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To: Mrs. Don-o

So, you’re saying that Mary took a vow pf perpetual virginity and yet still got married to Joseph with no intention of consumating the marriage?

That would be getting married under false pretenses.

It would be grounds for annullment in Catholicism.

Joseph clearly didn’t know that otherwise he would not have considered divorcing her.


188 posted on 06/27/2015 2:32:26 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom
Yes, as I understand it, it would have been grounds for annulment in Catholicism. Tis a puzzle. But these were exceptional circumstances. And we're not told a whole lot in the Gospels; more in what was passed down, initially orally, from Apostolic times.

Another FReeper Private-Messaged me and told me that the idea of Mary being perpetually consecrated to the Lord was actually not unknown in Israel. A faithful Jewish mother could vow that she would devote her child to the service of the Lord, as Samuel had been by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11). Mary would thus, by this pious custom, serve the Lord at the Temple, as women had for centuries (1 Sam. 2:22), and as Anna the prophetess did at the time of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:36–37). A life of continual, devoted service to the Lord at the Temple meant that Mary would not be able to live the ordinary life of a child-rearing mother. Rather, she would in effect be dedicated to perpetual virginity.

This belief is common to all the apostolic Churches east and west–---from Catholic to Orthodox to Copt to Chaldean to the Thomas Churches of India–-- and not just something peculiar to the “Roman Catholic Church”. That's how it qualifies as Sacred Tradition: it was accepted in all the Apostolic Churches as a part of their oral heritage later written down but originating with the Apostles and their first-generation successors who were the founders of these churches.

You don't support the other interpretation, do you? That God rejected the "You are Mine," "espoused in righteousness and faithfulness," "covenant" idea, and decided instead to base the Incarnation on making Mary a borrowed concubine and Joseph a cuckold?

189 posted on 06/27/2015 4:04:16 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance; give victory to the faithful over their adversary)
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