Do you actually believe the Virgin Mary was a virgin?

Yes, of course she was forever virgin.

God bless!

In Christ

Fr. Joseph

<<Christians, roman Catholics, and Catholics all worship Mary as wonderful miracle that was impregnated by god and produced Jesus the son of god.>>

No, we Catholics don't worship Mary.

<<Obviously this is impossible and no such 'miracle' has happened since.>.

Why does that make it impossible? If it had happened more than once it wouldn't be a miracle.

Yes, I still believe it and monks didn't write the Bible.

<<Through the years and the translations, the term virgin was inserted, which implies she had never had sexual intercourse. >>

No, that is not true. The prophecy in Isaiah said "maiden" however, at that time maidens were also virgins. Unmarried women did not have sex, if they did, they ended up married. Also, St. Matthew, a Jew who knew the scriptures well, interpreted that it meant virgin, and that it specifically meant Mary, who was known to them to be a virgin. So trying to pass it off as some mistranslation that came along later is incorrect.

<<Obviously this is impossible and no such 'miracle' has happened since.>>

So let me get this straight.. your logic hinges upon the idea that it is 'impossible' BECAUSE it hasn't happened since?

That is not a logic conclusion. It would be easy to find all sorts of situations that have occurred only once and not since.

Secondly, we DO know, scientifically, that 'virgin births' do occur. It is called Pathogenesis, aka 'asexual reproduction' So Science can not completely rule out that possibility.

So both from a philosophical standpoint, one can not say that simply because something hasn't happened or been observed since, that it is impossible.

As well as, from a Scientific standpoint, science can not say that a virgin birth is impossible.

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Secondly,

What follows your statement regarding impossibility is pure conjecture. We have no evidence that Mary made things up to cover up something and avoid being stoned.

In FACT.. your assumption that she would be 'stoned' actually isn't completely in line with Jewish law.

Jewish law provided more then 1 avenue to remedy the situation..

1) The spouse could marry her anyways..but then BOTH of them would be considered 'unclean' - but none the less, this was an option

2) Quiet Divorce - the spouse (even though they were only engaged) could quietly divorce her and she could then leave the community and go somewhere else. The bible says that this was in fact the option that Joseph was considering.

3) Yes, her husband could Publicly accuse her and she COULD be stoned by an angry mob, IF that happened. Stonings didn't always happen in response to adultery. Some women remained in society by were shunned and/or considered a prostitute.

So actually.. to counter your argument.. Mary doesn't appear to have reason to cover things up, since Joseph appears to have been considering a quiet divorce.

What WOULD be evidence to support your personal opinion would be if she at FIRST pleaded with Joseph to forgive her.. and THEN when it appeared that she might suffer some harm... miraculously revealed at THAT point, that she was pregnant with the Messiah.

Instead.. what we see is that an Angel appeared to Joseph to independently collaborate what she told him. So NOW you have 2 people in on the little ruse. - Your hypothesis is getting shaky.

Very few Christians worship Mary, and those that do completely misunderstand Christianity. It is a great sin in Catholicism, Orthodoxy, all brands of Protestantism, and even most heretical groups, to worship Mary. Only God may be worshiped.

Some of us *venerate Mary, giving honor to whom honor is due, as St. Paul wrote.

The miracle of the incarnation of Christ was indeed a one-time event; it shall never be repeated.

The scriptures were not written by monks, dear one, but by eyewitnesses wrote what they knew and saw. Mary was a pure and chaste young woman.

The truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners remains the truth, whatever the day and age.

Forgive me.

/Orthodox

About Orthodox Christianity: http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/introduction

http://www.antiochian.org/discover http://saintnicholas.ucoz.com/index/intro_to_ortho...

Yes, Mary remained a virgin her entire life.

The Scriptures do not say that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were Mary's children. The greek word for "brothers" used in passages about Jesus' siblings is also the word St. Paul used when he called people at the various churches he wrote to "Brothers". Thus the "the-Greek-means-'from-the-same-womb'." argument falls apart.

No Christian worships Mary.

Protestant Christians don't worship Mary but we do believe what the Bible says--that she was a virging when Jesus was conceived. The Bible also, the Bible said that she was "with Child of the Holy Ghost" so no sexual act had taken place. She remained a virgin until Jesus was born per God's insstructions to Joseph that they were not to have sexual relations until after Jesus's birth.

You are free to believe what you choose to.

Of course not. Supposing the story is even a tiny bit true, she was most likely unfaithful or got raped. Either would be a huge shame on the family, and she would be stoned to death for adultery.

She either made up the god child story to save her life, or her family did to save itself from shame. She was not the first, nor the last (not by a mile) to make such a claim in those times.

definite, i think it. definite, I agree it ought to perceived as "far fetched" despite the fact that it is not, because of fact God is ALL efficient and we can not wrap our minds around a number of what God does. considering the fact which you could not wrap your techniques around it that it the place faith is geared up in you need to have the religion to assert "definite, i think mary replaced right into a virgin whilst she conceived Jesus." the way we(meaning Christians) have faith in a e book written 1000's of years in the past is that there is a guy or woman at the back of that e book, extra specifically, 3 people in one God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit. you need to examine it with an open techniques not "this would be a gaggle of bologna" people weren't bored and in simple terms desperate to place in writing a narrative that e book, the Bible, replaced into inspired via God each and every be conscious in there is God breathed. No be conscious in that bible is incorrect. because of fact God does not make blunders

You can't replace faith with logic. Mary was chosen and Christians do not worship her. Catholics perhaps do. Even now virgins can be impregnated with sperm via a needle and still remain virgin. Where have you been the last twenty years?

There has been a mix-up with translations as the earlier translations refer to Mary (Miriam--her true Jewish name) as a maiden. The writer was probably trying to convey she was an adolescent, perhaps 14-16 years of age. It was common to refer to a young women of that age as maidens to denote their unwed status. Through the years and the translations, the term virgin was inserted, which implies she had never had sexual intercourse.

Since none of us were there we can only speculate, but I suspect that once betrothed to Joseph, she did have sexual relations with him. The family had ties to a mystical sect of Judaism lead by John the Baptist. This sect had been anticipating a Jewish man who would be born and be the Messiah who would liberate the Jewish people. Miriam's story fits well into that narrative.