[EternalVigilance]

The Gospel according to Matthew - Chapter 1

Verse 18

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Verses 24-25

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.

Define 'her firstborn Son' for me, please.

Someone else has already posted some of the later passages that make it clear that Jesus, according to the flesh, had an unknown number of half-brothers and half-sisters.

I don't know why so many feel compelled to hang on to some strange doctrine, easily disproven, that some ignoramus hatched up centuries ago. They gain nothing by it, and it proves nothing.

[ConservaChick]

Good Points ("firstborne son"). I would also add that if the hebrew word for "brother" can also mean "cousin" that dosen't explain away the fact that the Bible text says "sisters" also and If the ossuary box is the real thing, it also says James was "the son of Joseph".i doubt "son" also means "nephew".

THere is no reason that Joseph and Mary should not have had other children.Mary and JOseph were not divine.That was part of the point...that Gods son was born to humble people who were human like us.

[Conservative til I die]

I don't know why so many feel compelled to hang on to some strange doctrine, easily disproven, that some ignoramus hatched up centuries ago.

First, it wasn't hatched up centuries ago. This has been longstanding Christian doctrine, held by both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It goes back at least 1700 years in at least written form.

Second, I don't think these Churches would be that stupid to directly contradict Scriptures that allegedly say so clearly that Christ had brothers and that Mary had children other than Jesus. There's a reason that they do, and the reason is, that in ancient times, and in this region, "brothers" meant a lot more than just blood brothers. It could include cousins, kinsmen, and other relatives. This is the reason I talked about context and language in an earlier post. The Bible was not written in American English in 1998.