How can Mary be a virgin?

Question

Look, Jesus had brothers and sisters. Yes, Jesus' birth was a virgin birth and miracle, but she did not stay celibate after she had him. She was married after all AND the bible actually says that Jesus had bros. and sisters. Mark 3:31. Iknow that Jesus follows this with a possibly "deny", but the crowds people would certainly would know if he had a mother and brothers. There's another verse with sisters, but I can't remember where it is.

Answer 1

The Bible does say Jesus had brothers and sisters. However, it doesn't say Mary remained a virgin, that's A DOCTRINE OF MAN, not god. Also, its so unimportant that she remain a virgin, only her oldest child, Christ, had to be born from a virgin. The rest came from her and Joseph from a regular marriage relationship.

Answer 2

The concept of the "virgin Mary" was a late concept. Early manuscripts mention nothing of verginity (Although later translates creatively translated the Greek word for "girl" to mean "virgin" - even though the word wasn't used in this sense and other words that specifically mean "virgin" are used elsewhere.)

Later Christians couldn't understand how a devine creature (there is also evidence that early chrisitans didn't believe this either) could come from sin (sex, remembering that many early christians considered all sex as sinful, just look at what St Jerome had to say about it.) So, She must not have had sex. Jesus was the son of God, directly. This made perfect sense to the early Greek Christians, remembering that the Greek gods did this all the time.

But wait, she still bears the taint of original sin! So now we need the immaculate conception, where at Mary's conception (in her mother) original sin is somehow magically not passed to her.

But wait, how can she ever have sex, she bore the son of god! So now we have to have the "perpetual virginity of Mary." Now many bible thumpers try to explain away Jesus' siblings as children of Joseph from a previous marriage, or cousins (more creative translation.) (Ever notice how many people have the same name in the Gospel? A lot of creative editing and redaction. Read Robert Eisenman's book, James the Brother of Jesus. Very interesting linguistic and textural detective work trying to get to the truth. ISBN 0-670-86932-5 )

Answer 3

Mary was a Virgin until Joseph had sex with her after Jesus' birth. The reference to the Virgin Mary is to point out the fact that Jesus' birth was a virgin birth and a miracle.

Answer 4

Jesus did have bros. and sisters. Mary didn't stay a virgin. He denied them in the crowd to show them that He came for them. This is the next few verses. People can't just take one verse out of the bible to prove something. you have to read a few verses before and after to figure out why.

Answer 5

Anne is wrong. The earlier scriptures (Old Testament) prophesied that the Savior would be born to a virgin. The church had nothing to do with that. The Hebrew versions were not creatively translated. You can take Strong's Bible Concordance and find out for yourself what the Hebrew word meant. What are your historical sources? Unfortunately, Wikipedia cannot be counted as a reliable source as the entries change from day to day and as they are written by laymen who often don't use reliable sources. But such is life. If you want to know the truth, you really have to dig for it.

The Catholic church is the only church that I know of that claims that Mary is still a virgin. Bible evidence shows us otherwise.

Jesus did have siblings. The book of James was written by one of them. Fascinating recent archaelogical find: the ossuary, or bone box, enscribed with the words James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.

Answer 6

This is a matter of faith,besides the virgin birth was only the birth of Jesus. The other brothers and sisters were conceived and born the regular way.

Answer 7

The "brothers & sisters" of Jesus were really His first generation cousins.

Two of these "brothers" were amongst the 12 Apostles. They were Jude Thaddeus & James the son of **ALPHEUS.** That is how we know that they were in fact Jesus'Cousins, rather than siblings.

In the Gospel according to St. John, chapter 19, Mary is said to have a sister "named Mary." Yet, we all know that noone gives their children the very same last name(similar names, maybe: exact names, no). Therefore this was really her cousin also.

Answer 8

Dear es harper,

Mary was a virgin when Christ Jesus) came into the world. However, after the birth of Christ she later had other children with Joseph her husband (Mark 6:3). You see for God (the Lord Jesus Christ) to be the atonement for the sins of God's elect, He had to become a human being. This show you the immense love that God has for His sheep (children)--to humble Himself to be a man, a creation of God. And then He paid these rebels sin debt!! What a Savior!! For more info see www.familyradio.com.

Answer 9

Mary never had intercourse, but was impregnated by a miracle of the holy spirit. She remained a virgin until she and Joseph had intercourse and concieved their first child with each other. Jesus did have brothers and sisters after he was born, He was the first born of that family. Actually one of his apostles James was Jesus half brother.-

Answer 10

Actually I was taught that Joseph being older had been married before. Mary was not his first wife. He had children born by his first wife and many would consider these Jesus' brothers and sisters. That and if you go back and look at the original scripture passage and translate it correctly the word brethren refers to any close male relative. For example cousin. Not everything translates perfectly.

Peace Be To You,
Debra