I'll look into it some, pete, and see what I can find.

Keep in mind that what I value about Jesus is what he taught and demonstrated. He set a wonderful example of how to live what might be called a "Godly life", and people can learn from that example. I think that many of the things told about him later (such as the "virgin birth" story) were typical embellishments added to religious tales in that era...not literally true, in all probability, but very meaningful to members of the religion that was founded in his name.

And there's another interesting thing about Mary being termed "a virgin" in the stories. That expression in the vernacular of the original writings at the time can be translated simply as "a young woman" (not denoting sexual virginity in any clinical sense, but denoting youth and innocence). Mary appears to have been quite young when she was married, and the term "a virgin" would have been commonly used to describe any respectable young woman without making reference to her sexual virginity.