How’s it goin’?
I agree - both sides WILL continue to believe what they believe.
The truth, though, is that the Catholic position is Scripturally stronger**.**
Many of these points have already been brought up but - if Mary indeed had children - I challenge** ANY**** Protestant to name them. You can’t because the Bible never tells us.**
I also challenge anybody to transliterate the Aramaic word, “Ach” into the Greek word, “Adelphos”. Jesus spoke Aramaic - not Greek, so did the Apostles.
First of all, Ach has an extremely loose meaning for:
Brother, cousin, kinsman, neighbor, countryman, etc.
Adelphos**, as has already been illustrated from the Septuagint, can also be used for brother, cousin, kinsman.**
Finally – the knockout punch:
The names used for Jesus’ “brothers”, James and Joses (Joseph) were sons of the ****OTHER Mary at the cross (John 19:25) who is said to be the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother.
The word used in Scripture for this woman is *“Adelphe”, the feminine of Adelphos. It is highly unlikely that Mary’s own sister was also named Mary. Using the Septuagint rule for the words, Adelphos, Adelphe and Adelphoi (plural), we can illustrate that this**“other Mary******” ***was either a cousin or kinswoman of Mary who was married to a man named Clopas.