How do you know for certain that Mary had children other than Jesus?

Question

Where is it written in the Bible or elsewhere that she and Joseph remained married and had more children?

Answer 1

well it does say in the bible about jesus's brothers and sisters,

BUT

the original language of the bible, hebrew i think, uses brother and sister to also mean cousin. so his brother=his cousin, according to hebrew, since there was no word for cousin.


it can also be arguged that the bros and sisters might be referring to Joseph's children from a prior marriage(he was married before) so it would be Jesus's step-brothers and sisters.

Answer 2

Dear Cinnamon,

Several people have already given you the Bible verses which name Mary's other children.

When a Catholic friend years ago told me about the perpetual virginity of Mary I showed him that those verses are in each of the Catholic versions of the Bible.

There is absolutely no basis whatsoever for teaching that Mary was a perpetual virgin and there was absolutely no prophecy about such a thing in Hebrew Scripture while there are detailed prophecies related to Jesus.

The very simple reason that Jesus asked John to watch over His mother is because Jesus' siblings were NOT yet his followers. That came AFTER His Resurrection.

Read the whole Bible. Don't just pick a verse here and a verse there.

The Bible should change us.
We should not change the Bible (I'm not referring to the modern day translations)

Answer 3

Protestant religion is the only Christian religion that does not recognize the perpetual virginity of Mary:
There is a great article that discusses basically all that has been intelligently said here so far listed as my first source below. You will need to go to that link because it is too long to put here. But they mention the source of the controversy is the Protestant community. The New Testament is explicit that Mary was a virgin at the time she conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Christian tradition—later infallibly affirmed by the Church—acknowledges that she remained a virgin afterward. The great majority of Christians acknowledges this except for Protestants.

Protestants claim that the great reformer Luthern reformed the teachings on Mary. But that is quite wrong:
In my second source listed, you can read that despite the radicalism of early Protestantism with regard to many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary. Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented in Protestant biographies of Luther and histories of the 16th century, yet it is undeniably true.

Answer 4

It would seem that Mary did not have any children other than Jesus. Why else would Jesus trust the care of His mother to John if there were other siblings that could have cared for her? The brothers mentioned in scripture appear to be step-brothers, sons of Joseph from a previous marriage. Joseph was many years older than Mary.

Answer 5

Yes.
The Bible never gives an exact count, but Jesus’ siblings are mentioned in several Bible verses. Matthew 12:46, Luke 8:19, and Mark 3:31 say that Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him. Jesus had four brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). Jesus also had sisters, but they are not named or numbered (Matthew 13:55-56). In John 7:1-10, His brothers go on to the festival. In Acts 1:14, His brothers and mother pray for Him. Later in Galatians 1:19, it mentions that James was Jesus’ brother. The most natural conclusion of these passages is to interpret that Jesus had actual blood siblings. There is no Biblical reason to believe that these siblings are not the actual children of Mary and Joseph. They were obviously born after Jesus, because Jesus was born of a virgin (Isa 7:14; Luke 1:26-38).

Answer 6

Jesus didn't have brothers or sisters. The word brother you find in the Bible is interchangable for other close relatives. For example, in Gen. 14:14 Lot is called Abraham's brother, when actually he is his nephew. If Jesus had brothers and sisters why did He put Mary in the care of John when He was dieing on the cross. Wouldn't one of the siblings taken her into there care? Two of the so-called "brothers" of Jesus- James and Joseph- were identified as sons of another Mary, the wife of Clopas (compare Mt. 27:56 and Jn. 19-25).

God bless,
Stanbo

Answer 7

Hi, good question, there is no logical reason to support this theory and certainly none in scripture.
the often quoted passage given for this is when Jesus was told that His Mother and Brothers were waiting for Him, now this is no basis at all to suppose Jesus was not an only child,as the term Brother and Sister was and is a term of endearment still used in many parts of the world to describe spiritual bondship, and also used in earlier times to mean cousins etc.
the more obvious meaning however is that this is purposely used to debunk the virginity of Mary both before the birth of Jesus and after.

Answer 8

I wonder why Jesus specifically asked his beloved disciple (John) to care for his mother before His death on the cross. If Jesus had other siblings, they would have been the natural choice to take care of Mary. But Jesus instead commanded John to do so (this is your son, she is your mother) There couldn't have been other other siblings.

Answer 9

Matthew 13:55 Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, JAMES, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?

Mark 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of JAMES, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

Galatians 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save JAMES the Lord's brother.

Answer 10

Check out Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 for your reference...

I personally don't see ANYTHING WRONG if Mary did have more children than her first-born, Yeshua/Jesus, is there?? After all she was married to Joseph...

Peace be with you.