Posted on 07/22/2005 2:22:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Why should that cast doubt on the Virgin Birth? Protestants have long believed in the Virgin Birth, but believe Christ had brothers and sisters that were conceived by more conventional means after His birth. I think he meant it cast coubt on Mary's perpetual virginity.
For "coubt", substitute "doubt".
"fake ossuary that attempted to promote the idea that Jesus Christ had brothers casting doubt on the virgin birth of Christ."
Sounds like this crook was more interesting stealing money more than making a religious statement.
That said, presuming that James was the younger (half)brother, there would be no doubt "cast" on the issue of the virgin birth.
I think you are correct. Affects Roman Catholic interpretations but not Protestant.
Contemporary Protestants perhaps but not Calvin, Zwingli or Luther, et al. They all believed in and taught of the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
If memory serves, Jesus also had 2 younger sisters- Miriam and Martha- in addition to his younger brother James, who, as I recall was the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church in the years following the Crucifixion.
AFAIK, Roman Catholic interpretations have never insisted that Mary was perpetually virgin. Never the less, the other offspring of Mary would be half-siblings at best in the eyes of the Catholic church.
Incorrect as regards to Catholics. Catholics do not believe Mary remained a virgin all her life. Correct that Catholics, unlike Protestants, don't believe Jesus had younger siblings. The author of the article doesn't really understand Christian dogma, regardless of denomination.
Of course Jesus had (younger) brothers -- it's in the Gospels. This has nothing to do with the virgin birth. It only erodes the Catholic myth that Mary was too "holy" to have had normal sexual relations and other children after Jesus' birth.
I'm a Lutheran and we do not believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. I don't think Luther believed that either.
See 9 above.
"Why should that cast doubt on the Virgin Birth? Protestants have long believed in the Virgin Birth, but believe Christ had brothers and sisters that were conceived by more conventional means after His birth. I think he meant it cast coubt on Mary's perpetual virginity."
That was my understanding too.
This is far from an open and shut case. The declaration of the ossuary as a forgery was based more on conjecture than on hard facts. Read the background to this case in the back issues of the Biblical Archeological Review (http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.html). There is still a lot to be said about this case and the ossuary may still, in the end, prove to be authentic. There are already a number of very prominent scholars of antiquity who believe the ossuary is authentic.
So if Mary had sex with her husband, after the birth of Jesus, was that "unholy"?
It's in there.
That's because the editor of the Biblical Arch. Review is also complicit. He turns out to be a total huckster.
Incorrect. The belief in the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a tenet of Catholicism and was also shared by Calvin, Luther and Zwingli.
The belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary was not a perpetual virgin is a relatively novel one amongst protestants.
Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches hold the belief in the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother.
Luther wrote on the Virginity of Mary:
It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a virgin. ... Christ, we believe, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact. (Weimer's The Works of Luther, English translation by Pelikan, Concordia, St. Louis, v. 11, pp. 319-320; v. 6. p. 510.)
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