She Pointed to the Child

Passing forward to the point at which the child is born: she must now return, carrying him, and what follows is predictable. The slander begins, as it does wherever people are disposed to slander. The situation was certainly unusual — a young woman who had kept indoors, unmarried, untouched by any man, returning with a child, and at a young age besides, although youth was probably not the difficulty then that it would be now.

She had, however, been told what to do. When they confront her, she simply points to the child:

She indicates him, as verse 29 has it, and they reply: how are we to speak with one who is an infant in the cradle? The question carries an edge of derision, as though she were making sport of them.