Why does Orthodoxy teach that Mary was ever-virgin?

Question

The Orthodox have been separated from the Catholic Church for a thousand years. If Christians only believed Mary was ever-virgin because 'that wicked Catholic Church lied and kept the Bible from away from them', why does Orthodoxy teach the same thing?

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/evervirgin.aspx

Answer 1

Both Orthodox and Catholics believe she was ever virgin because this was a tradition from the beginning and Scripture says "hold fast to the traditions you have received whether by word or epistle."

Scripture also supports the perpetual virginity of Mary. It says Joseph did not "know her." It also makes sense in the context of Jesus' mission and the mission of Mary and Joseph - they were meant to just be His parents.

Answer 2

Other Orthodox distinctives that are in conflict with the Bible include:

The equal authority of church tradition and Scripture

Discouragement of individuals interpreting the Bible apart from tradition

The perpetual virginity of Mary

Prayer for the dead

Baptism of infants w/o reference to individual responsibility and faith

The possibility of salvation after death

The possibility of losing salvation

While the Eastern Orthodox Church has claimed some of the church's great voices, and while there are many of the Orthodox tradition that have a genuine salvation relationship with Jesus Christ; the Orthodox church itself do not speak with a clear message that can be harmonized with the Biblical Gospel of Christ. The clarion call of the Reformers for "Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Grace Alone, and Christ Alone" is missing in this branch of Christendom, and that is too precious a treasure to do without.

Answer 3

Because sex is demonized in Catholicism in general therefore any kind of carnal pleasure is impure. Therefore in order for Catholics to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and is Divine and Mary free from sin she had to be simply a virgin. Because sex is seen as a necessary evil to procreate and pleasure is impious... According to some really radical Catholics, sex is tied to original sin, pleasure, you have to renounce all pleasure in order to follow Jesus and God... People actually forgot that pleasure is not a sin, it is a gift from God, and sex is not only for procreation. God gave this gift for us to enjoy in a long term- committed and healthy and loving relationship. Our bodies are not impure, we are created in the image of God, sex is not impure, God created it.
I can't really understand why Mary had to be a Virgin to give birth to Christ. It is unrealistic and unsound. Simply put it, Mary can still be free from sin and have had sex.
Why would God punish her and impose the cruel practise of forced celibacy on her?
Your suggestion to why is Orthodoxy teaching that Mary was a Virgin? Well quite obvious. Because All Christianity comes from Catholicism.
Anyways we can't be sure whether Mary was a Virgin or not. Did the apostles check her vagina in order to verify her virginity? I mean how would they know?

Answer 4

My bible doesn't say this! In fact it says Joseph didn't have relations with her until after Jesus was born. Mathew 1:25.

Satan has 7000years experience of twisting Gods word. Don't fall prey to that lie like so many other thousands have!

They also think that she went to heaven in body And spirit without tasting death! My bible doesn't state this either, but again, Satan is the father of all lies.

Answer 5

Because the Orthodox are also Apostolic and know what they are saying.

Answer 6

I'm just glad I wasn't there, otherwise we never would have had a blessed and qualified virgin to give birth to our lord.

Answer 7

Simply because that was the doctrine handed down to us (Catholics and Orthodox) by the apostles.

Origen



"The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the firstfruit among men of the purity which consists in [perpetual] chastity, and Mary was among women. For it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the firstfruit of virginity" (Commentary on Matthew 2:17 [A.D. 248]).


Hilary of Poitiers



"If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary’s sons and not those taken from Joseph’s former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, ‘Woman, behold your son,’ and to John, ‘Behold your mother’ [John 19:26–27), as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate" (Commentary on Matthew 1:4 [A.D. 354]).


Athanasius



"Let those, therefore, who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh from the ever-virgin Mary" (Discourses Against the Arians 2:70 [A.D. 360]).


Epiphanius of Salamis



"We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit" (The Man Well-Anchored 120 [A.D. 374]).

"And to holy Mary, [the title] ‘Virgin’ is invariably added, for that holy woman remains undefiled" (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 78:6 [A.D. 375]).


Jerome



"[Helvidius] produces Tertullian as a witness [to his view] and quotes Victorinus, bishop of Petavium. Of Tertullian, I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proven from the gospel—that he [Victorinus] spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship, not by nature. [By discussing such things we] are . . . following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against [the heretics] Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same views and wrote volumes replete with wisdom. If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man" (Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary 19 [A.D. 383]).

"We believe that God was born of a virgin, because we read it. We do not believe that Mary was married after she brought forth her Son, because we do not read it. . . . You [Helvidius] say that Mary did not remain a virgin. As for myself, I claim that Joseph himself was a virgin, through Mary, so that a virgin Son might be born of a virginal wedlock" (ibid., 21).


Didymus the Blind



"It helps us to understand the terms ‘first-born’ and ‘only-begotten’ when the Evangelist tells that Mary remained a virgin ‘until she brought forth her first-born son’ [Matt. 1:25]; for neither did Mary, who is to be honored and praised above all others, marry anyone else, nor did she ever become the Mother of anyone else, but even after childbirth she remained always and forever an immaculate virgin" (The Trinity 3:4 [A.D. 386]).


Ambrose of Milan



"Imitate her [Mary], holy mothers, who in her only dearly beloved Son set forth so great an example of material virtue; for neither have you sweeter children [than Jesus], nor did the Virgin seek the consolation of being able to bear another son" (Letters 63:111 [A.D. 388]).


Pope Siricius I



"You had good reason to be horrified at the thought that another birth might issue from the same virginal womb from which Christ was born according to the flesh. For the Lord Jesus would never have chosen to be born of a virgin if he had ever judged that she would be so incontinent as to contaminate with the seed of human intercourse the birthplace of the Lord’s body, that court of the eternal king" (Letter to Bishop Anysius [A.D. 392]).


Augustine



"In being born of a Virgin who chose to remain a Virgin even before she knew who was to be born of her, Christ wanted to approve virginity rather than to impose it. And he wanted virginity to be of free choice even in that woman in whom he took upon himself the form of a slave" (Holy Virginity 4:4 [A.D. 401]).

"It was not the visible sun, but its invisible Creator who consecrated this day for us, when the Virgin Mother, fertile of womb and integral in her virginity, brought him forth, made visible for us, by whom, when he was invisible, she too was created. A Virgin conceiving, a Virgin bearing, a Virgin pregnant, a Virgin bringing forth, a Virgin perpetual. Why do you wonder at this, O man?" (Sermons 186:1 [A.D. 411]).

"Heretics called Antidicomarites are those who contradict the perpetual virginity of Mary and affirm that after Christ was born she was joined as one with her husband" (Heresies 56 [A.D. 428]).


Leporius



"We confess, therefore, that our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and in times most recent, made man of the Holy Spirit and the ever-virgin Mary" (Document of Amendment 3 [A.D. 426]).


Cyril of Alexandria



"[T]he Word himself, coming into the Blessed Virgin herself, assumed for himself his own temple from the substance of the Virgin and came forth from her a man in all that could be externally discerned, while interiorly he was true God. Therefore he kept his Mother a virgin even after her childbearing" (Against Those Who Do Not Wish to Confess That the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God 4 [A.D. 430]).


Pope Leo I



"His [Christ’s] origin is different, but his [human] nature is the same. Human usage and custom were lacking, but by divine power a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and Virgin she remained" (Sermons 22:2 [A.D. 450]).