What does the Bible say about the virgin Mary?

She was the virgin that was prophesied of in the O.T. who was to bear a son. Isa. 7:14. Gabriel was sent from God to announce to her that the Holy Spirit should come upon her, and the power of the Highest should overshadow her, and she should bring forth a Son, and should call His name JESUS. She had asked how it should be, and it being thus explained she piously answered, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." She then went to visit her cousin Elisabeth, who, being filled with the Holy Spirit, pronounced her blessed, and hailed her as 'the mother of my Lord.' Mary also praised God: He had regarded the low estate of His handmaid: all generations would call her blessed. Luke 1:26-56.

An enrolment, or census, decreed by the imperial power of Rome, caused Joseph, to whom Mary had been espoused, to take her to the city of Bethlehem, where, according to prophecy, Jesus was born. Thither came shepherds to whom His birth had been announced by angels, accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly host praising God. Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. When the babe was presented in the temple the pious Simeon blessed Mary, but had to tell her that a sword should pierce through her own soul. Homage was also rendered to Him by the Magi, but, to avoid the murderous intentions of Herod, Joseph was directed to carry Mary and the young child into Egypt. On returning they abode in Nazareth.

Mary is next met with when Jesus remained at Jerusalem after the Passover, and was found among the doctors. This had caused her great anxiety, and she had to hear His mysterious reply as to being about His Father's business. She was with Him and His disciples at the marriage feast at Cana, when He uttered another mysterious sentence: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." She nevertheless instructed the servants to do whatever He told them, which resulted in their having the best wine at the end (as it will be in the kingdom). Once afterwards Mary came with His 'brethren' desiring to speak with Him; but again a mysterious saying declared that those who did the will of His Father were His brother, and sister, and mother. Matt. 12:46-50.

What was there in Nazareth and what in Mary that led the angel there? The city was small, obscure, and belonging to Galilee. The virgin was unknown, and, as she says, “of low degree” (v. 52). There was no proportion between the place, the person, and the promise; but then we must remember that grace is not beholden to anything here; and He whose advent is now announced comes to lowly circumstances and to contrite and humble hearts, He did not despise the virgin’s womb.

To Mary the whole thing was supernatural. She could but say, in a faith that gives her a character as a true-hearted and dependent saint, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word” (v. 38); and the angel departed from her. She thus absolutely places herself in the hands of God to be His honoured vessel for the incarnation, and coming in flesh of “that holy thing,” “Son of the Highest” and “Son of God.”

When God promised a son to Abraham, Sarah laughed within herself, doubting, not knowing the almighty power of the Promiser. Zacharias had also the difficulty of unbelief when he received from Gabriel the announcement that his wife Elisabeth should bear him a son. Mary replied to the angel, "How shall this be?" But although what was promised must be outside of the order of nature, it was not, as in the cases adduced, distrust that prompted her question. This is seen from the fact that Gabriel is permitted to give a full and complete answer to her enquiry, an answer which reveals two things, the miraculous conception of our blessed Lord, and that the Child so born should be called the Son of God, the Son of God as born into this world, according to the second Psalm.* But to strengthen her divinely-given faith, which already existed, Gabriel was commissioned to inform her of God's grace also to her cousin Elisabeth, "for," said he, giving thus the unchanging basis of all belief, "with God nothing shall be impossible." God were not God if this were not so; and hence, too, as the Lord Himself taught, "All things are possible to him that believeth." It was this lesson which Mary had now learnt in her inmost soul, as shown by her response, "Behold the handmaid" (the bondsmaid) "of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

When God promised a son to Abraham, Sarah laughed within herself, doubting, not knowing the almighty power of the Promiser. Zacharias had also the difficulty of unbelief when he received from Gabriel the announcement that his wife Elizabeth should bear him a son. Mary replied to the angel, "How shall this be?" But although what was promised must be outside of the order of nature, it was not, as in the cases adduced, distrust that prompted her question. This is seen from the fact that Gabriel is permitted to give a full and complete answer to her inquiry, an answer which reveals two things, the miraculous conception of our blessed Lord, and that the Child so born should be called the Son of God, the Son of God as born into this world, according to the second psalm.* But to strengthen her divinely-given faith, which already existed, Gabriel was commissioned to inform her of God's grace also to her cousin Elizabeth, "for," said he, giving thus the unchanging basis of all belief, "with God nothing shall be impossible." God were not God if this were not so; and hence, too, as the Lord Himself taught, "All things are possible to him that believeth." It was this lesson which Mary had now learnt in her inmost soul, as shown by her response, "Behold the handmaid" (the bondsmaid) "of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

Mary was one of the godly remnant of Israel in whom the Spirit of God was acting, but in what was unique. The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon as it had been upon David and others before him, but the coming of the Spirit on Mary was for the coming into the world of the Son of God. The words of the angel to Mary are sublime, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee: therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

"That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the SON OF GOD." We have the birth of a Babe foretold here, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of Mary the Virgin. He is here called Son of God as born in time. Though seen in the weakness of infancy, and so partaking in humanity perfectly, yet is He sinlessly holy; and He does not forfeit His Sonship by accepting human conditions. Had His mother been divine, He had not been human. She was woman, singularly favoured because chosen out of all the virgins of Israel to be the mother of the Lord; yet the more we make of Mary, the less do we make of the divine miracle of this holy birth. The body in which He appeared was prepared for Him (Heb. 10); and in it was He to effectuate all the will of God. It was guarded from every taint of sin in the Virgin's womb; not by any immaculate conception of the Virgin herself (as affirmed by Rome), which could be supposed to free her from taint of sin, but by the power and wisdom of God the Holy Ghost. The fable of the Virgin's immaculate birth, had it been true, would have required the same miracle in her parentage and birth which Scripture declares with regard to the Babe in David's royal city.

A difficulty occurred to Mary's mind which she expressed in verse 34. The coming Child was to have David as His ancestor and yet be the Son of the Highest! She did not ask for a sign, since she accepted the angel's words, but she did ask for an explanation. How could this thing be? Mary's question and the angel's answer in verses 35-37, make quite plain in the third place the reality of the virgin birth and the wholly super-natural character of the Manhood of Jesus.

The Virgin's question "How shall this be, seeing that I know not a man?"--is not the result of unbelief. She believed, presupposing the absolute reality of the promise, in asking the exact manner of its fulfillment. The blessed mystery of the incarnation, how the Son of God should take on the human form and become man, is made known. It is a great mystery. "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee" means that the human nature of our Lord was produced in the Virgin by a creative act of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18-20). And therefore He possessed an absolutely holy nature. "And the Power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." This is not a repetition of the first statement. It means that the Son of God, who is the Most High, overshadowed the Virgin, uniting Himself with the miraculously prepared human nature. He is designated in His Being "that holy thing" because He cannot be classified. And because He is holy there could be nothing in Him, who was born of the Virgin, which is unholy. And beautiful is the submission of the Virgin to the will of God.

Mary asks the angel a direct question, for she cannot understand how such a thing could be. She is informed of the Holy Ghost’s overshadowing her and that her child should be “holy” and the Son of God.

We must not omit to notice that Mary spoke of "God my Saviour." Though the mother of our Saviour, she herself found her Saviour in God.