St. Ambrose of Milan, and St. Augustine of Hippo– constantly alluded to a tradition of Mary taking a solemn vow at Luke 1:34. However, because they neither betrayed their sources for this tradition, nor their textual basis for such an argument, it was only later in the Middle Ages that other authors found Judges 11:39 to justify the patristic tradition of Mary’s virginity. Unfortunately, this historical development has often been understudied by modern scholars of the Bible.
