Luke 1 describes how Jesus’ human nature was conceived in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1 also describes the Holy Spirit as having conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. Thus, our Lord’s human nature has a human mother, but a Divine Father. In this role, Joseph was the human foster father of Jesus.
Now, this invariably leads to recent ssertions that Mary had “other children” when there is no record of uterine brothers or sisters of Christ. The Knox Translation of the bible clarifies the disputed Matthew 1:25 by reading as follows: “and he had not known her when she bore a son, her first-born, to whom he gave the name Jesus.” This was to certify that the conception and birth was miraculous, and not by purely human means - a fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.
Wen the scriptures were written, there was no such belief in “other children”, as the oral tradition records none of this, and Mary vowed to the Archangel Gabriel to be the “handmaid” or even the “bond slave” of the Lord - her own Son!
As well, the prophecy of Zechariah (12:10) as to our Lord is as follows: “On David’s clan, on all the citizens of Jerusalem, I will pour out a gracious spirit of prayer; towards me they shall look, me whom they have pierced through. Lament for him they must, and grieve bitterly; never was such lament for an only son, grief so bitter over first-born dead.”
To fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah, Jesus had to be an only son as well as a firstborn.
This does not mention daughters, but the “brothers and sisters of the Lord” are explained by the other scriptures as cousins or perhaps half-brothers and sisters. Not even the reformers doubted Mary’s perpetual virginity. That assertion has developed in recent centuries, with no historical foundation.
The Book of Tobit clearly details that members of one’s own tribe were brothers and sisters. In that book, Tobit takes a “sister” as bride, but she is clearly a distant relative at most.
