Mary’s statement wasn’t, “How shall this be because I never intend to have sex with any man?’
It was “How can this be (present tense) since I am not currently having sex with a man?”
It says NOTHING in the least about future intentions.
Consider that at the time she spoke, Mary was not pregnant. Neither had she any idea whether this pregnancy predicted by the Archangel was to commence in a week, a month, a year, or if it would be delayed until decades in the future, as was her ancestress Sarah’s renowned,heaven-predicted pregnancy. No timeline was announced.
There was no reason whatsoever for her to think it would be right away.
Therefore she is speaking of a pregnancy to come in the indefinite future.
That’s exactly what’s so strange about her troubled, puzzled response that she knows not man. She was a married woman. She knew where babies come from. Yet she apparently couldn’t work out in her mind where *her* future baby could come from. Her first thought was apparently not “Well, Joseph, my husband, of course.”
Consider that at the time she spoke, Mary was not pregnant. Neither had she any idea whether this pregnancy predicted by the Archangel was to commence in a week, a month, a year, or if it would be delayed until decades in the future, as was her ancestress Sarah’s renowned,heaven-predicted pregnancy. No timeline was announced.
There was no reason whatsoever for her to think it would be right away.
Therefore she is speaking of a pregnancy to come in the indefinite future.
That’s exactly what’s so strange about her troubled, puzzled response that she knows not man. She was a married woman. She knew where babies come from. Yet she apparently couldn’t work out in her mind where *her* future baby could come from. Her first thought was apparently not “Well, Joseph, my husband, of course.”