Luke 1:34 (WEB)

Passage

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”

Nearby Context

Luke 1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,

Luke 1:33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”

Luke 1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”

Luke 1:35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.

Luke 1:36 Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "mary", "said", "angel", "seeing", and "virgin". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "mary" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 33's "and he will reign over the house..." into verse 35's "The angel answered her The Holy Spirit...", so "mary" and "said" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "mary" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.