ok i don't want to sound stupid....?

Question

my friend and i are having a discussion and he showed me this website http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com... . it shows the bible and where it condradicts it's self and stuff like that. in Matthew 1 "1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS." it's contradition is "'Knew her not till'
Many Christians believe that Mary was always a virgin, but these verses say that she and Joseph 'came together' after the birth of Jesus, their 'firstborn son.' "

I remember hearing that Jesus had siblings...is that true or not??

i wanted to say this is not written to offend anyone or start any fights

the website, in case you're interested, is http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/

Answer 1

Your question is not stupid. It is very encouraging! Too many people just accept what Pastor So-and-so says as truth.

The contradiction you spoke of is not in the Bible, it is in tradition. The Bible teaches that Mary and Joseph did not have sexual relations until Jesus was born and that they did afterwards. Yes, Jesus did have siblings. The Catholic church (and possibly others as well) teaches that Mary was a perpetual virgin. The Bible does not agree with this. We must be careful not to confuse tradition and scripture.

There are some apparent contradictions in scripture. For example, there are 3 accounts of Jesus crusifixion which tell what the inscription was on the cross. They all say that something different was written.

How do we reconcile this? First, we acknowledge that either everything in the Bible is true, or God is a liar and therefore, is not God; He is not even good! Assuming that God is who He says He is, then all three accounts must be true. They can all be true only if each is just a part of the actual inscription. This is how we reconcile this "contradiction".

It comes back to James' statement, "You believe there is one God. You do well. The devils also believe and tremble. But know this, oh vain man, that faith without works is dead" (James 2:19-20). If we believe that God is God, then we must act and live as though we believe. That is why we need to be studying the Bible for ourselves. We cannot have faith by proxy! "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"(Romans 10:17).

Answer 2

Jesus had no brothers or sisters. No offense to them, but the people who've answered your question who say that He did are misinformed.

If you were an engaged woman, and an angel came to you and told you that you would have a son named Jesus, what would you think?

No doubt you would assume that the angel means that you would have your son "the normal way" sometime after marriage. I would too.

But Mary didn't! She asked the angel, "How can this happen?" This response makes no sense, unless she had taken a lifelong virginity vow -- otherwise, she would not have to ask, as an engaged woman, how she was to get pregnant.

The Bible describes four men as Jesus' "brothers", but these "brothers" are never described as a "son of Mary" or a "son of Joseph." Nobody else is either.

"Son of so-and-so" is how the Bible almost always refers to people -- but nobody is referred to that way in regard to Mary and Joseph. That is telling.

Also, consider what happened at the foot of the Cross in John's Gospel.

If Jesus had four brothers, why did He entrust care of His mother to the disciple John, who was outside the family?

This would be a VERY strange thing to do -- for a man to entrust His widowed mother to a man outside the family, when He has four brothers.

"Brother" has a VERY wide meaning in the Bible. Many times in Scripture it is used to describe cousins, nephews, other relatives, tribesmen, and even just fellow believers in general.

So, with regard to the idea that Jesus had siblings, the use of "brothers" in the Gospels doesn't prove a thing.

Answer 3

The fact that it says that Joseph knew her not "till" she brought forth her first-born Son does NOT automatically imply that he knew her afterward. 2 Samuel 6:23 reads: "Michal the daughter of Saul had no children until the day of her death." You wouldn't suppose that she had them afterwards. Also, Genesis 8:7 says that the raven that Noah sent forth from the ark "did not return till the waters were dried up", but, in fact, further reading makes clear that the raven never came back at all. Deuteronomy 34:6 says that no one knows the location of Moses' grave "until this very day". Of course, Deuteronomy was written thousands of years ago, and no one has discovered the grave since then.

Also, the term "first-born" doesn't automatically imply a second-born. Mosaic law called for the first-born son to be sanctified, but the first-born son is the first-born son even if there are no other children. Parents, obviously, did not wait until the second-born son to sanctify the first-born.

The Gospels do speak of the "brothers" of the Lord, but the Greek in which the New Testament was written doesn't have a specific word for "cousin". Frequently, the Greeks used the word "brother" to designate a more distant relative. Again, this usage is seen, as well, in the Hebrew Old Testament.

If Mary had had other children, then why would Jesus have entrusted her to the care of John the Apostle?

Similarly, the story of Jesus' being lost, and found, in the Temple, at the age of twelve, makes no mention of other siblings. (Luke 2: 41-51)

Read more at http://www.catholic.com/library/Mary_Ever_Virgin.asp

Answer 4

Only Catholics believe that Mary was always a virgin. This isn't in the bible however, as the bible says Jesus had siblings. That verse you quoted is correct; Jesus was born of a virgin, and it was not until after Jesus was born that Joseph and Mary had sexual relations.

Answer 5

The protestant belief is that Jesus did have step-siblings. That is, Joseph and Mary did have chldren AFTER the birth of Christ. The book of James in the New Testament is written by the step-brother of Jesus. I call him "step-brother" because he was a result of natural conception. Jesus was a result of the Holy Spirit placing Christ in her womb.

Grace and Peace to you

p.s. Remember that when you come across an apparent contradiction, don't fall into doubt and despair. The likely answer is that you have not yet fully understood something. I have resolved countless problems like that in my walk with the Lord over time. God put people in my life with the correct answer or showed through self-study, or by some other means. Sometimes it has taken me years to get a satisfactory answer. How sad it would have been if I had trashed my faith because I had not yet reasoned out or figured out one of the SO-CALLED contradictions.

Grace and Peace to you.

Answer 6

The only claim is her virgin conception of Jesus... after Jesus was born she married Joseph and they had children... Yes... John is Jesus' half brother...

Mary was a virgin... when she conceived Jesus... that's what they mean by saying Mary was a virgin...

The Bible doesn't contradict itself... make sure you read the context of a particular verse and do a word study if something seems weird or contradictory...

Answer 7

I see what you are saying but I for one never assumed she was a virgin only until after she had Jesus...her and Joseph became man and wife in all sense of the word and she bore other children....it is in the Bible...so you can see this is not a contradiction at all ...just some one who doesn't like the bible and what it stands for and wants to bring controversy to get people to question it.....you know this is a good example of why in the end times some will fall away ..it is because they will not know the Word of God enough to be able to properly discern truth from lies and will be led astray...that is why one needs to be a student of the Word daily....one cant be led astray if they know the truth....

Answer 8

Yes, Jesus had siblings, brothers and sisters. It would have been a little awkward if Joseph and Mary couldn't make love for their whole marriage, right? And how could Mary have stayed a virgin anyway when she clearly gave birth to a child?

Answer 9

The Catholic church has perpetuated this lie concerning mary being a perpetual virgin, she wasn't. Joseph was an older widower with grown children, after mary gave birth to Jesus, she bore Joseph several more children. As usual, the Holy Roman Catholic Cult is nothing but apostacy and corruption of God's word.

Answer 10

The bible never specified that Joseph and Mary did notcome together after she had Jesus but there were parts that said Jesus called people brothers but it never said they were born by Mary. They could have been cousins, nephews, nieces. So, dont let people put thoughts in your head. Believe what you believe and hope it is the truth becos nobody knows the truth.