And yet, no mention of them ever, not even in the census where Joseph was required to go with his family for the head count.
Just because Scripture is silent on something, does not give anyone license to make stuff up and claim that it happened and is the truth.
All that stuff about Joseph and previous marriage and children by another wife is all conjecture trying to explain around the use of the term *brother* and *sister*.
All that nonsense about Mary's consecration at the Temple and vow of perpetual virginity at age THREE is garbage, from the fabricated *Protoevangelium*.
The lengths Catholics will go with their explanations and attempts and translating *It means cousins not brother* is ludicrous.
Scripture tells us Mary and Joseph came together and it gives the names of Jesus' brothers and mentions He had sisters. A plain reading of the text tells us that and it doesn't need to be *interpreted* unless someone doesn't like what it says and wants it to mean something it doesn't say.
If Mary took a vow of perpetual virginity, what was she doing engaged to be married?
If she was the spouse of God, what did she get engaged in the first place for?
The kind of marriage that y'all are claiming she and Joseph had is considered an invalid marriage for the whole rest of humanity, is grounds for an annulment so fast your head would spin, is unheard of and certainly not customary for the time, and yet the Church, which claims to be such champions for marriage, hold it up as some kind ideal and make SAINTS out of two people who you would be condemning otherwise.
The hypocrisy is staggering.
If Mary intended to never marry, I have NO DOUBT that there were other family with whom she could live who could support her instead of entering into a sham of a marriage and deceiving others into thinking was valid.
After all, Mary did have a cousin named Elizabeth, so we know she had other relatives. So that attempt to explain away the marriage crashes and burns, too.
With an attitude like THIS, it is apparent that YOU will never start YOUR own religion!!
What Rome is really saying, and acting out with a celibate priesthood, is that the marriage bed is somehow defiled by intimate relations by a husband and wife.
Which of course is unBiblical as well.
Genesis 11:
[27] And these are the generations of Thare: Thare begot Abram, Nachor, and Aran. And Aran begot Lot.
[14] Which when Abram had heard, to wit, that his brother Lot was taken,...
Brother does not always mean brother. Scripture tells us this.
Until does not always mean the condition stops afterwards. Scripture also tells us this.
We simply have different interpretations of whether or not Mary and Joseph had sex. I believe the bible supports my interpretation, you believe the bible supports yours.
I have cited several passages of scripture which can be interpreted to support this. From Mary’s reaction to being told she would conceive, which is totally incongruous from a person expecting to have normal marital relations soon, to the use of brother to mean other relatives, to until not meaning the previous condition stops.
Are you saying that I have no right to my own thoughtful, scripture-based interpretation? That I must accept yours? Who gives you authority over me?
I have at no time gone to a Protestant thread and attacked the beliefs stated there...I couldn’t care less what you believe, however, I will defend my own beliefs when they are challenged.
Remember it was not I who started this discussion. You came to an obviously Catholic-based thread, which was discussing Catholic beliefs, to dispute them. These threads are not trying to impose Catholic beliefs on anyone who chooses not to hold them, they simply explain why Catholics believe what they do for anyone who is interested. No one is forced to read them, no one is forced to accept what they contain. Why can you not just leave Catholics to believe what they believe?
Love,
O2