When you are reading the bible you find Jesus and others mention brothers and sisters of Christ. How can this be if Mary remained an ever virgin? The two are a simple impossibility, yet the Catholic Church teaches that Mary remained a virgin. To find out the truth you need to look at Holy Hcripture and at Tradition. First we will look at Holy Scripture (will be using The Douay-Rheims version in quoting through out this posting. You can find it at http://www.newadvent.org/bible/index.html), and then we can look into Church Tradition. So now let’s find out what it says in scripture.
We will start by looking at Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? are not also his sisters here with us? And they were scandalized in regard of him.” In this passage we find the names of Christ’s brothers and we have sisters mentioned. So we now know for sure that Jesus had brethren. Or do we? Lets look closer to how these men are. We can go the Matt 27:56 “Among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Why would the writer not mention that this Mary is also the mother of Jesus? The simple reason is that it is because she is not. So who is this other Mary? Lets look at John 19:25 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.” Here see the writer is speaking of Mary of Cleophas. This Mary is the mother of James and Joseph. This Mary is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. This means that James and Joseph are Jesus’ cousins. This makes sense seeing that in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic there is no word for cousin, uncle, aunt, sister and a close friend. These are all referred to as brothers and sisters. A great example of this is from Genesis 14:14 “Which when Abram had heard, to wit, that his brother Lot was taken, he numbered of the servants born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, well appointed: and pursued them to Dan.” So lot is Abram’s brother how can this be if Lot is the son of Abram’s brother has mentioned in Genesis 14:12. So by this example we see that in the language of the time brother and sister were used much different then they are today. We can also look at what Jesus said when he was on the cross.
This is very telling of how he felt about his followers. For this example we will look at John 19:26-27 “When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. Jesus cared about who would care for his mother and he did not just pick anyone. He chose John the disciple whom he loved. In the Hebrew culture this task would have fallen to the next son in line. Jesus would have never disgraced a family member by having someone from outside the family care of Mary his mother. By doing this he would have been contradicting what he said in Matthew 15:3-9, “But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee. That is, the offering that I shall make to God, shall be instead of that which should be expended for thy profit. And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.” With these two examples I feel that this is enough to show that Mary did not have other children and therefore she remained a virgin.
You may also ask; what has the Church taught in the past? There are many examples to look at. I will give a few so as not to make this to long-winded. I would like you to look at St Jerome’s “The Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary against Helvidius”. In this discourse you will find that from A.D. 383 the church taught that Mary remained a virgin. I would to also look at one of St Augustine’s sermons in which he said, “It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth (21), made visible for us, by whom, when He was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin perpetual, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this o man? It was fitting for God to be born thus, when he deigned to become man… The same One who is God is Man, not by a confusion of nature but by a unity of person. Finally,-that same One begins to be Son of Man from the Virgin (Jurgens 1979 p. 30 1518 [186,1]). Then we can look at the heresy of antidicomarites. This particular heresy was from those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary (Jurgens 1979 p.166 1974d [56]). The antidicomarites were “an Eastern sect that was popular about A. D. 200 to 400, and which was so designated as being the "opponents of Mary". The Ebionites were the first who maintained that Our Lord was merely the son of Joseph and Mary. This doctrine became repugnant even to their own adherents, and it was afterwards modified so as to teach that, although Our Lord was born of Mary through the Holy Ghost, afterwards Joseph and Mary lived in wedlock and had many other children. The sect denied the formula "ever-Virgin Mary" used in the Greek and Roman Liturgies” (Shipman 1907).
Not only do we have writings from the early Church Fathers but we also have a heresy brought forth and argued against by the fathers of the church. So we have both scripture and Church Tradition showing us that Mary conceived Jesus as a Virgin and remained an ever virgin. I would also like to invite you to respond and ask any questions you may have concerning this posting.
References
We will start by looking at Mark 6:3, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? are not also his sisters here with us? And they were scandalized in regard of him.” In this passage we find the names of Christ’s brothers and we have sisters mentioned. So we now know for sure that Jesus had brethren. Or do we? Lets look closer to how these men are. We can go the Matt 27:56 “Among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Why would the writer not mention that this Mary is also the mother of Jesus? The simple reason is that it is because she is not. So who is this other Mary? Lets look at John 19:25 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.” Here see the writer is speaking of Mary of Cleophas. This Mary is the mother of James and Joseph. This Mary is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. This means that James and Joseph are Jesus’ cousins. This makes sense seeing that in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic there is no word for cousin, uncle, aunt, sister and a close friend. These are all referred to as brothers and sisters. A great example of this is from Genesis 14:14 “Which when Abram had heard, to wit, that his brother Lot was taken, he numbered of the servants born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, well appointed: and pursued them to Dan.” So lot is Abram’s brother how can this be if Lot is the son of Abram’s brother has mentioned in Genesis 14:12. So by this example we see that in the language of the time brother and sister were used much different then they are today. We can also look at what Jesus said when he was on the cross.
This is very telling of how he felt about his followers. For this example we will look at John 19:26-27 “When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. Jesus cared about who would care for his mother and he did not just pick anyone. He chose John the disciple whom he loved. In the Hebrew culture this task would have fallen to the next son in line. Jesus would have never disgraced a family member by having someone from outside the family care of Mary his mother. By doing this he would have been contradicting what he said in Matthew 15:3-9, “But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee. That is, the offering that I shall make to God, shall be instead of that which should be expended for thy profit. And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men.” With these two examples I feel that this is enough to show that Mary did not have other children and therefore she remained a virgin.
You may also ask; what has the Church taught in the past? There are many examples to look at. I will give a few so as not to make this to long-winded. I would like you to look at St Jerome’s “The Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary against Helvidius”. In this discourse you will find that from A.D. 383 the church taught that Mary remained a virgin. I would to also look at one of St Augustine’s sermons in which he said, “It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth (21), made visible for us, by whom, when He was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin perpetual, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this o man? It was fitting for God to be born thus, when he deigned to become man… The same One who is God is Man, not by a confusion of nature but by a unity of person. Finally,-that same One begins to be Son of Man from the Virgin (Jurgens 1979 p. 30 1518 [186,1]). Then we can look at the heresy of antidicomarites. This particular heresy was from those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary (Jurgens 1979 p.166 1974d [56]). The antidicomarites were “an Eastern sect that was popular about A. D. 200 to 400, and which was so designated as being the "opponents of Mary". The Ebionites were the first who maintained that Our Lord was merely the son of Joseph and Mary. This doctrine became repugnant even to their own adherents, and it was afterwards modified so as to teach that, although Our Lord was born of Mary through the Holy Ghost, afterwards Joseph and Mary lived in wedlock and had many other children. The sect denied the formula "ever-Virgin Mary" used in the Greek and Roman Liturgies” (Shipman 1907).
Not only do we have writings from the early Church Fathers but we also have a heresy brought forth and argued against by the fathers of the church. So we have both scripture and Church Tradition showing us that Mary conceived Jesus as a Virgin and remained an ever virgin. I would also like to invite you to respond and ask any questions you may have concerning this posting.
Jurgens, W.A. (1979, January) The Faith of Our fathers. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press
Shipman, A. J. (1907) The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company.
Rev. Chacon, F., Burnham J. (2003) Beginning apologetics 6; How to Explain and Defend Mary Farmington, NM: San Juan Catholic Seminars.
