CC--Christianese 21: Immaculate Conception

--As I mentioned previously, the Bible tells us that Jesus was born to Mary, even though she had never had sex with any man prior to His birth, including her fiancé-turned-husband Joseph. Instead, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
--This helps solve the theological question of how Jesus could have been born without sin in part because He could not have inherited it from Joseph.
--But that’s only half the problem. Wouldn’t He also have inherited the “genetic” (in the sense that it’s in our being, not just in our behavior) condition of sin from his mother, Mary? Well, that’s a difficulty every theologian must resolve, and there are pretty much five ways to do so.
--First, perhaps sin comes from the father and not from the mother. This is a view many people have since the man’s contribution is referred to as the seed and since it is in Adam (not Eve) that we are all said to have fallen into sin.
--The remaining four options all begin from the premise that sin is inherited from both parents equally or fully.
--Second, perhaps Jesus was merely formed in Mary’s womb but not made of her biologically. The Holy Spirit created Jesus ex nihilo (from nothing, spontaneously) and merely implanted Him in the womb to grow.
--Third, perhaps somehow Jesus was immune from the contamination despite being biologically formed from one of Mary’s eggs, perhaps by virtue of being God or some other special miracle.
--Fourth, perhaps the sin that would come from Mary was stopped by a special dispensation of the grace of God given to her through Christ’s power prior to Jesus’s birth, making her free from the contamination herself at the moment of His conception.
--Fifth, perhaps this dispensation was given to Mary not at the time of Jesus’s conception but at the time of her own conception.
--This last view is the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, and it is the idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, not to be confused with the Virgin Birth of Jesus
--As you may realize, the Bible does not pick any of these answers, instead remaining essentially silent on the issue.