A Question on Mary's Virginity

[Silvereel]

In the Gospel of Mark we see it mentions Christ’s ‘brethren and sisters’. I understand that brethren is supposed to refer to cousins, but what about sisters? This seems more specific.
Also, we see later at the scene of the crucifixion Mary Magdalen and ‘Mary, mother of James’. Is this supposed to refer to yet another Mary, the mother of the apostle James? If so, why doesn’t Mark mention the Blessed Mother’s presence?

 

[RobbyS]

In the Gospel of Mark we see it mentions Christ’s ‘brethren and sisters’. I understand that brethren is supposed to refer to cousins, but what about sisters? This seems more specific.
Also, we see later at the scene of the crucifixion Mary Magdalen and ‘Mary, mother of James’. Is this supposed to refer to yet another Mary, the mother of the apostle James? If so, why doesn’t Mark mention the Blessed Mother’s presence?

Mark wrote for an audience who did not need a program to know who the players were. Whether brethren or sisters or what, that might be short hand for “family,” which is a semitic society might include all near relatives. It is commonly asserted that Mark was the first of the Gospels, but traditionally, Matthew was, and that Mark is a redaction of it, or alternatively that it was a transcription of Peter’s sermons. In the latter case, it was an occasional piece like one of Paul’s letters and therefore left much to be filled in by his auditors.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Silver,

The women mentioned by Mark were looking “from afar”, though Mary of Magdala, in John, is mentioned as standing by the cross. Mary, the Mother of Jesus “stood” by Him. Why only John mentions His Mother, is open to speculation.

As for the cousins thing, if we assume that brothers could mean male cousins then we have to accept that sisters could be female cousins.

Verbum

 

[scott1228]

One has to look at these and other biblical questions with an eye to the constant teaching of the Church. Mary has been called the “Virgin” Mary since the early days of the Church, and this question has always been answered in the affirmative by all Church documents. Therefore, when it comes to interpreting the scripture, it must be done in accordance with Church teaching. Based on the internal evidence of the Gospels alone, it wouldn’t convince a person either way. If we didn’t have the Church, we wouldn’t know this truth, and in a similiar vein, we would be confused about the whole deposit of faith and morality. There are many things that are not explicitly stated in the scriptures, though they are there implicitly, and they don’t need to be there. Christ guides us through the Pope and bishops, the successors to the Apostles.

Scott

 

[Mintaka]

Jesus’ female cousins show up in the Gospels. For example, Elizabeth, the other John’s mom, Salome, Mary Clopas…

If you want to read about the whole pack of Jesus’ cousins and his cousins’ descendants, read Eusebius’ church history. The part where the Romans start hunting down the members of the House of David is very cool.

 

[jpy15026]

** Mary Ever Virgin**
To strongly refute anyone who says the Blessed Mother had relations one has to use the writings of the Fathers of the Church some of whom were the disciples of the Apostles of Christ. If anyone knows about this it would be the ones that lived during (or soon after) the time that the Blessed Mother lived. They would be the ones that heard the truth from Mary, her relatives and friends and from the Apostles.
Up to the appearance of Martin Luther, the whole world believed that Mary was Ever Virgin. Is it logical that someone in the 16th century would know more than, and correct, the Fathers of the Church and all of Christendom, 16 centuries after it all happened?
Till the third or fourth century the Blessed Mother was called “Virgin Mary”. Anyone with any logic whatsoever would realize that if the Blessed Mother had children after Jesus she would not have been called “Virgin Mary” anymore but any other title like mother of Jesus. When a woman dies as a married woman they do not call her miss so and so, referring to her state before marriage, but they call her Mrs. so and so. When a person gets a PhD they do not say that person has a Bachelors degree anymore but they say they have a Doctorate degree. One gets the title of their state at the time of death and not at any arbitrary point in life.
So the Blessed Mother is called “Virgin Mary” because everyone understands by that title that she died a Virgin.
What caused the Church to add the title Ever (or Perpetual) is because a heretic named *Helvidius *suggested that the “brethren” were the children born of Mary and Joseph after Jesus was born. That is when St. Jerome and the councils stressed the perpetual virginity of Mary. Below you will find a link to the work of St. Jerome “THE PERPETUAL VIRGINITY OF BLESSED MARY, Against Helvidius.”
ewtn.com/library/PATRISTC/PII6-11.TXT
It should be recalled that no specific term exists in Hebrew and Aramaic to express the word “cousin”, and that the terms “brother” and “sister”, therefore had a far broader meaning which included several degrees of relationship. In fact, the phrase “brothers of Jesus” indicates “the children” of a Mary who was a disciple of Christ (cf. Mt 27:56) and who is significantly described as “the other Mary” (Mt 28:1). “They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 500).
ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2bvm31.htm

In rabbinic law a woman who has committed adultery is “defiled” and cannot remain the wife of her husband, but must be divorced Furthermore any intimate male contact by the wife with Jew or gentile, potent or impotent, natural or unnatural makes divorce compulsory .In Jewish Law a man betrothed to a woman was considered legally married to her. The word for betrothed in Hebrew is Kiddush, a word that is derived from the Hebrew word Kadash which means “holy” “consecrated,” “set apart.” Because by betrothal (as in Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27), or marriage, a woman became the peculiar property of her husband, forbidden to others.”
We know from the Gospel of Matthew 1:14 that Joseph the husband of Mary was a righteous man, a devout law-abiding Jew. Having noticed that Mary was pregnant and that he, her betrothed, had nothing to do with the pregnancy, Joseph had either to publicly condemn her and have her put to death for adultery (Dt 22:22-29) or put her away privately.
His decision was made when an angel appeared to him in a dream, saying: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as 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” (Mt. 1:20-21). The angel does not use the phrase for marital union: “go in unto” (as in Gn 30:3, 4, 16) or “come together” (Mt 1:18) but merely a word meaning leading her into the house as a wife (paralambano gunaika) but not cohabiting with her.
For when the angel revealed to him that Mary was truly the spouse of the Holy Spirit, Joseph could take Mary, his betrothed, into his house as a wife, but he could never have intercourse with her because according to the Law she was forbidden to him for all time.
cin.org/users/james/files/talmud.htm
From the above alone one can see that St. Joseph who is called a “just man” in the Bible would have not allowed any relations with Mary because it would have been against the Jewish Laws.

 

[thistle]

In the Gospel of Mark we see it mentions Christ’s ‘brethren and sisters’. I understand that brethren is supposed to refer to cousins, but what about sisters? This seems more specific.
Also, we see later at the scene of the crucifixion Mary Magdalen and ‘Mary, mother of James’. Is this supposed to refer to yet another Mary, the mother of the apostle James? If so, why doesn’t Mark mention the Blessed Mother’s presence?

Mary, the wife of Clopas, is the mother of James. James is the cousin of Jesus.

 

[Nita]

The women mentioned by Mark were looking “from afar”, though Mary of Magdala, in John, is mentioned as standing by the cross. Mary, the Mother of Jesus “stood” by Him. Why only John mentions His Mother, is open to speculation.

I was just thinking that maybe it has to do with the fact that John is the only gospel writer who was present at the foot of the cross and saw Mary there. He heard Our Lord’s words to himself and Mary (“Behold your son” and “Behold your mother”) and must have felt it was very important that those words, previously unrecorded, be included in a written gospel.