Mary's Perpetual Virginity

Many Protestants, including Rob at Elijah's Voice, have difficulty accepting the Catholic doctrine that Mary was remained a virgin for her entire life, even though she was married to Joseph. It does little good to point out that even the original Protestant reformers like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli accepted this teaching, but I mention it anyway, just in case. :-)

The issue is more than a Greek grammar controversy over the phrase heos hou - one must consider the entire scriptural context when considering Mary's Perpetual Virginity.

1) Before Mary was married to Joseph, she was "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Jews understand this term to be a euphemism for having marital relations, i.e., spreading a "wing" or "cloak" over a female (Ruth 3:9). Now if a woman has known contact with another man, she is no longer "fit" to have relations with even her husband for all time (Genesis 49:4, 2 Samuel 20:3). In the same way, Mary was forbidden from Joseph because she was actually already the spouse of the Holy Spirit. For more information on the Jewish marital Law (of which Mary and Joseph followed), click here .

2) It is often pointed out that Scripture mentions Jesus' "brethren". Even Rob admits that "brethren" (Greek = adelphos) does not always mean first-degree sibling. It can mean same nationality (Acts 3:17; Rom 9:3), any man, or neighbor (Mt 5:22; Lk 10:29), persons with like interests (Mt 5:47), distant descendants of the same parents (Acts 7:23,26; Heb 7:5), Persons united by a common calling (Rev 22:9), mankind in general (Mt 25:40; Heb 2:17), the disciples (Mt 28:10; Jn 20:17), all believers (Mt 23:8; Acts 1:15; Rom 1:13; 1 Thess 1:4; Rev 19:10). In other words, just because certain people are referred to as brethren of Jesus, this certainly does not automatically mean that they were His first-degree siblings.

3) Note that when 12 year old Jesus was found at the Temple, the context suggests that he was still the only child of Mary (Luke 2:41-51)

4) Similarly, in Mark 6:3, Jesus was referred to as THE son of Mary, not A son of Mary, indicating that he was an only child.

5) Mary's statement, "How can this be since I have no relations with a man?" (Luke 1:34), suggests that she already had taken a vow of celibacy. The way she asked the question proves that she knows how babies are made, so her question doesn't make sense unless she had already vowed to be a virgin even in marriage. Recall that Martin Luther agrees:

"Christ our Saviour was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb...This was without the cooperation of man, and she remained a virgin after that" (Luther's Works, vol 22, 23)

6)When He was dying on the cross, Jesus entrusted His mother to the apostle John ( John 19:26-27). If there had been any siblings, He would have entrusted his mother to his remaining family.

7) Then, (John 19:25) note that the mother of James and Joseph is not the same Mary, the mother of Jesus, but rather Mary the wife of Cleophas.

8) Consider the greeting by the angel Gabriel as "full of grace" (Luke 1:28) and the fact that the Greek term kecharitomene is a proper name that expresses a characteristic quality of Mary; in other words, she must have been in a state of sanctifying grace from the very beginning.

So, all of the surrounding context must be accounted for when considering the Greek word "until" (heos). The passage that Protestants have a problem with is Matthew 1:25, which reads, "He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus". First, an interesting question is this - why did Joseph abstain from intercourse at all? If he did not have intercourse during the time when he understood Mary to be miraculously carrying in her womb the holy Messiah, what makes you think he would have after the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Emmanuel was born? Regardless, Scripture proves over and over that "until" (heos) does not always mean a reversal, or change, of the situation after the preposition "until" is used; for example, consider Matthew 28:20:

"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age"

Does this mean that Jesus will no longer be with us at the "end of the age"? Of course not. Other examples are found in Genesis 8:7, 26:13, Numbers 20:17, Deuteronomy 2:15, 34:6, 2 Kings 6:25, 1 Chronicles 6:32, 2 Chronicles 21:15, 2 Chronicles 26:15, Judith 14:8, Judith 15:5, Tobit 2:4, Psalm 57:1, Psalm 72:7, Psalm 110:1, Psalm 123:2, Psalm 141:10, Psalm 142:7, Ecclesiastes 2:3, Song of Solomon 1:12, 2 Samuel 6:23, Isaiah 14:2, 33:23, Ezekiel 24:13, 1 Maccabees 5:54, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 14:22, Matthew 16:28, Matthew 18:34, Matthew 26:36, Matthew 28:20, John 4:49, Romans 8:22, 1 Corinthians 4:5, 1 Corinthians 15:25, Ephesians 4:13, 1 Timothy 4:13, 1 Timothy 6:14, 2 Peter 1:19, Revelation 2:25-26.

Rob correctly points out that the phrase in Matthew 1:25 is not just heos, but rather heos hou, thereby proving that Joseph DID have relations with Mary after Jesus' birth. Unfortunately for this position, there is scriptural evidence that heos hou doesn't always prove a reversal, or change, of the situation, either. Heos hou is merely the Koine Greek shorthand for the phrase heos hou chronou en hoi (translated "until the time when") and both phrases do not always mean a reversal of the condition being described in the main clause; for example:

"And when Paul appealed that he be held in custody for the Emperor's decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar" (Acts 25:21)

Does this mean that Paul was no longer in custody by the time he was sent to Caesar? No.

Consider Matthew 13:33, "the kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened" Does this mean that once the batch was leavened, the woman removed the yeast? Of course not. Rob mentions that the Greek Old Testament (known as the Septuagint) usage of heos hou has not been evaluated yet. The passages support the Catholic (and early Protestant) interpretation: Genesis 26:13, Deuteronomy 2:15, 2 Kings 6:25, 1 Chronicles 6:32, 2 Chronicles 21:15, 2 Chronicles 26:15, Judith 14:8, Judith 15:5, Tobit 2:4, Tobit 2:5, Psalm 57:1, Psalm 72:7, Psalm 123:2, Psalm 141:10, Psalm 142:7, Ecclesiastes 2:3, Song of Solomon 1:12, Isaiah 33:23, Ezekiel 24:13.