of the gospel writers.