Did Mary the mother of Jesus remain a virgin all her life? The catholic/orthodox believe that she never had sex with her husband and poor Joseph had to spend the rest of his life in an unconsummated marriage unable to sleep with his wife.
I find this unlikely that such a demand was imposed on him and there is the well known mention of Jesus's brothers. However the objection is that they came from a previous wife of Joseph, one never mentioned in the Bible. They saw Jesus as their half brother same father and different mother.
Another unlikely argument is that the word brother means cousin since Hebrew didn't have another separate word for cousin. However the gospels were written in Greek.
The protestants came to think of Mary as a non perpetual virgin long after Luther.
Mary the mother of Jesus a perpetual virgin?
by greendawn 30 Replies latest jw friends
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greendawn
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the_classicist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_virginity#Earliest_centuries
Perhaps she was just a "technical virgin."
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gumby
Mary was just the new kid on the block who became popular.The moon goddess Artemis (or Diana as the Romans called her) had been the eternally virgin, till Mary centuries later took her glory and she was deified instead. Mother worship isn't a new thing with Mary.
Gumby....who ain't talkin bout my fav concubine either
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jschwehm
Hi:
The following was written around 150 A.D. and is known as the Protoevangelium of James. It is based on a tradition found among eastern Christians that Joseph was significantly older than Mary and that Mary was a temple virgin betrothed to the widower Joseph to protect her virginity.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm
I should point out that Luther and Calvin and the other reformers never questioned Mary's perpetual virginity. The idea that Mary had relations with Joseph after Jesus was born and gave birth to other children is a recent innovation.
Jeff S.
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jschwehm
Another unlikely argument is that the word brother means cousin since Hebrew didn't have another separate word for cousin. However the gospels were written in Greek.
True the Gospels were written in Greek, however the culture in the middle east is primarily an oriental culture. To this day, I have a hard time keeping track of some of the relatives that my Nepalese students refer to constantly as their brother when what they actually mean is that this person is their cousin or some other distant relative. It seems that this tradition is still alive and well in the oriental East.
Jeff S.
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bebu
My question: how would her remaining a virgin (or not) change the essence of the gospel?
I feel that if this issue were a matter of great importance, it would have been recorded at least once clearly by a gospel writer, not as vague as this. I'm disinclined to believe it.
bebu
flip-a-coin class
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the_classicist
True the Gospels were written in Greek, however the culture in the middle east is primarily an oriental culture. To this day, I have a hard time keeping track of some of the relatives that my Nepalese students refer to constantly as their brother when what they actually mean is that this person is their cousin or some other distant relative. It seems that this tradition is still alive and well in the oriental East.
This argument is spurious and you can't apply it to the whole New Testament either. For example, take the Gospel According to John. It was written in a high level of Greek which shows that the writer was either raised in the language or extensively educated in it. A person with that education, presumably, who in all other places expresses things in Greek idiom, would not suddenly start using Aramaic idiom to express what they really mean to say.
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Undecided
Maybe someone jacked off in the tub she was bathing in and that's how she became pregnant and was a virgin.
Ken P.
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lovelylil
Matthew 13:53-57
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" 57 And they took offense at him.
Clearly Jesus had brothers, 4 of them and sisters - although they are not named or numbered. This term "brother" in the context of the above scripture is clearly showing it is brother in the family relationship and not spiritual brother. That is why those in Jesus hometown did not accept him as a prophet, they saw him as merely a man born into the world much like themselves.
Therfore, Mary and Joseph had sex and Mary could not be a perpetual virgin. Lilly
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Robdar
In a world where Mary could get pregnant without being touched by a man, it is also possible that she never consummated her rmarriage with Joseph. It all depends on what parts of the myth you want to believe. How come you can believe one part of it but not another?
The Catholics also believe that Mary's mother never had intercourse with Mary's father and that she was born without sin. It is called the Immaculate Conception.
I say let the Catholics believe what they want to believe.