Luke 1:34. How shall this be? Not as Zacharias (Luke 1:18): ‘Whereby shall I know this?' She simply expresses the natural objection of which she was conscious in her pure virgin heart.

Seeing I know not a man. This question implies the exclusion of any human father. The instincts of maidenly purity combined with strong faith to show her the negative side of the mystery of the miraculous conception, even if her question called for a revelation of the positive side. It is altogether improper to understand this clause as implying a vow of perpetual virginity, or the purpose of such a vow, as many Romanist interpreters hold. The words do not mean this, and her betrothal excludes it.

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Old Testament