Many marriages in those days were arranged when the participants were very young...would they necessarily be called off should one or the other wish to devote themselves to God? A single woman would have difficulty supporting herself, a older man would need a helpmate. Not every marriage in those days resulted in children for a variety of reasons. Not to mention the fact that men were allowed multiple wives.
Celibacy was also embraced by the Jews, either temporarily or permanently, as an adjunct to devotion to God. “And Moses came down from the mount to the people, and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments, [15] He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.”
Paul says: Now concerning the thing whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. [2] But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
Of course we don’t know the details of the marriage arranged between Mary and Joseph, except that they did abstain at least until after Jesus was born, but I do believe an agreed celibate marriage is a reasonable possibility.
Love,
O2
But this is extra-ordinary claim, requiring extra-ordinary proof. The text does not support this claim; in fact, the plain reading seems to present the opposite claim, and only by using the less frequently used meaning of “until” is this extra-ordinary claim even possible.
Also, how is her perpetual virginity relevant to a believer’s salvation?
Conjecture is not Scripture. It's only the same kind of reasonings that leave one spiritually afloat and lost without the compass that points truly to Jesus and security forever.
Don't waste your time on this kind of thing.
Mary did have more children, and at least some of them were influential in the days when the literature of the New Covenant was being written. The Book of James, her son, half-brother to Jesus, was one of the earliest letters sent to the churches, warning them of imposters.
The same kind of imposters are mightily active today, and need sharp, decisive reproof.