“Mary was a virgin Jewish girl who happened to be of the correct lineage, who lived in the right time and place where circumstances would enable all the prophecy about Jesus (sic) birth and childhood to be fulfilled”
You know, I just can’t comprehend how someone believing all that is Scriptural can pose an hypothesis like this.
If God is the truly all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God that we should believe He is, then a virgin Jewish girl doesn’t just happen to be of the correct lineage, at the right time, in the right place for fulfillment of prophecy.
The all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God knew from all eternity that He would CREATE Mary, that He would create her for the purpose of giving birth to his Only-Begotten Son, that He would bring her into the world at the time and place of his choosing for the miracle of the Virgin Birth of His Son—He willed this from all eternity. It was not just a random series of people, places and times. She existed in God’s eternal Now.
It amuses me when someone doubts the virign birth yet believes Jesus rose from the dead by leaving the stone tomb without rolling away the stone and appeared in a room where the doors and windows were locked! Leaving Mary's womb and appearing then in our where/when was no great difficulty for the God to Whom Time is a volume. If these discussions didn't get so nasty with each other (proddies and Catholics ... I'm a proddy, BTW), they would be amusing to follow.
We all do....
Acts 17:22-27 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
In this case I actually like the way the NIV reads.....
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Actually, the older NIV said, *From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.*