Wait a minute. Now if the Early Christians believed something to be true, and they were living in those times or pretty close to it, one what basis do you argue that they were wrong? Scripture’s silent on this one way or the other.
1 Cor 9:5 "Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?"
I do not consider what the early Church christians to have the same authority as the Scripture. All of Scripture is "God-breathed"; the early Christians' pronouncements, though to be regarded, are not all "God-breathed".
In Matthew 1:24-25 (KJV), it is written: “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife (Mary): AND KNEW HER NOT TILL SHE HAD BROUGHT FORTH HER FIRSTBORN SON: AND HE CALLED HIS NAME JESUS.”
Implicit in that passage is that Joseph and Mary (a faithful and loving Jewish couple) did have intercourse but not until after baby Jesus was born. It doesn’t say “her ONLY son, but her FIRST born son.
Really, why this convoluted ignoring of the obvious? It’s for things like this that I could never be a Catholic — going beyond the scriptures into cultism.