Do believe that Mary was actually a virgin when Jesus Christ was born?

Question

Luke 1:26-38
26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be c

Answer 1

Yes. The virgin birth is not an optional part of Christian faith.

Answer 2

The trouble with your question has been always that people believe they are reading a history book. The whole book is a myth, a metaphor. Ideas and ideals has been presented as people, places and life situations with names. It was a very common practice in those days to call some prominent peoples the son of the virgin. If you go back a few thousands years BC to Egypt you'll find the same ideas presented in Horus, an Egyptian god, who was the son of the virgin mother Isis. Some philosophers in ancient Greece and others were bearer of such a high honor. The Virgin is a symbol as well as an ideal with a very specific meaning. According to this it was very logical and very reasonable to consider certain people as having a "virginal and magical birth", but this would be a long essay i think no body would care to read here.

Answer 3

There are two ways to go about this.
One, understand that the word "virgin" was originally simply "a young woman." That little translation modification was probably slipped in by someone who wanted as much mystery as possible in a basically preposterous myth.
Two, ask yourself why you would believe anything as preposterous as virgin birth, life after death, walking on water, or any of the other impossibilities passes off as "gospel truth." Gospels were written by men with an agenda. At best they are stories about something believed to be true. At worst, they are outright fabrications meant to turn your intellect into mush.

Answer 4

Welllll, here's an interesting idea - - -
it is possible to become pregnant without penetrating the hymen...

Notwhithstanding this, I don't really care if Ruach created the sperm out of nothing, transported it from elsewhere and modified it, or worked upon the fetus forming within her womb to make it a proper reincarnational vessel for the body of YHVH, Jesus, who had been present and with YHVH from the beginning of time... it doesn't really matter to me.
It seems to me that those for whom it is a big deal are focusing much more on the 'how' it happened than on the 'what happened.'

Answer 5

Well the whole virgin birth story was just stolen from early religions. In fact Mithras (I think) had a story almost identical to that of Jesus.

But according to the Nicene Creed (if you want to go by what the Church says) Jesus was "begotten not made". Therefore Mary was not a virgin because how do you beget babies? Sex.

Answer 6

Isnt it amazing that from a speck size "conception" a human being begins to form in the body of a women eventually birthed into this world as a life....... egg-sperm to a human body and think of all the inside belly selections (eye color, smile, facial expression, length of eye brows, not even fingerprint) it is a production, it is a process, it is a miracle in the works, it is God. With God all things are possible. God can do all things. :)

Answer 7

perhaps it all depends on just how literally one takes the entire christ mythology? was isis a virgin when she bore horus? mithra's mom when he was born? any "sun god's" mother? by some definitions, "virgin" doesn't necessarily mean no experience of "sexual contact", if you do some research. in some cases it relates to a woman who is not "owned" by some man, in one manner or other. just a few random thoughts ;-)

Answer 8

"authentic Christians" IMO are people who carry to the Nicene Creed (4th century advert), which states needless to say that the "Lord Jesus Christ [is] the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the father till now each age; "easy of sunshine, authentic God of authentic God, begotten, no longer created, of one essence with the father by way of Whom all issues have been made. "Who for us adult adult males and for our salvation got here down from heaven and replaced into incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and grew to grow to be guy. "He replaced into crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and replaced into buried; "And He rose on the third day, in accordance to the Scriptures. "He ascended into heaven and is seated on the suited hand of the father; "And he will come back with glory to choose the living and lifeless. His kingdom shall have not have been given any end." [a million] that's what the early church believed, and replaced into embodied and affirmed (no longer "voted into life" as some think of) via councils of the church. So, sure, we particularly do have faith this issues. advantages. /Orthodox

Answer 9

Well faith is supposed to contradict all logic and science. And faith is also blind. Thus if faith tells us that she was a virgin, she must have been. So your question about whether we believe or not really depends on whether we are believers of faith. Whoever is faithful will say yes and whoever isn't will have a different answer :)

Answer 10

ummm beast you are thinking of jesus' whore mary madelene.

hmmm i guess if one was to believe in the rest of the stories the virgin birth could be true. My cousin was a virgin birth child but in noway is she christlike heh heh! My aunt was 16 and well they were going hot and heavy with their hands and her bf blew his load on her ....guess the swimmers were determined.

Answer 11

Do I believe she was a virgin? No. Nor did early Christians. The virgin birth thing didn't come up until 500-600 years after his death.