I do not want you to think I was attacking your post. I just gave my reference Bible’s notes on this, for everyone to consider. I apologize if you were offended.
smvoice
Dear smvoice, I am not offended at all. No need to apologize. It is just that this whole matter of Mary’s virginity and whether it was only up to the time of Jesus’ birth or continued also thereafter is very well plowed ground, more well plowed than most realize. The chief reformers looked at this very, very carefully, and decided that Rome was wrong to insist on dogmatic acceptance of Mary’s perpetual virginity precisely because it could not be proven from Scripture, and would if left unchallenged as dogma, elevate the opinions of the early church fathers to the level of Scripture, rather than leave them firmly under its authority. At the same time it was left as an adiaphoron as testimony to the more radical of the wannabe reformers that however plausible something seemed to be on the basis of our reasoning, still Scripture and Scripture alone was the final and all-determining authority. In other words, they were rejecting both the claimed authority of the Roman pope as well as the assumed authority of the wannabe pope that lives in the heart of every fallen child of Adam.
Clear enough?
Again, no apology necessary.