Proof that Mary was forever a virgin?

Question

OK, in Luke 1, the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of God.

Now, if you were engaged, and an angel told you you were going to give birth, how would you react? Would you ask "How is that possible, since I have never had sex"? No, of course not, you would assume the child would be conceived through sex with your husband, after you get married. Most couples have children after marriage, so someone telling you so would not surprise you in the least.

However, what if you planned on never having sex with your spouse? THEN you would be surprised, because it is pretty hard to have a child if you do not plan on having sex.

So how does Mary react? Let's see:

31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
...
34Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

Why would she be surprised if she planned on having sex when she got married? That makes no sense. Do you agree?

And just to let you know, "spiritual marriages" WERE common in her day, so don't respond with "They were married, they had to have sex", because that was not necessarily true.

"shalt" means "shall", which means "will", which is future tense, not present tense.

It is so hard using logic when everyone else refuses to do so.

Answer 1

the idea that everyone must have sex is ridiculous and it has been put out there by the gay lobby who says that everyone must have sex so if you are not attracted to a female if your a male you must have sex with males and the other way around too. They also want the priesthood to marry and have sex because of course we humans can not rise above the animal nature and abstain---lol----the killer to me is that the Holy Spirit, according to these people, is a "she"---this is because the Virgin Mary has long been known as the spouse of the Holy Spirit and if they can call him a "she" then they are condoning homosexual relationships---too debauched for my taste.

Joseph knew exactly who he was supposed to watch over. An angel came to him in a dream and told him she was going to have a child by the most high God---He definitely would not be planning on hopping in the sack with her afterwords. He knew what happened to the people who even accidentally touched the Ark of the Covenant in Scriptures. He was also very aware of the Scripture about Queen Esther and so he knew that he was to be a Eunuch watching over the Queen.

Joseph and Mary did not have other children. Also for the guy who seems to think that Jesus could not be born without destroying Mary's hymen---he came through locked doors when the disciples were in the upper room didn't he? He is not subject to the laws of this world and everything is possible with God---his Kingdom is not of this world

Answer 2

If I may, let me use a little logic in return.

First, I did a little research. Spiritual marriages are named after the catholic teaching of an ever-virgin Mary. It was then adopted by the church, meaning to wed priests and nuns to the institution. The teaching was merely made up to support church dogma. It has no basis in scripture.

Now, let's start out with some common ground. Joseph DID marry Mary yes? Now picture yourself as a man in those days. In Joseph & Mary's time, children were everything. It wasn't for nuthin' that the scriptures call children "an inheritance". They were needed to work the fields and to care for the parents when they were old. OK, so you as a man in those days... would you marry a woman you would never sleep with and who would never bare you children?

Answer 3

I suppose it all depends on what the angel told her. If he told her "you will at some point in your life have a baby" then that probably wouldn't be a suprise. If he said "you're now pregnant and will give birth to a child in 9 months" then I think she had every right to be suprised if she'd never had sex with a man.

The bible doesn't say anything about jesus having half brothers and sisters, nor does it say anything about the conjugal habits of mary and joseph. I sincerely doubt whether jesus's parents' sex-life was interesting enough to his followers to merit inclusion in a book about their beliefs.

Answer 4

Maybe this will help. The verb translated here "I know" Is the Greek word ginosko. It parses out the following way V-PAI-1S. That is present, active, indicative, 1st person, singular.

Now what this means is just like it sounds I currently do not have intimate knowledge of a man.

In Greek we have other tenses that can be used for various things. For example if Mary meant "How can this be seeing I will never know a man" she could have used the verb in the perfect tense. This would be rock solid evidence for perpetual virginity. However, she only used present.

Greek is not as weak as English. We can know what they meant we simply have to dig a bit. So based on what the text actually states, your argument fails.

Answer 5

Untill 1854 Catholics could choose freely to believe or not to belive in the immaculate conception of Mary. Pius IX declared the dogma about the virginity. Yes the same pope who called the Jew of Rome dogs, had their rights restricted and kidnapped a little Jewish boy he held as a pet. Have a nice day

Answer 6

No, I think it is generally assumed that when Mary was told she was going to conceive in her womb and bring forth a son, the angel meant right that very minute. Which, if you were a virgin, would be pretty shocking.

If the angel had come to her on her wedding night and said, "And behold," etc., she probably would have gone, "Oh, okay."

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Answer 7

First, the term "mother of God" is not found in Scripture.

Second, it is not said she was "surprised", simply asked a logical question.

(1) "seeing I know not a man? "A husband", as the Arabic version renders it; not Joseph, nor any other man; for though she was espoused to Joseph, yet he had not taken her to wife; nor were they, as yet; come together; and before they did, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, (Mat_1:18) she was a pure virgin, untouched by man. The words are an "euphemism", or a modest way of expressing carnal copulation; (see Gen_4:1)."

Answer 8

That's an interesting bit of speculation but it is no proof. Maybe she didn't intend to have sex at that time, she would still be surprised. Or maybe so didn't know how babies are conceived and never thought that Roman soldier that raped her could have caused a pregnancy, thus she was surprised. There could be many reasons for her surprise. You have no proof here.

Answer 9

I should imagine that the way the angel told her made it clear he meant she'd conceive before she got married. It can't be that she never had sex, because she had other children. Why exactly would she plan never to have sex when married anyway? That's just silly.

Answer 10

They were ENGAGED at the time, not yet married.

She had never had sex by the time the angel was speaking to her. She knew any sign of pregnancy at that point in time would be viewed as a result of fornication.

After Jesus' birth, she did have relations with Joseph and had several children with him.