“As Belteshazzar remarks, it is a neutral gender plural. It is not likely to refer to a house because St. John being a teenager was not likely to own one, let alone several. It is a reference to his surroundings as a whole.”
Don’t put either words or thoughts in my mouth, especially ill-considered, anachronistic ones such as this. What is it about “idiom” that you don’t understand? “ta idia” is an idiom in Greek. It’s only possible meaning here is the “digs” where John lived, possibly with his older brother, possibly still with his parents. All of which is uncertain, and therefore not to be taught as doctrine or even considered scriptural, and certainly not to be pressed into service as the “sedes doctrinae” for something you demand be believed by all of Christendom. You try so hard to read into the Holy Scriptures what you want to find that you do not seem to care how severely you have to bend and twist the text.
But remember this, the Holy Scriptures are just that, holy. They are the product and province of God alone not of man, and not to be tampered with like so much human foolishness. They are holy ground just like the area around the burning bush that Moses approached with fear and awe. To Rome they are its backyard garden plot to be tended or untended as it pleases, planted with whatever seed its deems to be in its best interests to plant, be it wheat or tare. So, go onto this ground with your sandals on if you insist, but know that it is at your peril! And don’t imply I undergird your venture. I don’t!
Care to substantiate that by showing us another usage like this?
the Holy Scriptures are just that, holy. They are the product and province of God alone not of man, and not to be tampered with
Tell that to your hero fraudster Luther.
That Mary did adopt the entire Church is clear from Acts 1:
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Jude the brother of James. 14 All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
The spiritual adoption of the Catohlic Church is explicit here:
the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ
Love and read the Holy Scripture and you will leave man-made shackles of Protestantism behind and meet Christ in the Catholic Church