The Hebrew language had no word for cousin - those related by blood around the same age were called "brothers."
If God, through the angel Gabriel, were to ask Mary to take on the task of being the Mother of God, surely He would have abided by and would have found a way to satisfy her wish to remain a virgin.
The NT is not written in Hebrew. There is no reason to think Christ was speaking in Hebrew - other than when He read from the Scroll in the Temple.
Greek does indeed have a word for "cousin," anepsios, which is used in Colossians 4:10 to describe the relationship between Barnabas and Mark. Paul, who wrote Colossians, and evidently knew the word for "cousin", did not apply it to James, the Lord's "brother", in Galatians 1:19. Matthew and Luke also wrote their gospels in Greek, and they certainly had a word for "cousin" at their disposal. They didn't use it because it was inaccurate: these were Jesus' real brothers."There is no need for all this wrangling to support an erroneous theological position concocted in the dark ages by dualistic philosophers that had taken control of the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible says what it means and means what it says: Jesus did indeed have brothers. His mother lost her virginity sometime after He was born. That's why the Bible very clearly states that Joseph “kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son...” (Matthew 1:25, NASB). That means Joseph didn't keep her a virgin forever, but until some time after she had given birth to Jesus. The fact that Mary indulged in sex with her husband after Jesus was born does not in any way diminish from who she was; but to claim that her having sex diminished her, as Roman Catholicism does, is an insult to Jesus' mother!"
http://www.compassdistributors.ca/topics/cousin.htm
"If God, through the angel Gabriel, were to ask Mary to take on the task of being the Mother of God, surely He would have abided by and would have found a way to satisfy her wish to remain a virgin."
This wish isn't recorded in the Bible. God didn't ask her to take on the task. He told her what would happen.
**Mother of God**
That phrase is not found in scripture.
**her wish to remain a virgin.**
Where in the Word is that request mentioned?
Why the great effort to refute that Jesus had half brothers and half sisters through Mary? The passage in Luke 8:3 makes no mention of the parents of the ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ of Jesus, that you folks say are cousins.
Mary was given a great honor in giving birth to the Christ-child, but she didn’t make more of God,
didn’t make the soul of the Son,
didn’t raise him from the dead,
didn’t change his body into a glorified body,
or cause him to ascend up to heaven bodily.
She didn’t make him both Lord and Christ either. God did that. (Acts 2:36)
She didn’t even have to do ANYTHING to make herself pregnant. God performed the miracle in her body. She simply accepted his decree with gladness and humility.
Believe whatever ‘traditions’ you want, but I prefer to stick with plain scriptural facts.