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Fast Fact - The Brothers of the Lord |
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Defense of the Post Partum Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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Jesus was the only son of Mary. The various texts in the New Testament that speak of "brothers" or "sisters" of the Lord (e.g. Matthew 12:46-48, 13:55, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21, John 2:12, 7:3-5, Acts 1:14) need not be understood to mean full brothers and sisters since Scripture uses these words for most distant blood relations. It is sometimes argued that the word "until" in Matthew 1:25 implied that Joseph had relations with Mary after the birth of Jesus. Again, the use of the word "until" in Scripture often speak of a condition existing prior to a given point, but it does not necessarily imply that the condition changes afterwards. (The hyperlinks will open an online NASB to the chapter referenced) Major Texts "Brethren" of the Lord Gen. 11:26-28 - Lot is Abraham's nephew Gen. 13:8; 14:14,16 - Lot is called Abraham's brother . Gen. 29:15 - Laban calls Jacob is "brother" even though Jacob is his nephew. Deut. 23:7; 1 Chron. 15:5-18; Jer. 34:9; Neh. 5:7 -"brethren" were kinsmen. 2 Sam. 1:26; 1 Kings 9:13, 20:32 – "brethren" can be friends. 1 Chron. 23:21-22 - Eleazar's daughters married cousins who are called "brethren."
"Until" Texts Gen. 8:7- "and he [Noah] sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth." [the raven never returned] 2 Samuel 6:23 – "Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death." [Michal had no children] 1 Macc. 5:54 - "And they went up to mount Sion with joy and gladness, and offered holocausts, because not one of them was slain, till they had returned in peace." (DR) Matt. 28:20 - "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even [until] the end of the age." Luke 1:80 - "And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel." Luke 2:37 - "and then as a widow to [until] the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers."
"For if Mary, as those declare who with sound mind extol her, had no other son but Jesus, and yet Jesus says to His mother, Woman, behold thy son,' and not Behold you have this son also,' then He virtually said to her, Lo, this is Jesus, whom thou didst bear.' Is it not the case that every one who is perfect lives himself no longer, but Christ lives in him; and if Christ lives in him, then it is said of him to Mary, Behold thy son Christ.' What a mind, then, must we have to enable us to interpret in a worthy manner this work, though it be committed to the earthly treasure-house of common speech, of writing which any passer-by can read, and which can be heard when read aloud by any one who lends to it his bodily ears?" (Origen, Commentary on John, 1,6 written in AD 232). "Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin; for in neither case had it been of profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed." (Athanasius, Orations against the Arians, 2,70 written in AD 362). "And when he had taken her, he knew her not, till she had brought forth her first-born Son.' He hath here used the word till,' not that thou shouldest suspect that afterwards he did know her, but to inform thee that before the birth the Virgin was wholly untouched by man. But why then, it may be said, hath he used the word, till'? Because it is usual in Scripture often to do this, and to use this expression without reference to limited times. For so with respect to the ark likewise, it is said, The raven returned not till the earth was dried up.' And yet it did not return even after that time. And when discoursing also of God, the Scripture saith, From age until age Thou art,' not as fixing limits in this case. And again when it is preaching the Gospel beforehand, and saying, In his days shall righteousness flourish, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken away,' it doth not set a limit to this fair part of creation. So then here likewise, it uses the word "till," to make certain what was before the birth, but as to what follows, it leaves thee to make the inference." (John Chrysostom, Gospel of Matthew, 5:5 written in AD 370). "But those who by virginity have desisted from this process have drawn within themselves the boundary line of death, and by their own deed have checked his advance; they have made themselves, in fact, a frontier between life and death, and a barrier too, which thwarts him. If, then, death cannot pass beyond virginity, but finds his power checked and shattered there, it is demonstrated that virginity is a stronger thing than death; and that body is rightly named undying which does not lend its service to a dying world, nor brook to become the instrument of a succession of dying creatures. In such a body the long unbroken career of decay and death, which has intervened between the first man and the lives of virginity which have been led, is interrupted. It could not be indeed that death should cease working as long as the human race by marriage was working too; he walked the path of life with all preceding generations; he started with every new-born child and accompanied it to the end: but he found in virginity a barrier, to pass which was an impossible feat." (Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, 13 written in AD 371). "But as we do not deny what is written, so we do reject what is not written. We believe that God was born of the Virgin, because we read it. That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe, because we do not read it. Nor do we say this to condemn marriage, for virginity itself is the fruit of marriage; but because when we are dealing with saints we must not judge rashly. If we adopt possibility as the standard of judgment, we might maintain that Joseph had several wives because Abraham had, and so had Jacob, and that the Lord's brethren were the issue of those wives, an invention which some hold with a rashness which springs from audacity not from piety. You say that Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more, that Joseph himself on account of Mary was a virgin, so that from a virgin wedlock a virgin son was born. For if as a holy man he does not come under the imputation of fornication, and it is nowhere written that he had another wife, but was the guardian of Mary whom he was supposed to have to wife rather than her husband, the conclusion is that he who was thought worthy to be called father of the Lord, remained a virgin." (Jerome, The Perpetual Virginity of Mary Against Helvedius, 21 written in AD 383 Mary retained her virginity after the birth of Jesus (CCC 477-507).
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