"Mary was betrothed to Joseph. This was more than what we mean by being engaged. It involved a public pledge and implied the possibility of intimate relations. Joseph and Mary had evidently made a promise of abstinence or virginity to each other. This can seem strange to us, but some of the things we have learned about the Essenes from the Dead Scrolls help to put such a promise in a context. The Essenes had a monastery in Qumran where some of the members lived lifelong celibacy. There were also married couples associated with them who abstained from sexual relations for short or long periods of time in order to devote themselves more fully to prayer. Paul makes a reference to that practice (which had Old Testament roots) in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 7:5: "Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer."). Joseph and Mary who were pious Jews may have been influenced by the Essene milieu. For that reason when the angel told Mary she would conceive and give birth to a son, she did not say, "Oh, Joseph and I are going to have a child." No, what she said was, "How is this possible since I have no relations with a man?" Or as another translation say, "since I am remaining a virgin."The angel Gabriel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you."