Defending Mary’s Honor

I heard about this BBC program about the Virgin Mary a few days ago. Bene Diction posted about it today, which brought it to mind again. I’ve heard most of these attempts to refute the virgin birth before. Particularly this (from the BBC article):

Each [Gospel] was written to advance a particular theological understanding of Jesus. The virgin birth tradition derives at least partly from a passage in the book attributed to the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son... "

Other belief systems current in the Middle East at the time of Christ's birth also speak of a miraculous birth of a leader to a virgin.

And the word translated as "virgin" in our Bibles, scholars say, may well have meant no more in the original Aramaic than "young girl" or "maiden".

Today in church, the Gospel reading was from Luke 1:26-38. Here’s an excerpt of this reading:

"...You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

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

Now, I’m no theologian or scholar – I’m just a regular Christian who still has a lot to learn. But if the word “virgin” really meant “young girl” or “maiden,” wouldn’t that last question by Mary be kind of silly? Basically, she would be asking: “How can I have a baby? I’m a young woman.” For her question to make any sense, the word “virgin” would have to mean what we understand it to mean.