That's more consumption, than assumption.

I know. A virgin was merely a young, obedient woman, even if she were married.

@Petter well, Athena was who i had in mind

@Gwendolyn2018 im hardly sure either, but Athena worship was pretty prevalent then? So, my premise would be that just as Mary is now what comes to mind when we say "the virgin," i gotta believe that athena is what came to mind for them

@Gwendolyn2018 the ety of “mary” doesnt really suggest “meek and mild,” at least to me (mara “to be rebellious” or marar “to be bitter or strong&rdquo, but then Mary was unknown then, right? and i approached it from the perspective of a contemporary, what would they hear @ “virgin?” plus i doubt an actual Mary ever existed, although i might be off there…but as a symbol the text just made more sense to me. dunno

@Gwendolyn2018 not meaning to compare at all, so much as to say that “Christians” barely existed at the time, and “Mary” would have basically been an unknown quantity? Whereas “the virgin” would have been a known one, even to the jews, hence the virgin will be with child could be a metaphor for “that belief system will evolve into ____” perhaps

@Gwendolyn2018 so, a point i was maybe not being too clear on; i am not trying to reconcile with what ill call the “cover story,” fwiw

@Gwendolyn2018 well, once the symbolic story is understood, the literal one just tends to pale into insignificance, whether it is literally true or not. Hence beloved and obstinate might go together, to paint a picture of a woman (nation) rather than a literal one of a virgin miraculously birthing a savior in a manger (during a census, no less), whose name likely works out to “John Doe, from Nowhere” anyway? Those terms are all representative, and we have the legend for them, more or less

prolly particularly evident in the jacob/esau story, with the red stew—surely “sacrifices” or something similar—and all. The cover story, that at first read is taken at face value, even falls apart as soon as you start asking questions; jacob inherits, but he is the one who leaves? etc

anyway theres other stuff going on with mary—the “magdalene,” etc—that strongly suggest types imo

Maria, though, was a middle Eastern name.

ya, reading through the filter of a different language only compounds the pain lol

you “know” that the ascension of jesus was false, yet here we are talking about him 2k years later? 2 major world religions holding him in high esteem? ok

As an aside, how many "Catholic" religions are there? Roman Catholic is but one of them.
(I know there are 23 Eastern Catholic churches and there is even an Anglican Catholic church.)

@Petter hmm, who knew? “anglican catholic” sure sounds like an oxymoron, huh?