I am not sure which passage you are referring to, but generally, yes, it is impossible to tell from any single passage on the New Testament is a direct brother or a cousin, or half-brother is spoken of. We've discussed it at great length by now.
Thanks, I hadn't thought of [Matthew 1:24-25]. Very decent of you to point out.
I treated this verse in a rather lengthy post to you: 2317. The point of it is, simply, that while some translations have "until" and others have "till", the original Greek does not speak at all to what happened after the Nativity.
Hey, so you did. You keep good notes. :) One question I don't think I was asking at the time is that if Mary had some sort of "quasi-marriage" to the Spirit, then why in the world would she have ever agreed to a traditional marriage to Joseph? Surely she had plenty of "brothers" to fill in the role of human father-figure to Jesus. If Mary agreed to be married with absolutely no intention of actually being a wife to Joseph, then how is she not guilty of fraud, a sin?