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".
Mark 6:3 - Jesus was always referred to as “the” son of Mary, not “a” son of Mary.
Luke 2:41-51 - in searching for Jesus and finding Him in the temple, there is never any mention of other siblings.
John 7:3-4; Mark 3:21 - we see that younger “brothers” were advising Jesus. But this would have been extremely disrespectful for devout Jews if these were Jesus’ biological brothers.
Again, John 19:26-27 - it would have been unthinkable for Jesus to commit the care of his mother to a friend if he had brothers.
John 19:25 - 25Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. this proves that James and Joseph are Jesus’ cousins and not his brothers: Mary the wife of Clopas is the sister of the Virgin Mary.
Matt. 27:61, 28:1 - Matthew even refers to Mary the wife of Clopas as “the other Mary.”
Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:47 - Mary the wife of Clopas is the mother of James and Joseph.
Mark 6:3 - James and Joseph are called the “brothers” of Jesus. So James and Joseph are Jesus’ cousins yet referred to as "brothers"
For example
The NT was written in Greek, ok -- not all, but let's take your argument for the sake of argument. Remember also that the words of Jesus were mostly Aramaic or Hebrew or maybe even GReek -- we've already shown that in SEmitic languages like Aramaic/hebrew there is no differntiating term between a blood brother and a cousin, let's examine the GReek ouch outos estin o tekton o uios Marias adelphos de Iakobou Iose kai Iouda kai Simonos
If the term is that the adelphoi have the same mother then it would be ho adelphos But that is not used. Without the article adelphos is non-specific and non-exclusive and can mean kinsmen, relatives
Furthermore, I give you two examples of why He didn't have blood brothers of the same mother
He also had brothers, half brothers.
perhaps brothers from his father's earlier wife maybe, or more plausibly cousins.
Have you been to the Middle-East lately? A guy will call his cousin his brother. This is true of this clan society just as it was in the time of Christ.
More importantly, you have no proof that they were the children of Mary -- if they were, then why did Jesus tell John to take care of His mother? that's a classic affront if he had any brothers through Mary
” I do not consider what the early Church christians to have the same authority as the Scripture. “
/// even if the Scripture was 200 years later? a Bible that was selected by one man choosing which scriptures to include? and the Bible itself refers to important scripture, that is not in the Bible?
and some words in the Bible DO translate differently, in different languages?
(Like the famous painting of Moses with “horns”..)
...and, it’s impossible that Joseph had children from a previous wife?
certainly i revere the collection of scripture we call the Bible. but the early Christians, were closer to Jesus and the Apostles, and if the Bible was so essential for guidance, why did God wait so long to provide it to us?
...were those original Christians, who endured great persecution, less worthy of listening to than ministers today?
finally, if it is so very easy to admit Luther and Calvin are wrong about something they wrote so emphatically
(as per #21),
then why do you refuse to consider they may have been wrong about sola scriptura, etc. ?
especially when he wrote things like his OWN words here:
http://articles.exchristian.net/2002/04/martin-luther-quotes.php
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/luther.htm
WHO, precisely, decides which words of Luther are correct, and are not?
it makes it easy, if you get to select what you wish, to use either way to support your arguments.
(especially when the Bible itself refutes sola scriptura, a Bible that again, didn’t exist for over 200 years after Jesus? ...and 1400 years before Luther was sent to interpret it correctly for us?)
You hit the nail on the head here. The belief that Mary had no other children is foundational to RCC theology, if it is false their theology crumbles to dust ... ours could care less.