JESUS’ GENDER, ORIGINAL SIN, AND
Y CHROMOSOMES

by Fred Tan
Talking Points:

• Intro – What is original sin?
• How Original Sin is Transmitted
• Sin Spreads from One Man to All Mankind
• The Role of Eve in Original Sin
• The Virgin Birth of Christ

o   Virgin Birth is a Supernatural Act of God

o   Virgin Birth and Cloning

o   Types of Cloning

o   Does a cloned human have a soul?

• Source of Jesus’ Y Chromosome
• Conclusion

1. Introduction: What is original sin?

Original sin is the first sin committed by Adam that resulted in the fall of man. It is also a state of humanity, as this sin is passed from parent to child. Through procreation, humanity is a massa damnata (or mass of perdition, a condemned crowd [Saint Augustine]). Eve is the one who sinned first, but because Adam is the Federal Head — the universal ancestor, the first man from whom all human kind descended — his fall included or represented all of humanity.

(Rom. 5:12) “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

Scripture teaches the dichotomy of human composition — the coexistence of the material, or physical, and the immaterial (the soul and spirit).

(Gen. 2:7) “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

At the fall, both the material and the immaterial aspects of man were corrupted.

(Gen. 2:16-17) “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’”

At the fall, the spirit of man was severed from God, resulting in spiritual death. At the same time, the clock of mutation and aging started ticking in the physical realm. Although the body still continues to function, the cells in the human body have started to die. When the time is ripe, when each of the major parts of the body deteriorate to the point that they can no longer sustain the continuous function of the entire body, clinical death or cessation of body function occurs. Adam was created to be immortal—death and bodily decay would not have befallen him, if he had not eaten the forbidden fruit. The moment he ate the fruit and sinned, however, mortality became reality for all humankind and the clock toward physical death began. It was a crossover from life without death to temporal life tainted with death.

 2. How Original Sin is Transmitted

“The first law of thermodynamics,” known as the law of conservation of energy, states that the total energy of a closed system is constant; energy or matter can be transformed from one form to another, but cannot be created or destroyed. Only God has the power to create ‘ex-nihilo’ (something out of nothing). On the sixth day, God had completed all His creation. It was DONE — nothing has been created or added since then.

(Gen 2:1-2) “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”

God has designed, enabled, and commanded humans to reproduce “offspring,” or living organisms after themselves, through procreation. New individuals that are born are not new creations (ex-nihilo), because God has ceased His work of creation.

(Gen 1:27-28) “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

 Through procreation, both men and women are born with original sin/sin nature.

Details of Procreation

When the egg cell of a woman is fertilized by the sperm of a man, the fertilized egg starts to divide. Cell division is essential for an organism to grow, but when a cell divides, it must replicate the DNA in its genome so that the two daughter cells have the same genetic information as their parent. The double-stranded structure of DNA provides a mechanism for DNA replication. Here, the two strands are separated and then each strand’s complementary DNA sequence is recreated by an enzyme called DNA polymerase. This enzyme makes the complementary strand by finding the correct base through complementary base pairing, and bonding it onto the original strand. As DNA polymerases can only extend a DNA strand in a 5′ to 3′ direction, different mechanisms are used to copy the anti-parallel strands of the double helix. In this way, the base on the old strand dictates which base appears on the new strand, and the cell ends up with a perfect copy of its DNA.

From the process by which every human is reproduced, we can infer that all humans are born with original sin. Since all the cells of Adam and Eve were corrupted at the fall, both their gametes (sperm and egg cell) from which new individuals were formed were also corrupted. The offspring that were born with corrupted cells naturally carry with them original sin. The immaterial part of every individual is also procreated at conception following the verse that says, “God ended His work” (meaning the work of creation). Therefore, the immaterial part that was procreated from the corrupted immaterial part of Adam and Eve must be corrupt in their offspring also. That means all humans that have come after Adam and Eve are born with original sin.

 3. Sin Spreads from One Man to All Mankind

(Romans 5:12) “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…”

It says “one man” — singular. In this instance “one man” does not represent humankind in general, so does not include women. But in the next phrase, “death spread to all men” — “all men” is used as a general term that includes women.

If the sin of Adam and Eve only affected them and has not spread to all men, then their sin has not been transmitted. But the verse says, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.” Sin not only made an entrance but it was transmitted and spread to all mankind — through ONE MAN, Adam.

 4. The Role of Eve in Original Sin

But, didn’t Eve also sin? In fact, was it not Eve who sinned first? Why does the Bible say sin entered the world through one man? What was the role of Eve?

Eve did not sin in the same way as Adam because God gave the command directly to Adam, not to Eve. Eve knew about the command of God through Adam. Eve sinned and just like Adam, both the material and the immaterial parts of her being were corrupted at the fall.

(Romans 2:12) “For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.”

All women have inherited the corrupted X chromosome that originated with Adam. Therefore, they’ve become the recipients or carriers of original sin and thus suffer the consequences of corruption. But women themselves, despite the corrupted X chromosomes they carry, do not transmit sin.

 5. The Virgin Birth of Christ

To further explain why only MAN transmits original sin, we have to look at the “virgin birth” of Christ. Let’s first review the factors that determine the gender of a human, starting with some biological background.

A baby’s sex is determined at the time of conception. When the baby is conceived, a chromosome from the sperm cell, either X or Y, fuses with the X chromosome in the egg cell, determining whether the baby will be genetically female (XX) or male (XY). To be genetically female, one needs to be XX — to be a genetic male, XY is needed. It is the Y chromosome that is essential for the development of the male reproductive organs, and with no Y chromosome, an embryo will develop into a female. This is because of the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome, also known as the SRY gene.

Humans have 23 pairs (n=46) of chromosomes, receiving one set (n=23) from each parent. The 23rd pair are the sex chromosomes that determine a baby’s gender (XX if female or XY if male).

Miracle 1: The virgin birth of Christ is not cloning.

A. Virgin birth is a supernatural act of God

(Luke 1:35) “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will over shadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

Biologically speaking, the virgin birth was the result of an unfertilized egg inside Mary that underwent mitotic–division. This is the cellular division that makes the fertilized egg grow into an embryo. Through procreation, the process of mitotic division only happens when an egg is fertilized. Unfertilized eggs normally degenerate after traveling through the fallopian tube from an ovary, and are then discharged from the body through menstruation.

B. Virgin birth and cloning (ICR.org)

From ICR.org: “Reproduction without sexual union has been observed in some fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles. In recent years, cloning in laboratories has even been successful with several mammals, although great care and advanced technology is required. Progress is being made, and we can expect cloning to become mainstream practice before long. Even human cloning, while discouraged by many governments, is being aggressively explored by several labs. (I suspect the strident insistence for embryonic stem cell research has human cloning as an unstated goal.) Unless God intervenes, advances in cloning technology may lead to a brave new world of human clones, with Pandora’s Box opened wide.

But is this the same thing as the virgin birth? Would human cloning equate to the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy, “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14)?

No, it would not. In humans, the DNA in each egg’s nucleus contains 23 chromosomes, with the remaining 23 usually supplied by the father. In cloning, the original 23 chromosomes are stripped from an unfertilized egg, and a full complement of 46 from a donor is inserted. The child would possess identical DNA to the donor, with a minor exception — a small segment of DNA present in the cells’ mitochondria is passed from mother to child, undiluted by the father.

Is cloning a possible explanation of Christ’s birth? If Mary’s nuclear DNA was used, the resulting child would have been female. If another source was used, the offspring would have carried the corrupted DNA and thus could not have been the perfect “lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

Cloning is not the answer. While much remains a mystery, the birth of Christ was a miracle in every regard. He said of God the Father, “…a body hast thou prepared (for) Me” (Hebrews 10:5), free from any genetic defect and thus qualified to be a perfect sacrifice. And then, “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman…to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).”

C. Does a cloned human have a soul?

God ordained procreation of a human being — complete with material and immaterial parts — to come from the union of a man (N=23) and a woman (N=23). A clone is a product of growing tissue from a single donor — instead of N=23 coming from both mother and father, N=46 comes from one donor. However complete it may be, whether attached or detached from the original host’s body – it can be considered a “tumor”. The entire tissue growth will be an integral part of the original host, whether attached or detached from the original host body. It will not possess the separate immaterial aspect that a complete human would have.

To define what a human is and when the life of a human begins, consider the following:

(Isaiah 44:2) “Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.’”

(Isaiah 48:8) “Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.”

(Isaiah 49:1) “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.”

(Jeremiah 1:5) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

(Luke 1:15) “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

(Luke 1:44) “For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”


(Genesis 2:24) “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

The Scripture teaches that human life begins at conception. But when is the exact moment? Based on the scientific study of human development, a human zygote comes into existence the moment a sperm and egg fuse — a phenomenon called “syngamy.” This event occurs within seconds of the sperm penetrating the egg. After the sperm enters the cytoplasm of the oocyte (also called an ovocyte), the cortical reaction takes place, preventing other sperm from fertilizing the same egg. The oocyte now undergoes its second meiotic division, producing the haploid ovum and releasing a polar body. The sperm nucleus then fuses with the ovum, enabling fusion of their genetic material. The pronuclei migrate toward the center of the oocyte, rapidly replicating their DNA as they do so to prepare the zygote for its first mitotic division.

Meiosis divides the chromosome number by half resulting in haploid gametes (ova and sperm) — syngamy restores diploid chromosome numbers, and the number of genes N=46 is restored. After the union or fusion of the sperm and egg chromosomes, the cell starts to go through mitotic division and later develops into an embryo. Therefore, for an embryo to become a separate human and not just a tumor growth from a body, it needs to have a fusion of X and Y chromosomes from an egg and a sperm.

Miracle 2: Jesus was born a male.

Because Mary’s body does not have a Y chromosome, conception without fertilization should have resulted in a female child – an exact replica of the egg donor — and never a male. Jesus was born a male.

(Matthew 1:21) “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

(Luke 2:21) And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Miracle 3: Jesus was not physically identical to Mary.

Because Jesus had the exact same chromosomes (identical DNA coding) as Mary, He should have had identical physical features (i.e. the same look and build) as Mary — not to mention that the offspring of a virgin birth should have been a girl, as was just explained under Miracle Two. Jesus was born a man and even his enemies testified that he was a man, without the features or physical structure of a woman.

(John 9:16) “Therefore some of the Pharisees said, ‘This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’ And there was a division among them.”

Jesus addressed himself as the Son of man…

(Matthew 19:28) “So Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’”

“Son of man”In the Greek of the New Testament, the term “the Son of man” is rendered “ὁ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου,” which might be translated more literally as “the son of the human being.” This expression occurs 81 times in the four Canonical gospels, where it is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The use of the definite article in “the Son of Man” is novel in the gospels, and prior to the gospels there is no record of its use in surviving intertestamental literature in Greek. 

Miracle four – the origin/source of Jesus’ Y chromosomes.

God supplied the Y chromosome by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus for him to become a man without sin.

For Jesus, born of a virgin, to be a fully “human” man, he needs to have a complete set of chromosomes. Since God had ceased His work in creation, He did not create another Y chromosome in Mary (although He could if He so ordained). Where, then, did Jesus get His Y chromosome?

 6. Source of Jesus’ Y Chromosome

The creation of Adam and Eve:

(Gen 2:22) “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib (a part of) he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”

God could have made Eve from the dust just like He made Adam, but instead God made Eve from a part taken out of Adam. Eve should have identical chromosomes/DNA to Adam. This means Eve should have been a male in the first place — having one Y chromosome and one X chromosome like Adam. We know that the only difference between chromosomes/DNA structure of male and female is the absence of the Y chromosome in a female. This absence instructs the body to grow into an entirely different anatomy that is female. Reading from the footprints of God’s creation, God must have removed the Y chromosome from the part He took from Adam to make Eve.

God must have taken out the uncorrupted Y chromosome from pre-fall Adam and held it in abeyance for Jesus.

When God by the power of the Holy Spirit made the pre-fall Y chromosome of Adam available for Jesus, he was born sinless and fully human having both X and Y chromosomes in Him. Having identical Y chromosomes to that of Adam, who was called the “first Adam” and Jesus was called the “last Adam” in the Scripture.

(1 Corinthians 15:45) “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

(Hebrews 10:5) “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.’”

Jesus — the last Adam…fully man…with the Y chromosome of the pre-fall “first Adam”, without sin — reversed the direction of the path of sin to give salvation to everyone who believes. Jesus, described as the last Adam in 1 Cor. 15, is not a pattern of Adam, but Adam is a pattern of the one who is to come — Jesus. Adam was created in the image of God, the pre-incarnate Jesus.

If Eve’s X chromosome transmits original sin as Adam did, then Jesus who was conceived from Mary’s corrupted egg cell was born with original sin. Throughout the Scripture, the genealogy of Jesus — the Levites priestly line, the succession of kings, etc. — was always determined by the father and never the mother. The redemptive plan of God was already prepared before the foundation of the world that one day Jesus would be born of a virgin, without blemish or sin, and walk on earth in human flesh to finish the work of salvation.

 7. Conclusion

God took and reserved the Y chromosome from pre-fall Adam and by the power of the Holy Spirit miraculously put it into the sanctified egg of Mary resulting in a XY male offspring. This makes Jesus fully man born without sin.

 Here is the good news!

(1 Corinthians 15:22) “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

(Romans 5:15) “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”

(Romans 5:21) “…so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

(Acts 4:12) “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

(John 1:12) “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

(2 Corinthians 5:21) “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”