[af_vet_1981]

Same arguments used by Catholics for almost twenty centuries and still standing despite what you’re doing tonight.

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; even Luther and Calvin accepted the tradition.

The Eastern Church, that actually lived in Greek, in concert with the Western Church, which also knew Greek, uphold this. It is only modern religious movements that imagine they refute it.

[ealgeone]

Neither you nor Mrs D have answered by original question.

In reading about the history of this issue, you know as well as I, that it is not a settled issue...nor was it settled back in the day.

To allow the Catholic their position tortures the language and disrupts any semantic logic in reading these passages.

As I've said before...if the RCC believed the other writings that contain stories of Joseph having other children, Mary making vows of perpetual virginity, etc....all they had to do was make them part of the canon at Trent.

That they didn't is very telling.

Perhaps you can enlighten us as to why the RCC didn't. No one else seems to be able to.

[Elsie]

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; even Luther and Calvin accepted the tradition.

Well; the angel talked to John again and had him write to 7 more catholic churches in ASIA that were teaching Mary's perpetual virginity and John wrote II Revelation; telling them to QUIT!.

But; for some unknown reason; Rome failed to include THAT book when it assembled the rest of the bible..