Did Jesus and his parents remain celibate till their whole lives.?

Answer 1

Who could possibly say.

Answer 2

Yes.

Jesus was not married and did not sin, so He was celibate.

Mary and Joseph, being first century JEWS (not modern Christians) would have understood Mary's womb to be the new Ark of the Covenant (where God's Spirit met His people), the Most Holy Place, and therefore would have voluntarily lived in celibacy until Joseph's death. Then Mary remained unmarried afterwards and celibate.

Commentators above have claimed that Mary and Joseph had children after Jesus was born. There is NO Scripture that states Mary had any baby other than Jesus. There is NO Scripture that states Mary and Joseph had sex (although other couples are recorded as having sex). The ages of the brothers of Jesus are not listed -- the were likely older than Jesus, as Joseph was an older man and could easily have been widowed as women often died in childbirth until, oh, 150 years ago or so. Also, when Joseph and Mary were searching for Jesus in Jerusalem when He was 12, there were NO younger brothers or sisters with them. That cannot be explained if Mary and Joseph were having sex.

Answer 3

The way you phrased this question is so apropos!

Anyway, the use of "until" isn't even necessary to discuss.

Of the four "brethren" who are named in the Gospels, consider, for the sake of argument, only James. Similar reasoning can be used for the other three. We know that James' mother was named Mary. Look at the descriptions of the women standing beneath the Cross:

"Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the MOTHER OF JAMES AND JOSEPH, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee" (Mt 27:56);

"Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the MOTHER OF JAMES THE LESS AND OF JOSEPH, and Salome" (Mk 15:40).

Then look at what John says:

"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's SISTER, MARY THE WIFE OF CLOPAS, and Mary Magdalene" (Jn 19:25 [whether there are actually 3 or 4 women distinguished here is a matter of debate]).

If we compare these parallel accounts of the scene of the Crucifixion, we see that the mother of James and Joseph must be the wife of Cleophas [Clopas in Greek]. So far so good.

An argument against this, though, is that James is elsewhere (Mt 10:3) described as the son of Alphaeus, which would mean this Mary, whoever she was, was the wife of both Cleophas and Alphaeus. One solution is that she was widowed once, then remarried. More probably Alphaeus and Cleophas (Clopas in Greek) are the SAME person, since the Aramaic name for Alphaeus could be rendered in Greek in different ways, either as Alphaeus or Clopas. Another possibility is that Alphaeus took a Greek name similar to his Jewish name, the way that Saul took the name Paul.

So it is probable, anyway, that James is the SON of this OTHER MARY and Cleophas. If the testimony of Hegesippus, a second-century historian, is believed, Cleophas was the BROTHER of Joseph, the foster father of Jesus. James would thus be Joseph's NEPHEW and a COUSIN of Jesus, who was Joseph's putative son.

This identification of the "brethren of the Lord" as Jesus' cousins is open to legitimate question -- they might even be relatives more distantly removed -- and our inability to know certainly their status says nothing about the main point, which is that the Bible demonstrates that they were not, anyway, the Virgin Mary's children.

Also:
In the story of his being found in the Temple, Jesus, at age twelve, is mentioned as evidently the only Son of Mary (Lk 2:41-51); there is no hint of other children in the family. The people of Nazareth, where he grew up, refer to him as "THE son of Mary" (Mk 6:3), not as "A son of Mary". The Greek expression implies he is her ONLY son. In fact, others in the Gospels are never referred to as Mary's SONS, not even when they are called Jesus' "brethren". If they were in fact her sons, this would be strange usage.

Answer 4

Jesus did advocate celibacy as being a gift and of course remained on the ideal that you were not to have sex until marriage. So ideally ye she remained a virgin. As far a sMary she was given to Joseph and he was entrusted with her perpetual virginity and any children he has other than Jesus were said to be before Mary.


read above...Catholic Crusader nails it on the head!

Answer 5

Jesus had, at least, four half-brothers and two half-sisters.


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?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this [man] all these things?

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 6

No, according to this book I read (which was fictional but supported by historical facts), Joseph and Mary went on to have like 7 kids together the "regular" way, and Joseph never truly believed Mary about the whole immaculate conception thing until he was on his deathbed- all those years he supposedly thought she may have had a fling with a Roman soldier. It's called The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg. Like I said, it is not intended to come across as a factual book, but it makes a lot of sense, and it's a good read.

Answer 7

Mark 3:20-22 He entered a house and once more such a crowd collected round them [Jesus and his disciples] that they had no chance to eat. When his family heard about it they set out to take charge of him. 'He is out of his mind,' they said.

Mark 3:31 "Then his mother and brothers arrived; they stayed outside and sent in a message asking him to come out to them."
Jesus goes on to say his real mother and brothers are those who obey good - sort of implying these definitely were his brothers and mother in the flesh.

They may have been brothers by a former marriage of Joseph of course, but here they are clearly brothers by family, I think.

She was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus.

Answer 8

Yes, Jesus did anyway. According to what we Christians believe. He was never married and was free from sin. But his parents Mary and Joseph had another child that was named James. Who of course was born after Jesus. He became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. But in reality I guess he would have been Jesus' half brother. Since he is God's son. Hoped to have helped. Good question.

Answer 9

Did Jesus and his parents remain celibate for their whole lives?

If they were his parents, they couldn't have been celibate.

Answer 10

Jesus did, but His parents didn't. The Bible says that Mary remained virgin TILL she bore Jesus.

Good Luck!!

Answer 11

Yes, although Joseph may have had children by a previous marriage.
But the Blessed Virgin, and Jesus, remained virgins.

EDIT : Jesus had NO siblings. Note that "brother" (Greek: adelphos) has a wide meaning in the Bible. Its not restricted to the literal meaning of a full/half-brother. Same goes for "sister" (adelphe). The Old Testament shows that "brother" had a wide semantic range of meaning and could refer to any male relative from whom you are not descended (male relatives from whom you are descended are known as "fathers") and who are not descended from you (your male descendants, regardless of the number of generations removed, are your "sons"). Lot, for example, is called Abraham’s "brother" (Gen. 14:14), even though, being the son of Haran, Abraham’s brother (Gen. 11:26–28), he was actually Abraham’s nephew, and Jacob is called the "brother" of his uncle Laban (Gen. 29:15).

Because neither Hebrew nor Aramaic (the language spoken by Christ and his disciples) had a special word meaning "cousin," speakers of those languages could use either the word for "brother" or a circumlocution, such as "the son of my uncle." But circumlocutions are clumsy, so the Jews often used "brother."

So, if it is established that the "brethren of the Lord" were not Jesus’ brothers or half-brothers through Mary, who were they? Today, the most commonly accepted view is that they were Jesus’ cousins. This identification of the "brethren of the Lord" as Jesus’ first cousins is open to legitimate question—they might even be relatives more distantly removed—but our inability to determine for certain their exact status strictly on the basis of the biblical evidence (or lack of it, in this case) says nothing at all about the main point, which is that the Bible demonstrates that they were not the Blessed Virgin Mary’s children.