Eclectic Anecdotes

Matthew 1:18-25 is cited by Protestants as the main proof that Mary was not perpetually a virgin:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and his name shall be called Emman′u-el”

(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

“Before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit,” is cited as evidence that they had sexual relations after the birth of Jesus. Jerome, responding to Helvidius who made all the claims which Protestants today make, wrote:

If I choose to say, “the apostle Paul before he went to Spain was put in fetters at Rome,” or (as I certainly might) “Helvidius, before he repented, was cut off by death,” must Paul on being released at once go to Spain, or must Helvidius repent after death, although the Scripture says “In sheol who shall give you thanks?” Must we not rather understand that the preposition before, although it frequently denotes order in time, yet sometimes refers only to order in thought? So that there is no necessity, if sufficient cause intervened to prevent it, for our thoughts to be realized.[1]

Further, he writes:

When, then, the Evangelist says before they came together, he indicates the time immediately preceding marriage, and shows that matters were so far advanced that she who had been betrothed was on the point of becoming a wife. As though he said, before they kissed and embraced, before the consummation of marriage, she was found to be with child. And she was found to be so by none other than Joseph, who watched the swelling womb of his betrothed with the anxious glances, and, at this time, almost the privilege, of a husband. Yet it does not follow, as the previous examples showed, that he had intercourse with Mary after her delivery, when his desires had been quenched by the fact that she had already conceived. And although we find it said to Joseph in a dream, “Fear not to take Mary your wife”; and again, “Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took unto him his wife,” no one ought to be disturbed by this, as though, inasmuch as she is called wife, she ceases to be betrothed, for we know it is usual in Scripture to give the title to those who are betrothed. The following evidence from Deuteronomy establishes the point. Deuteronomy 22:24-25 “If the man,” says the writer, “find the damsel that is betrothed in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her, he shall surely die, because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife.”

But “came together” does not always refer to a sexual act. As Dave Armstrong notes,

if we examine all the New Testament usages of this word, only one instance out of 32 is clearly sexual in meaning, in context (1 Corinthians 7:5). The thirty other instances besides Matthew 1:18 are clearly not sexual in nature (Mark 3:20; 6:33; 14:53; Luke 5:15; 23:55; John 11:33; 18:20; Acts 1:6, 21; 2:6; 5:16; 9:39; 10:23, 27, 45; 11:12; 15:38; 16:13; 19:32; 21:16, 22; 25:17; 28:17; 1 Corinthians 11:17, 18, 20, 33, 34; 14:23, 26).[2]

At another point Jerome says:

Surely we must either understand it thus, -that “before,” though it often implies something to follow, yet often is said of things that follow only in thought; and it is not necessary that the things so thought of should take place, for that something else has happened to prevent them from taking place. Therefore it by no means follows that they did come together afterwards; Scripture however shows not what did happen.[3]

And Theophylact of Ochrid said:

“Come together” here means “physical relations.” For she had conceived before there were any physical relations. Therefore the evangelist is amazed at the extraordinary event and cries out, “she was found.”[4]

The next section to address reads that Joseph “knew her not until she had borne a son.” Jerome rebuts Helvidius’ accusation that this implies consummation:

Paul the Apostle writing to the Corinthians says, “Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s, at his coming. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.” Granted that the passage relates to our Lord’s human nature, we do not deny that the words are spoken of Him who endured the cross and is commanded to sit afterwards on the right hand. What does he mean then by saying, “for he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet”? Is the Lord to reign only until His enemies begin to be under His feet, and once they are under His feet will He cease to reign? Of course His reign will then commence in its fullness when His enemies begin to be under His feet. David also in the fourth Song of Ascents speaks thus, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy upon us.” Will the prophet, then, look unto the Lord until he obtain mercy, and when mercy is obtained will he turn his eyes down to the ground? Although elsewhere he says, “My eyes fail for your salvation, and for the word of your righteousness.”[5]

As for the usage of the term “firstborn,” when Scripture says, “she gave birth to her first-born son,”[6]  Theophylact of Ochrid writes:

The evangelist does not call Him “her firstborn son” in the sense that she later gave birth to a second son, but simply that He was the first and only child that she bore. For Christ is both the “firstborn” by having been born first, and the “only begotten,” in that He had no brother. And here, too, he shows Joseph’s ready obedience to do everything that the angel had told him to do.[7]

Instead of firstborn being mentioned to imply that Mary had subsequent births, it is rather to emphasize the primacy of Christ. For the Lord says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”[8] None greater could come after Him, and with Mary, He was the first and the last. This is reinforced by Ezekiel:

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”[9]

Commenting on this, Augustine writes:

What means this closed gate in the House of the Lord, except that Mary is to be ever inviolate? What does it mean that ‘no man shall pass through it,’ save that Joseph shall not know her? And what is this—’The Lord alone enters in and goeth out by it’—except that the Holy Ghost shall impregnate her, and that the Lord of angels shall be born of her? And what means this—‘it shall be shut for evermore’—but that Mary is a virgin before His Birth, a virgin in His Birth, and a virgin after His Birth?[10]

Another objection against Mary’s perpetual virginity comes from the reference of Jesus having “brethren.” Hilary of Poitiers wrote:

If they [the brethren of the Lord] had been Mary’s sons and not those taken from Joseph’s former marriage, she would never have been given over in the moment of the passion [crucifixion] to the apostle John as his mother, the Lord saying to each, “Woman, behold your son,” and to John, “Behold your mother” [John 19:26–27), as he bequeathed filial love to a disciple as a consolation to the one desolate.[11]

Finally, it is clear from Scripture that Mary is the new ark of the covenant. John’s Revelation reads:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.[12]

Saint Quodvultdeus identifies the woman with Mary: “The Woman signifies Mary, who, being spotless, brought forth our spotless Head. Who herself also showed forth in herself a figure of holy Church, so that as she in bringing forth a Son remained a Virgin, so the Church also should during the whole time be bringing forth His members, and yet not lose her virgin state.”[13] The original ark contained the commandments, which were the Word of God inscribed in stone, while Mary’s body contained the physical Word of God. The first ark held manna, and Mary had the Bread of Life.[14]

The pain described in Revelation is not in relation to the birth of Christ, but the birth of His Church, which began when His side was pierced on the cross as His mother looked on in pain.[15] At the presentation of the temple, Simeon tells her, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”[16] The beginning of the Church is explained in the Catechism:

The Church is born primarily of Christ’s total self-giving for our salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. “The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus.” “For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the whole Church.’” As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam’s side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.[17]

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[1] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

[2] Armstrong, Dave. “The Catholic Mary”: Quite Contrary to the Bible? (p. 49). Kindle Edition.

[3] https://catenabible.com/mt/1/18.

[4] https://catenabible.com/mt/1/18.

[5] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

[6] Luke 2:7.

[7] https://catenabible.com/mt/1/25

[8] Revelation 22:13.

[9] Ezekiel 44:1-3.

[10] https://www.newadvent.org/summa/4028.htm.

[11] https://www.catholic.com/tract/mary-ever-virgin

[12] Revelation 11:19; 12:1-2. Chapters of the Bible were only added in the 12^th century, meaning the context of the beginning of chapter 12 is from the end of chapter 11. See https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/mary-the-ark-of-the-new-covenant.

[13] https://themarianblogger.wordpress.com/category/fathers-of-the-church/.

[14] https://www.motherofallpeoples.com/post/scott-hahn-mary-new-ark-of-the-eternal-covenant.

[15] John 19:25. https://catholicexchange.com/woman-clothed-sun.

[16] Luke 2:34-35.

[17] CCC 766.