Riddle me this: If you were a regular young lady two weeks from her wedding night, and an angel said "you will conceive a child" would you be befuddled as to how this could happen?
Was Mary 'two weeks' from her wedding night ?
Were there even any wedding plans in the works ?
Jewish betrothals can last a long time ... even years.
Timeframe is irrelevant. Utterly.
Argue to the point, please. A woman expecting to be married should not express shock and awe at being told she will conceive a child. The angel speaks in the future tense.
Had the angel said "Girl, you are pregnant now" one might expect the "how can this be?" response.
But that's not how Scripture is written. The angel tells a girl who, according to Protestant lore, is a normal girl getting ready to be married and have 8 kids, that she will conceive a child.
In what way does her response make any sense in this context? Any sense. Please explain. Had an angel told my wife before our wedding that she would conceive a child, she wouldn't be confused and perplexed about how this could happen.
SD