Thank you Carol C.

So back to my question to MG ..

"MG ... your not implying that Mary was a shikseh are you ?!?!"

If Jesus was born out of wedlock ... it certainly would have been extremely scandalous and repulsive in Jewish Society.

Thus the extreme whitewashing of the situation was created to make his birth more pure, closer to YHWH/yahwew/God in creating the 'myth' of a Virgin Birth. Don't forget, the first audience to conversion to the new Christian following were Jews. As Bobad mentioned "Or they might all be using the same story to sell the snake oil."

It is after it has all been done and said and in Christianity's evolution do we rationalize the purity in it's spirituality. I prefer to think of the Virgin Birth to it's feminine side, a mother, a woman is all Mary was. Someone in spite of the mores/morals of the society of her time, someone to be repected regardless. Like all humans should be.

sIx