why is the "virgin" mary called a virgin when it is said she had children before jesus was born?
370648
she is thought to be as pure as a virgin.
46793
The Catholic church calls her the Virgin Mary. The Protestant church just calls her Mary. Despite the fact that the Bible records that Jesus had brothers. The Catholic church edits this out of their Bible and calls Mary a perpetual virgin.\n\nMary only had one virgin conception and birth, and that was Jesus. After that, she conceived via Joseph.\n\nSee my explanation below for the reason for the virgin birth.
631165
The concept of a virgin birth isn't new, Dionysus, the Greek God was said to have been born of a virgin.  So was Mithras, according to many legends.  In fact, being born of a virgin was such a popular theme in the stories of various Gods, that early Christians pretty much HAD TO sell Jesus as being born of a virgin so he could compete.\n\nIn reality, I doubt it, but only Mary and Joseph would have known for sure...
725155
First let me tell Argu.... Just because Jesus was born of a virgin doesn't mean he was the son of God. It's called a miracle. Every prophet has them.\n\nNow to the question - the point the Quran is trying to make is that the Prophets were sent to the people as warners. Period. Allah is telling us that He sent such warners to the people so they would understand and the prophets are not Gods, but are divinely guided human beings.
1047708
My problem with the story of the virgin birth is that in various translations "virgin" does not mean never having sex, it means "unmarried".\n\nThe interesting thing is that nearly all major religions besides Christianity also include a story of a child of God born to a pure earthly mother.
1128069
"It seems every religion has a guy whose mommy didn't have sex,..."\n\nWhere does it say Mary didn't have sex?  Or, who says Mary didn't have sex after the angel Gabriel visited her?
111751
Deities/sons of deities believed to be products of virgin births:\nJesus Christ (Christian)\nLord Krishna (Hindu)\nLord Buddha (Buddhist)\nAhura Mazda (Zoroastrianism)\nQuetzalcoatl (Aztec/Mesoamerican)\nHorus-Re (also spelled Horus) (Ancient Egyptian)\n\nHope this is helpful!  :-)\n----\nIn regards to rian30's post,\n'One tradition states that Krishna was her (Devaki's) eighth child. Another states that it was a virgin birth: "In the context of myth and religion, the virgin birth is applied to any miraculous conception and birth. In this sense, whether the mother is technically a virgin is of secondary importance to the fact that she conceives and gives birth by some means other than the ordinary....the divine Vishnu himself descended into the womb of Devaki and was born as her son Krishna."'\nFrom:\nhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jckr1.htm\nSo I supoose there are two versions of Krishna's birth.
687084
Well apart from being Jesus' love, Mary was a disciple and she was one of the inner circle. She was extremely intelligent, and many considered this unusual and didn't like her for it. I think much injustice has been done to her. The Catholic church has admitted that calling her a prostitute was an error (bible doesn't say this either), and now she's a saint. But she must be more than a saint and time will set things straight.
550540
I find it intriguing that when this question is raised, so many still believe that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception refers to the birth of Jesus.  Every single reference work I have ever read, including all dictionaries, all encyclopedias and the Catholic Encyclopedia defines the Immaculate Conception as the doctrine which teaches that Mary herself was immaculately conceived in her mother's womb so that Mary herself was born free of the original stain of sin. Every single reference work I have ever seen defines it this way - as referring to the conception of Mary - not the conception of Jesus.  I do not understand why many still feel it refers to the birth of Jesus.  While it is true that Jesus was born without sin, this particular doctrine has nothing to do with him.
587186
also... if god had a child, (jesus), why shouldn't jesus have a child?
138224
That stuff about the Great Mother is bull... it's not possible that every goddess originates from the Great Mother, which is what every scholar wants to argue.\n\nAnyway, the reason the virgin is connected to childbirth is that, according to the legend, she helped her mother give birth to her twin, Apollo.
95321
Technically virgin birth is giving birth without ever having sexual intercourse.  It really depends on your outlook of how the world started.  Biblically Adam was first and Eve was created by God from his rib.  Other formats have stated we have evolved from everything like mud and monkeys for a starter example.\nIn todays world regardless what you believe you can have a virgin birth by having sperm injected into you, so to speak.  Medically we are all females physically in the womb until males develop further around the second trimester.  But technically males are predetermined by the chromosones in the sperm, so it really depends on how you look at when life starts.
888881
That's a very good question. If you are a Christian who believes that Jesus was devine and son to a virgin, then I would suppose you could just say God made him that way....complete with HIS chromosomes. It's all about faith.\n\nIf you aren't a Christian, then I would say to you that it is a possibility that Mary was raped by a Roman soldier or a man in the community. So that would explain his other chromosomes. \n\nThere's really no answer, my friend.
1092119
Wow, your question was confusing, I had to re-read it a few times. But, it's not a dumb question and I dont think it was a mean spirited question. Adam was the first man, fashioned from the dust and the breath of God in the image of God. Eve was the first woman made of Adams rib and the breath of God. They had children, namely 3 sons, Cain, Able, and Seth. So if you keep reading the bible from there, there are geneologies and you can see who begat whom on down the line. Long after Adam and many of his descendants had died, from the lineage of King David, a woman named Mary was bethrothed to a man named Joseph. Mary was indeed a virgin as she was not yet married. The Angel of the Lord came to her and told her that she was pregnant with our Savior, the Son of God.  What a daunting message, but God prepared for her just the right fiance, who loved her enough that at this seemingly crazy tale that he decided to preserve her life, her honor and put her away in secret. Well, the Angel of the Lord came to Joseph too, and told him that it is true, the baby is God's and your fiance's still a virgin (to paraphrase) If you read the Bible you'll get a more detailed version of this piece of History. The Baby Jesus grew to be a Man, all His life Jesus was close to God, His Father and prayed to him, because God is 3 persons, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. So, although Jesus is very much God, He is the Son of the Father. So, that is why Jesus is completely perfect and had no sin, and was able to sacrifice himself for us. At that moment when Jesus asked the Father "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" He was extending that same grace to us too, even now. Jesus did not escape crucifixion, he did not escape death. He conquered death, he conquered the old law of the old testament that said there must be a sacrifice, a blood atonement for all sins. We were all born into sin because of Adam and Eve chosing to follow thier flesh and give in to temptation. We were permanantly severed from God, and still are if we dont believe that Jesus is God made flesh, and is God's Son. We must believe that and believe that Jesus did die that day on the cross, that he laid in a tomb dead, but was resurrected on the 3rd Day and that he ascended into heaven very much alive and there he sits at the right hand of the father, leaving The Holy Spirit ever interceding for us. That is the truth and the only way to be allowed into God's presence upon our death here on Earth. There is no blaspemy in that. Jesus was brought to trial for that, because he in no uncertain terms claimed his rightful title as The Son of God. He was found faultless by Pilate, however, the crowd shouted "Crucify Him" and took a foul murderer to be released and the mob sentanced thier own King thier own Savior to die. But, it was what had to be done. Jesus said before his crucifixion, "No one takes my life, I willingly lay it down".
548652
Mary, if she even existed at all, knew nothing of any "immaculate conception". That was a story made up much later by Christian theologians who needed some way for Jesus to avoid being born under original sin, so they claimed that Mary's birth was "immaculate" by a special dispensation by God so that original sin wouldn't be imputed to her.
916672
The Virgin Mary is considered the Queen of All Saints, in the Catholic tradition. \nShe was born in Judea and is famous for raising a son who had a major impact on history.
1114824
You need to read the Bible, you didn't get much of anything right!\n\nGod is not a human, so stop trying to apply human concepts like marriage, fornication, and adultery to Him.\n\nJesus is the son of God. Mary is Jesus' human mother as Jesus was conceived by immaculate conception.