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Brothers of Jesus: Biblical Arguments for Mary’s Virginity
Seton Magazine ^ | Dave Armstrong

Posted on 05/31/2014 4:33:21 PM PDT by narses

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To: narses

Just so you know, extra-biblical writings do not supersede scripture.

Neither does tradition overrule scripture.

From the scripture you cannot infer the perpetual virginity of Mary.

In fact, her marriage to Joseph then would be just a sham.


121 posted on 05/31/2014 8:52:50 PM PDT by BereanBrain
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To: narses

I would respectfully disagree and that James does disprove the perpetual virgin idea, however this the issue of Mary’s virginity (which doesn’t make sense either as Joseph WAS her known husband, who in the world would go without sex in marriage?).

It is a side issue and not foundational to Christian belief if Mary was a virgin or not AFTER the birth of Christ, we know that she was before, as the conception of Christ was a miracle that only God could do, but once again Mary’s part in this is secondary, and she merely points to the Savior, Messiah, and OUR God!

-JS


122 posted on 05/31/2014 8:55:15 PM PDT by JSDude1
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To: JSDude1; BereanBrain; dcwusmc; Jed Eckert; Recovering Ex-hippie; KingOfVagabonds; Berlin_Freeper; ..

Wad Mary’s marriage a sham before Our Lord was born?


123 posted on 05/31/2014 8:56:53 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: narses

I think you’re replying to the wrong person, I never said her marriage was a sham. Secondarily, NO, it was not a sham, but it was in protection of her and her unborn child (Jesus)-if you’ll remember from the Gospels Joseph was even ready to divorce her over the issue until God intervened and told him to stay with her.

However after Jesus was born it is ridiculous to believe that Joseph wouldn’t want to have sex (and other Children) with his wife, wouldn’t you?


124 posted on 05/31/2014 8:59:45 PM PDT by JSDude1
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To: BeadCounter

Though “nothing in the perpetual virginity doctrine contradicts Scripture,” nothing in Scripture affirms it. Moreover, if “no Scripture can be produced that absolutely, undeniably, compellingly defeats the perpetual virginity of Mary,” then likewise no Scripture can be produced that absolutely, undeniably, compellingly affirms the perpetual virginity of Mary. Call it a draw and focus on the major doctrines of Christianity. Mary’s virginity is a sideshow that in no way affects our salvation.


125 posted on 05/31/2014 9:07:46 PM PDT by Hootowl
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To: JSDude1; dcwusmc; Jed Eckert; Recovering Ex-hippie; KingOfVagabonds; Berlin_Freeper; UnRuley1; ...

“However after Jesus was born it is ridiculous to believe that Joseph wouldn’t want to have sex (and other Children) with his wife,...”

Why? Most of Christendom throughout history has believed exactly that. Why should the very recent counter belief of a few heretical cults mean anything?

Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
{Luther’s Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) & Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that ‘brothers’ really mean ‘cousins’ here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ . . .
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:199 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her virginity . . .
When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom.

{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Editor Jaroslav Pelikan (Lutheran) adds:

Luther . . . does not even consider the possibility that Mary might have had other children than Jesus. This is consistent with his lifelong acceptance of the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary.
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.22:214-5}


126 posted on 05/31/2014 9:09:08 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: DungeonMaster

They are around 225-300 million Orthodox Christians from what I have seen. They all believe Mary was always a virgin. So yeah, many.

Freegards


127 posted on 05/31/2014 9:21:49 PM PDT by Ransomed
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To: narses

OMG!!!!!! and how many angels can dance on the head of a pin???


128 posted on 05/31/2014 9:28:19 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

“However after Jesus was born it is ridiculous to believe that Joseph wouldn’t want to have sex (and other Children) with his wife,...”

Why? Most of Christendom throughout history has believed exactly that. Why should the very recent counter belief of a few heretical cults mean anything?

Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
{Luther’s Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) & Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that ‘brothers’ really mean ‘cousins’ here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ . . .
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:199 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her virginity . . .
When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom.

{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Editor Jaroslav Pelikan (Lutheran) adds:

Luther . . . does not even consider the possibility that Mary might have had other children than Jesus. This is consistent with his lifelong acceptance of the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary.
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.22:214-5}


129 posted on 05/31/2014 9:28:59 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: DungeonMaster

Mother means the one who gave birth.

Mary is the mother of God Incarnate, the Word become flesh.

Why is this hard to say?

The Incarnation was not “normal.”


130 posted on 05/31/2014 9:49:04 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: DungeonMaster

I am of course assuming you are Christian, believing Christ is God.

If not, then we are hopelessly talking past each other.


131 posted on 05/31/2014 9:52:31 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: narses

like I said - and how many angels can dance on the head of a pin???


132 posted on 05/31/2014 10:19:24 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: Salvation

Two problems here. First of all, ‘separate’ is not what God intended for marriage. Secondly, why would they not have marital relations? Are you suggesting that there is something ‘unholy’ about married people having marital relations?


133 posted on 05/31/2014 10:40:07 PM PDT by Hoodat (Democrats - Opposing Equal Protection since 1828)
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To: narses

What does it matter, Mary is merely an arrow to Christ, He’s the one we’re to seek, not his mother (who was a Christian, but only a Christian).

-JS


134 posted on 05/31/2014 10:41:44 PM PDT by JSDude1
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To: JSDude1

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum,
et exsultávit spíritus meus
in Deo salvatóre meo,
quia respéxit humilitátem
ancíllæ suæ.

Ecce enim ex hoc beátam
me dicent omnes generatiónes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericórdia eius in progénies
et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fecit poténtiam in bráchio suo,
dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui;
depósuit poténtes de sede
et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis
et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum,
recordátus misericórdiæ,
sicut locútus est ad patres nostros,
Ábraham et sémini eius in sæcula.

Glória Patri et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculórum.

Amen.

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child . . . Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God . . . None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.

(Commentary on the Magnificat, 1521; in Luther’s Works, Pelikan et al, vol. 21, 326)


135 posted on 05/31/2014 10:45:46 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: JSDude1
What does it matter?

She's our Blessed Mother. Her "Yes" echoes throughout eternity. She has a unique role in salvation history. God ordained it that way. Love and honor your mother.

136 posted on 05/31/2014 10:46:18 PM PDT by JPX2011
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To: Hoodat

Martin Luther

Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb . . . This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.
{Luther’s Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) & Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
Christ . . . was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that ‘brothers’ really mean ‘cousins’ here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.
{Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) }
A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ . . .
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:199 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her virginity . . .
When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . . This babble . . . is without justification . . . he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom.

{Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) }
Editor Jaroslav Pelikan (Lutheran) adds:

Luther . . . does not even consider the possibility that Mary might have had other children than Jesus. This is consistent with his lifelong acceptance of the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary.
{Pelikan, ibid.,v.22:214-5}
John Calvin

Helvidius displayed excessive ignorance in concluding that Mary must have had many sons, because Christ’s ‘brothers’ are sometimes mentioned.
{Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, sec. 39 (Geneva, 1562), vol. 2 / From Calvin’s Commentaries, tr. William Pringle, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55}
[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called ‘first-born’; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107}
Under the word ‘brethren’ the Hebrews include all cousins and other relations, whatever may be the degree of affinity.
{Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, (7:3) }
Huldreich Zwingli

He turns, in September 1522, to a lyrical defense of the perpetual virginity of the mother of Christ . . . To deny that Mary remained ‘inviolata’ before, during and after the birth of her Son, was to doubt the omnipotence of God . . . and it was right and profitable to repeat the angelic greeting - not prayer - ‘Hail Mary’ . . . God esteemed Mary above all creatures, including the saints and angels - it was her purity, innocence and invincible faith that mankind must follow. Prayer, however, must be . . . to God alone . . .
‘Fidei expositio,’ the last pamphlet from his pen . . . There is a special insistence upon the perpetual virginity of Mary.

{G. R. Potter, Zwingli, London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976, pp.88-9,395 / The Perpetual Virginity of Mary . . ., Sep. 17, 1522}
Zwingli had printed in 1524 a sermon on ‘Mary, ever virgin, mother of God.’
{Thurian, ibid., p.76}
I have never thought, still less taught, or declared publicly, anything concerning the subject of the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of our salvation, which could be considered dishonourable, impious, unworthy or evil . . . I believe with all my heart according to the word of holy gospel that this pure virgin bore for us the Son of God and that she remained, in the birth and after it, a pure and unsullied virgin, for eternity.
{Thurian, ibid., p.76 / same sermon}
Heinrich Bullinger

Bullinger (d. 1575) . . . defends Mary’s perpetual virginity . . . and inveighs against the false Christians who defraud her of her rightful praise: ‘In Mary everything is extraordinary and all the more glorious as it has sprung from pure faith and burning love of God.’ She is ‘the most unique and the noblest member’ of the Christian community . . .
‘The Virgin Mary . . . completely sanctified by the grace and blood of her only Son and abundantly endowed by the gift of the Holy Spirit and preferred to all . . . now lives happily with Christ in heaven and is called and remains ever-Virgin and Mother of God.’

{In Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, combined ed. of vols. 1 & 2, London: Sheed & Ward, 1965, vol.2, pp.14-5}
John Wesley (Founder of Methodism)

I believe... he [Jesus Christ] was born of the blessed Virgin, who, as well after as she
brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.
{”Letter to a Roman Catholic,” quoted in A. C. Coulter, John Wesley, New York: Oxford University Press, 1964, 495}


137 posted on 05/31/2014 10:48:00 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: narses
What part of "I really don't care what Luther said" did you not get? As I said before, I will go by what the Bible actually says instead of going by what you wish it said. Everything you have said up until now has been wishful thinking. But it is not backed by scripture.

The bigger question here is this: Why is it so important for you that Mary died a virgin?

138 posted on 05/31/2014 11:01:04 PM PDT by Hoodat (Democrats - Opposing Equal Protection since 1828)
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To: Hoodat

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem;
Creatorem caeli et terrae.

Et in Jesum Christum,
Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum;
qui conceptus est
de Spiritu Sancto,
natus ex Maria virgine;
passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus;
descendit ad inferos;
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;
ascendit ad caelos;
sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis;
inde venturus est
iudicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum;
sanctam ecclesiam catholicam;
sanctorum communionem;
remissionem peccatorum;
carnis resurrectionem;
vitam aeternam. Amen.

In English:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and born of the Virgin Mary,
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
he will come again
to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen


139 posted on 05/31/2014 11:01:45 PM PDT by narses (Matthew 7:6. He appears to have made up his mind let him live with the consequences.)
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To: narses; JSDude1
Why? Most of Christendom throughout history has believed exactly that.

The reason most of Christendom throughout history believed that is because they were told that by a church that would not give them free access to the Bible. The fact that you would bring up such a weak example of non-rational persuasion shows that you are quite lacking in the evidence department. So far we have 'Luther said' and the bandwagon appeal.

140 posted on 05/31/2014 11:04:56 PM PDT by Hoodat (Democrats - Opposing Equal Protection since 1828)
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