Luke 1:34

In Luke 1:33 the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, and in this verse she asked the question, literally translated from the Greek, “How shall this be, because I know not man?” Unfortunately, the RSVCE translation here is very poor. The Douay Rheims translation gets it right: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” There are three reasons why this question makes no sense unless Mary planned on maintaining her virginity.

First, when we consider Mary and Joseph were already “espoused,” according to verse 27 of this same chapter, we understand Mary and Joseph to then have had a legal marriage. In ancient Israel, the espousal was akin to a ratified marriage in our New Covenant understanding of marriage (see Deut. 22:23-24). After the espousal, the husband would ordinarily prepare a home for his new bride and then come and receive her into his home with great ceremony (the marriage feast) where the union would subsequently be consummated (see Matt. 25:1-12). This is precisely why even though Mary and Joseph were only “espoused” St. Joseph intended to “divorce her quietly” (Matt. 1:19) when he discovered she was pregnant. You don’t divorce someone to whom you are not yet wedded.

Second, this is crucial to understand because a newly married woman who was planning a normal conjugal life would not ask the question, “How shall this be?” She would assume that, after she and Joseph began to cohabit, she would become pregnant in the normal course of affairs. Yet St. Luke indicates that Mary believed the message but still wanted to know how this would be accomplished. She obviously knew the facts of life, or she would not have asked the question. This indicates she was not planning on the normal course of events for her future with St. Joseph.

Third, the language “I know not man,” or to “know” someone was a common Jewish euphemism for sexual relations (see Judges 19:25; I Kings 1:4). Thus, the language Mary used here would be expected given her unique consecration as Spouse of the Holy Spirit.