This topic was raised in another thread that was closed (I believe) for lack of a specific text. Very well, here goes: 26In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32He 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, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[c] the Son of God. 36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37For nothing is impossible with God."
38"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38).
We have here the basics of the issue: Mary is a virgin. She is caused by the Spirit of God to have a child. There is nothing specifically said about her particular character, nor her "holiness" as ordinarily defined. Of course, she is holy in the proper sense: she is set apart by God. Mary is not so very different from any of the other women granted children by the miraculous power of God. I find it interesting that the Catholics do not declare Sarah or Elizabeth to be sinless, but leap upon the chance to do so with Mary. There is no evidence for the "Immaculate Conception" (which is different from the Virgin Birth, this is not always known) of Mary, but there is evidence that she was much the same as everyone else. She is "troubled" by the message given to her, later on she and Joseph rebuke Jesus for His teaching at the temple, later still she and his brothers and sisters (yes, Christ had brothers and sisters, Mary was NOT a perpetual virgin, she quite naturally had intercourse with her husband- she was a virgin until AFTER the Virgin Birth) tried to have Jesus "put away"- most likely into what served for mental institutions in those days: a cave in the desert. Mary was a woman who did good things, but she was sinful as any ordinary human.
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