[kosta50]

I agree that this line of teaching would be entirely unprofitable. I hope it is not some kind of settled dogma of the church, or whatever they call it

First, the only dogma of the Orthodox Church regarding Mary is that she is the Theotokos (One who bore God), the Mother of God.

Second, the Church does teach, proclaim and affirm that the belief in her Ever-Virginity is an unbroken belief held by the Church since the beginning.

"The Eastern Church has witnessed to the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos steadfastly for two thousand years and shows no sign of tiring. In the West, the idea was largely undisputed until late in the Reformation" [Gr. Archdioc. of America]

The Church reminds us, further that "it was the practice for devout Jews in the ancient world to refrain from sexual activity following any great manifestation of the Holy Spirit." (Ibid)

Regarding St. Jospeh, GOARCH says

"Surely his wife’s miraculous conception and birthgiving (confirmed by the angel in dream-visions) and the sight of God incarnate in the face of the child Christ would have been enough to convince him that his marriage was set apart from the norm. Within Mary’s very body had dwelt the second Person of the Trinity. If touching the ark of the covenant had cost Uzzah his life, and if even the scrolls containing the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets were venerated, certainly Joseph, man of God that he was, would neither have dared nor desired to approach Mary, the chosen of Israel, the throne of God, to request his “conjugal rights”!

The Lenten Liturgies are full of that ever-held belief

"For just as the bush was aflame but did not bum, so as a virgin you gave birth and virgin you remained."

"Who would not call you blessed, most holy Virgin? Who would not praise the painless birthgiving? For He who shone forth from the Father as only-begotten Son, the same now came forth from you, taking flesh in a manner beyond describing. Though God by nature, for our sakes He became man by nature, yet not split into a duality of persons, but revealed without confusion in two natures."

"O novel wonder and befitting God! * for the Lord himself has manifestly traversed * the gate of the Virgin, which was shut. * Raw God in His entry, * in His emergence He appeared as One bearing flesh, * the gate remaining shut notwithstanding. * She is unutterably God's Mother, and her we magnify." [Sunday Orthoros, III Mode]

"Lord, even as You came out of the sepulcher, though it was sealed shut, likewise You entered where Your Disciples were, the doors being shut also." [Sunday Orthodox, Plagal Mode of the 1st]

[xzins]

My contention, kosta, is simply that these things cannot be affirmed in scripture. That's the point, and that is the only point.

They can be affirmed by scripture + something else.

I would argue that the perpetual virginity cannot then be 2000 years old. There were no church fathers writing approximately one decade after the birth of Christ. The only ones writing were those who recorded instances during Christ's ministry on earth, approx 3 decades later.

Since there is no clear presentation of any perpetual virginity in scripture, the best you can say is that the perpetual virginity was taught from about 18 or 19 hundred years ago.

[wmfights]

"Second, the Church does teach, proclaim and affirm that the belief in her Ever-Virginity is an unbroken belief held by the Church since the beginning."
________________________

Origen 182-251AD commenting about the dubious origin of the "Protoevangelium of James" also commented that that while the notion (perpetual virginity) might seem pious, it was not unlikely that the obvious interpretation of Scripture (that Mary bore children for Joseph) was true and acceptable.

Clearly the perpetual virginity of Mary was not an established fact in the early church.