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
Why is it so difficult for some to comprehend how incredibly ABNORMAL the Holy Family was? When you are entrusted with the earthly care of God, the norms of culture are probably the furthest thing from your mind.
Every translation of the Bible contains Mary's prounouncement, "All generations shall call me Blessed." However, this is totally ignored by those who claim "sola scriptura" as their guide. They refuse to refer to the Holy Mother as Blessed and instead diminish her importance to being nothing more than a "normal" Jewish girl.
If the sola scriptura crowd is to be believed, the fact that Jesus was specifically called rabbi then he must have been married as all "normal" rabbis were and are. But of course they don't believe this because this cannot be used to condemn Catholicism.
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.
Of course timeframe is relevant.
Was she weeks away from marriage ... or ... who knows when ?
If Joseph had not yet initiated the actual wedding preparation (which, of itself, could be a year-long process), ... then Mary would have no reason to expect to be married soon ... or to bear a child.
It could be that something about the angel's delivery caused Mary to expect a sooner, rather than a later, fulfillment.
In any case, any of these explanations make more sense than the Catholic one ...... that both Mary and Joseph took vows of celibacy (nowhere recorded in the scripture) ... but were betrothed to be married anyway.