• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

"virgin" pregnancies

McBell

Unbound
Well, not having sex greatly reduces your chance of pregnancy, but even complete abstinence is not 100%.

I'd say that if two people are in such close physical proximity that sperm and egg unite - it's a stretch to say they are being 100% abstinate!

Reminds me of the illustrious Bill Clinton protesting that he "did not have sex with that woman!"

I completely agree.

So I wonder who the "Virgin" Mary was in "such close physical proximity that sperm and egg unite" with...

(slap!)

That's a debate for another thread - stay on topic!

Well, here it is, the thread for it.
 

DeitySlayer

President of Chindia
I must say, Joseph must have been ****** off on his wedding night. Sitting on his lonesome outside the bedroom...

"God...you done in there yet?"
 

DallasApple

Depends Upon My Mood..
I must say, Joseph must have been ****** off on his wedding night. Sitting on his lonesome outside the bedroom...

"God...you done in there yet?"

I think the story goes he knew she was already pregnant ..but was "still" a virgin.

So maybe he married her to keep her from being stoned to death for being a virgin tramp because he loved her? :sad4:

Love

Dallas
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Wasn't the virgin story was made up later, perhaps to coincide with other religious virgin birth traditions?
 

dust1n

Zindīq
Are you making fun of spontaneous pregnancy?

Love

Dallas

Hey, spontaneous pregnancy is a seriously problem and no laughing matter though! :D



I've always thought of it like this... Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Holy Sperm.

I think an angel delivered the Holy Semen (amen) and bestowed it appropriately amongst Mary.


Or perhaps the Mormons are right, and the God and Mary freaked on an intergalactic planet.
 

DallasApple

Depends Upon My Mood..
Wasn't the virgin story was made up later, perhaps to coincide with other religious virgin birth traditions?

I kind of think it was made up later..I dont know why Mary was the one teenager with an unwanted pregnancy that got to be a "virgin"..

I dont know I supspect Mary was "innocent" and "pure" in so many ways..Maybe she was raped..or she and Joseph had pre-marital sex or something..

But I dont believe a beam of light came down from the sky and she got pregnant with Jesus..

Thats kind of silly..Maybe Im not faithful enough but I think thats a crock..She had sexual intercourse with a man..

Love

Dallas
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Wasn't the virgin story was made up later, perhaps to coincide with other religious virgin birth traditions?

It was made up later, or at least it wouldn't be a far stretch to say so. The reason it was introduced though was because of a mistranslation from Hebrew to Greek. It was common to search through the Bible to make prophecies fit with a particular person.

So it was mainly because of a mistranslation that the story was later added.
 

McBell

Unbound
See, I was under the impression that if I started a new thread that Kathryn would address:
So I wonder who the "Virgin" Mary was in "such close physical proximity that sperm and egg unite" with...​
 

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
Wait, so is the "virgin birth" one of the things that is supposed to have actually happened, or is it one of those things that was just supposed to be a metaphor?

It's hard to keep up with the current state of what the original authors actually meant.
 

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
The virgin birth is a myth. Jesus was son of Joseph. John 1:45 I believe it is, even says so, which oddly, the Gospel of John contains no birth narrative.

"We have found the one spoken of in the law and the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth."
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Wait, so is the "virgin birth" one of the things that is supposed to have actually happened, or is it one of those things that was just supposed to be a metaphor?

It's hard to keep up with the current state of what the original authors actually meant.
It was meant to be taken literal. Some may claim otherwise, but when looking at it in context, there is really no denying that the writers truly believed that Jesus was born of a virgin and that it needed to be that way in order that he would fulfill scripture.
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
The virgin birth is a myth. Jesus was son of Joseph. John 1:45 I believe it is, even says so, which oddly, the Gospel of John contains no birth narrative.

"We have found the one spoken of in the law and the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph of Nazareth."

I agree that it is a myth. However, Matthew and Luke also state that Jesus was the son of Joseph. However, from the birth stories, it is clear that Jesus is supposed to be the son of God. So using the Gospels to prove that Jesus is not the son of God really doesn't work in this case.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
I agree that it is a myth. However, Matthew and Luke also state that Jesus was the son of Joseph. However, from the birth stories, it is clear that Jesus is supposed to be the son of God. So using the Gospels to prove that Jesus is not the son of God really doesn't work in this case.

Why not?

The vast majority of Abrahamic texts are able to support and deny the same point regardless of the topic.

It`s a fun book because of this ability.

The truth doesn`t matter whatsoever.
:)

If anyone is really interested in this should check out St.Jerome
It is thought it was his mistranslation of the Catholic vulgate that began this myth.
The Virgin Birth and Virgin Mary are, pardon the pun, pregnant with social symbolic significance in most, if not all, parts of the world. Whether you believe in them or not, they are solid social constructs, rehearsed endlessly in art, humour, everyday life, and language. And yet their birth is due to a relatively simple mistake in translation. The Old Testament talks about almah 'young woman,' not bethulah 'virgin.' However, the scholars in the 3rd century BC translated the Hebrew almah as parthenos in Greek. Thus the 'young woman' in Hebrew metamorphosed into a 'virgin' in Greek—and she has remained a virgin ever since in translations across the world. The notion of 'virgin birth' was born, thanks to a mistranslation.

The Translator's Responsibility
 

AxisMundi

E Pluribus Unum!!!
Wasn't the virgin story was made up later, perhaps to coincide with other religious virgin birth traditions?

From what I understand, the Hebrew word for virgin as used in the bible means an unmarried woman, not a women who has not had intercourse yet.

But then that would really put the ol' boot to the grion of Christian dogma if their savior had been born out of wedlock.
 

Guitar's Cry

Disciple of Pan
It was meant to be taken literal. Some may claim otherwise, but when looking at it in context, there is really no denying that the writers truly believed that Jesus was born of a virgin and that it needed to be that way in order that he would fulfill scripture.

Specifically, how does the context in this case prove the writers meant it literally? And, does this really matter in the world of myth?

The myth of the Divine Birth is pretty widespread be it (in Alan Richardson's language) for a Horned God or the Thorned God.
 

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
It could be that the gospel authors knew it was a myth, and Christians took it too literally. After all, someone also wrote a myth of the Buddha being born of a virgin, but it didn't catch on well in Buddhism.
 

fallingblood

Agnostic Theist
Specifically, how does the context in this case prove the writers meant it literally? And, does this really matter in the world of myth?

The myth of the Divine Birth is pretty widespread be it (in Alan Richardson's language) for a Horned God or the Thorned God.
The writers state that he was born of a virgin in order to fulfill prophecy. They believed that in order for Jesus to be messiah, prophecy stated he had to be born of a virgin. Believing that he was the messiah, and that the messiah was born of a virgin, they believed that he was born of a virgin.

The context is the way they place it in the story, as part of a prophecy.
 
Top