© Copyright 2002 Grace D. MacKinnon
Grace MacKinnon is a syndicated columnist and public speaker on Catholic doctrine. Readers are welcome to submit questions about the Catholic faith to: Grace MacKinnon, 1234 Russell Drive #103, Brownsville, Texas 78520. Questions also may be sent by e-mail to: grace@deargrace.com. You may visit Grace online at www.DearGrace.com.
It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that the Blessed Virgin Mary was a virgin her entire life, a perpetual virgin. In other words, she was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus, and therefore, never had other children besides her one and only Son. That she was a virgin before and during the birth of Christ can hardly be denied since it is so clearly attested to in Scripture. How unusual it is that most people can believe that God can make it possible for a virgin to have a child and yet some do not believe that the same woman chose to remain a virgin for her entire life, out of her love for God.
The first thing that we should recognize is that Mary was and is a woman like no other. Knowing that God chose her above all others to bring His only begotten Son into the world, how can anyone doubt that she is very special? No human being or angel or saint has ever experienced what she alone experienced. She carried in her womb the Almighty Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. She contained in her body the incomprehensible God. Does it make sense that she would then turn around and unite that same body with that of another human creature?
The major challenges to the Church’s belief in Mary’s perpetual virginity are based on difficult passages of the Bible itself. There are biblical verses claimed by some to explicitly affirm that Jesus had brothers, thus proving (according to them) that Mary had other children. Although we certainly do not have the space here for a complete discussion of these verses, let us look at some of the major examples. The first and most pointed to is the use of the words “brother,” brethren,” or “sister” as in the following verses: “While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him” (Matthew 12:46) and “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Jude and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3).
From a careful study of Scripture, it is quite clear that the terms “brother,” “brethren,” and “sister” had a considerably wide meaning and usage in the Bible. They did not always refer to a blood brother or sister. Then why were these terms used, one might ask. There was a very good reason. The languages (Hebrew and Aramaic) spoken by Jesus and His disciples did not have a word meaning “cousin” or other kinsmen, or even friends, so they conveniently used “brother” or “sister” to refer to several kinds of relatives, and even non-relatives. There are numerous examples in the Bible of this usage, and a detailed word study would easily substantiate this.
Another problem verse is this one: “He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus” (Matthew 1:25). Here, some would attempt to demonstrate that the word “until” means that after Jesus’ birth, Joseph did have relations with his wife Mary. Again, we must keep in mind that the people of that day did not speak as we do today. Consider this verse: “And so Saul’s daughter Michal had no children until the day of her death” (2 Samuel 6:23). Does the use of the word “until” mean that she had children after her death? Certainly it cannot. This is but one example of how this word was used differently from the way it is today. There are many others. So, we see that these arguments, like all others that are brought forth, cannot and do not prove that Mary had other children.
From the earliest times, the Church pondered all these things about Mary and (based on Scripture and Tradition) slowly began to formulate the beliefs and teachings regarding the Mother of Jesus. Except for one serious challenge in the fourth century, all Christians believed the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. Even today, many non-Catholic Christians hold it to be true. The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther himself believed Mary to be a virgin her whole life (see Luther’s On the Divine Motherhood of Mary).
Is it possible that Joseph, having been told by the angel Gabriel that Mary would give birth in a miraculous way to the long-awaited Messiah, would then desire or seek to have relations with her? We must not lose sight of the fact that the Holy Family was unlike any other family. Imagine what it would be like to have God as your son! Jesus was God. Let us understand that Mary is the woman chosen by God to be the bearer and bringer of Christ. She was different; she was special; she was and is Ever-Virgin.
