was the virgin Mary a virgin because she was only a child and was to young to have a baby, surely the excuse that people had children at an earlier age because of low life expectancy can not be used since people were supposedly living to be 900 years old or more as in the case of Methuselah,

if Mary was a child wouldn’t putting her through the rigors of childbirth or filling her with the Holy Spirit seem somewhat unholy ..

also if Mary was of an acceptable age couldn’t Mary have had sex but claimed to be a virgin because she would have gotten stone for having sex out of wedlock and that Joseph married her to keep this from happening

also if Mary were pregnant before she was married or pregnant with the child not of her present husband then wouldn’t that mean that Jesus were born of sin

Are you really worried about all of this???

I go with the second option

well I'm stuck on the same planet with those that are worried about it which mean it may concern me just a tad

Well, the word "virgin" at the time meant something to the effect of "a lovely, virtuous young lady", and not what it means today.

perhaps

since they were preaching fire and brimstone in those days a young woman pregnant out of wedlock or by someone other than their husband may not have been considered as being virtuous ..

also if "virgin" was not the term used to describe never having sex then what was the term used and why wouldn't that term be place in front of Mary's name inside of Virgin Mary

also would that term also describe that the type of birth that Mary had may indicate that she may had indeed had sex

Well let's put it this way...those of us who have had that personal expereince know that even tho we don't expereince the life of every word in the Bible, our own experience tells us that it is all true by God's divine intervention.

...and it does make you exceedingly glad when it's full of God's glory.

Therefore you have nothing to fear of the virgin birth...it's as real as the person who gets supernaturally healed.

Hope that helps.

"Quikstepper"...to say that something was a result of God's Divine Intervention would indicate that God was not omniscient or why would his Divine Plan have such a flaw in it that it would cause him to have the need to intervene ...wouldn't this indicate lack of forsight on God's part

also wouldn't this mean that when an event is claimed to be the direct result of God's divine intervention that either the event is not true or God is not omniscient

You just aren't getting it... LOL

"Quikstepper"... all you said in your response was a lot of mumbo jumbo about faith, the original question/s wasn't about faith it was about how old Mary was during her pregnancy and if she had Jesus out of wedlock ... those aren't faith questions

so "Quikstepper" come on .. ...how old was Mary when she delivered Jesus .. it's time to share the knowledge.. don't have me tell "feralcatlady" on you

I guess that means that I'm not going to get Mary's pregnancy age from anyone

While I cannot say at what age the "virgin" mary gave birth at, I can say, fairly confidently that she was not a virgin.

Parthenogenesis, from Greek, and literally meaning Virgin creation.

"Can parthenogenesis occur in mammals?
In 2004, Japanese scientists used parthenogenesis to create fatherless mice, the first parthenogenetic mammals. To accomplish this feat, they took one cell from two different female mice and halved the number of chromosomes in each cell. After joining together the two half cells, they let the new whole cell develop into an adult mouse.

Parthenogenesis can occur in humans, but does not give rise to live offspring. Instead, it generates either ovarian teratomas or other growths called “complete hydatidiform moles”, depending on whether the genetic material comes from a female or a male. Ovarian teratomas are cancerous tumors whose cells contain only maternal chromosomes. Complete hydatidiform moles can form when two sperm fertilize a single egg devoid of any genetic material. The resulting cell contains only paternal chromosomes and, like the ovarian teratoma, can develop into cancer.

So ...
“Virgin birth” is possible, but not in humans."

The above is from http://www.ontariogenomics.ca/education/sIII_eps10_factsheet.asp

Yes

to neutralize that statment all a believer has to say is that anything is possible through God ...which is why whether Mary was a Virgin or not can't really be debated ..one would have to be up there looking at the hymen

but if Mary was a Virgin because she was still a pre-menstrual little girl that was taken advantage of by God or others can be debated

For one thing, people NEVER lived to be upwards of 800 years old. Thats a load of biblical nonsense. In the time that Mary was pregnant with Jesus (if any of this happened at all) she would have been a young female.The King James Version mistranslates the Hebrew word "almah", which means "young woman" as "virgin". (The Hebrew word, "bethulah", means "virgin".) In addition, the young woman referred to in this verse was living at the time of the prophecy. The term "almah" was used in connection with Mary. Furthermore, we know darn well Jesus was never referred to as Immanuel but Jesus. So much for the accuracy of biblical prophecy.

7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.


She was probably around 15-16 which would have been a normal age that a woman would have been betrothed in this period in history.

There is also some historical evidence to support the theory that Mary was raped by a Roman centurion and that is the true father of Jesus. Joseph was an older man. Much older than his teenage bride. Its possible that Mary was frightened out of her wits about the rape and subsequent pregnancy and confided in her husband. Therefore this story was an invention concocted by the both of them to protect her from being stoned to death which would have been the punishment under Judaic law in this time period.

There is some indication that the term "virgin" in fact had nothing to do with sexuality in its earliest usage. The term was even used to describe High Priestesses. These women were having TONS of ritualized sex with several partners both male and female.

The original definition was to the effect of "One of herself."

but what was Mary's official age ..I figure if people were checking her hymen to see if she was truely a Virgin they would atleast know her true age ...is this age located in the bible or in the scriptures or was it (banned from the bible)

That I dont know. I will look but I dont think it ever actually says. They only describe her as "almah" which means young female in Hebrew. She was never defined as a virgin. That was a stretch. Anywhere from 14-18 would have been the traditional age for a woman to be betrothed so an accurate guesstimate would be placed in that range. 18 would be pushing it for a woman in this time period. Men could go as late as 19 or so. Her hymen was never checked as far as I know because Joseph never accused her of any wrong doing or not being a virgin at their marriage.

That would have been a stone able offense.

a stretch? ...the story or the hymen



but didn't the story go the way of Joseph not believing her pregnancy to be sexless and then someone checked her hymen because that would have been the only way to make such a claim that she was a Virgin unless she had on a chasity belt with a rusted lock..

which means somewhere in the scriptures there has to be the name of who or those that checked her hymen or the entire story wouldn't make sense to just say she was a Virgin