Greetings!

As we approach this time of year, we are subject to many mistruths surrounding the birth of Christ. One of those doctrines is called the perpetual virginity of Mary. The belief is held by many but championed most heavily by the Catholic church. This teaching maintains that not only was Mary a virgin at the time of Jesus' birth, but that she remained a virgin afterwards. Precluded then, is any possibility of additional children from her marriage to Joseph. This doctrine disregards, not only what we find in scripture, but also laws of logic.

Scripturally, arguments for perpetual virginity are negated early in the gospels. Matthew 1:18-25 tells of Joseph being shown, in a dream, that the pregnant woman he is engaged to is not unfaithful but is being used by God in a monumental way. Because of this, he is instructed to proceed to marry her. He agrees, and it is stated that he did not know her - that is have sexual relations - with Mary UNTILL she had given birth to Jesus. While this shows that before Christ was born Mary remained a virgin, afterward, Joseph did have sexual relations with his wife. This is further exposed by the fact that Mary had additional children after Jesus.

The Biblical evidence shows us that Christ had at least four half-brothers and a minimum of two half-sisters (Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 6:3).  They are called half in both cases because there was a shared mother, but Christ had a different Father - God Himself. The scriptures in Matthew gives us names of 4 brothers. The sisters are not named, but the word for sister is plural indicating more than one. Basic biology would show that for Mary to have children, other than Christ she must engage in sexual relations with her husband. This being the case, Mary would no longer be a virgin.

Not only do we have this evidence recorded in the Gospels, but we also have confirmation that this was known and believed in the New Testament Church. Paul refers to the same James mentioned in Matthew 13 as "the Lord's brother" (Galatians 1:19). The fact that Galatians was written by Paul nearly 30 years after the death of Christ, shows that the knowledge of Mary's children was still understood. No doubt James himself would be living, breathing proof of the fact that Mary did not remain a Virgin.

Those who support the deification of Mary have had to piece together (and in some cases, make up themselves) stories that uphold their tradition.  If one were to simply hold to historical facts and the truths revealed in scripture, the answer is clear that Mary was not a perpetual virgin, nor is there any requirement for her to be so. While she must have been a very incredible woman, she was just simply a physical being that God used to bring His Son into this world. Rather than striving so hard to ascribe unrequired attributes to this woman, we can look in scripture and see the clear facts presented and preserved by God himself and be confident in the stance against the erroneous belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary.

Happy Sabbath,

Devin Schulz