Was Jesus an Embryo?

Since Christ was given birth in the usual way as a normal child, it seems fitting to assume his fetal development also began in the usual way, including with an embryo stage. Some form of supernatural genetic engineering must have been involved if the "born of a virgin" prophecy from Isaiah is correctly understood and Jesus arrived on Earth via divine conception. If Jesus was divinely conceived, then his X chromosome came from Mary but his Y chromosome came from God. The Y chromosome, which determines maleness, can be inherited only through a baby's father; women do not have Y chromosomes. Some translators think the Isaiah prophecy should rendered "born of a young woman," in which case Jesus's conception could have been wholly natural. But whether the initial fusing of chromosomes that caused Christ to come into existence was wholly natural or divinely control, there's no reason not to think that Jesus went through the same embryonic stage everyone else does. That Jesus went through the same things everyone else does is part of the point!

If you assume Jesus started as an embryo just as all babies do, bear in mind, new research shows that 2 out of 3 fertilized embryos fail naturally. If the spark of human life is really struck at the moment of conception, then two-thirds of created humans never draw a breath; two-thirds of souls are never born into bodies.

That most embryos fail naturally at an early point in gestation makes me wonder if sacred life begins with the first onset of brain activity, which new research shows occurs toward the end of the second trimester. Cessation of brain activity is now often used to define the end of life; why shouldn't its onset define the beginning? A legal scheme based on this thinking would allow abortion early in pregnancy and ban it late.

I would assume that it is possible Jesus was an embryo, being fully human..... though I suppose one would say she [Mary] might be the most unique example of in vitro fertilization.

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