That is the standard Protestant position, but Catholics east and west, Orthodox, and many Protestants, (Anglicans., and Lutherans) beleive that the Theotokos remained a perpetual Virgin.
I didn’t take a position, I quoted Sacred Scripture.
From what i understand they were planning to be married but they were not yet. Mary was a perputaul vigin the so called brothers such as james were actually cousins of another mary the wife of cleophas. had a debate with some people who thought they were the blessed mothers chidlren and i said no becuase mary is and was always a virgin. besides tradition says mary was 14 when jesus was born saint joseph was 90 years old
The “until” part, by the way, is a colloquialism. Joseph and Mary never had conjugal relations, before or after Christ’s birth, according to Sacred Tradition, for Mary held her vow of perpetual virginity (that is why she asked the angel Gabriel how she could have a child while still under this vow, at the Annunciation, and while being betrothed to Joseph).
Espoused means both married, given in marriage or bethrothed to be married. I’d say they were married. In fact, only Joseph was required to register at the census; Mary did not need to be there as the male head of family could register for all of them. But she went with him so as not to give birth while he was away. That tells me they were married by then – afterall, from the annunciation to the birth they certainly had about 9 months to marry as Joseph was convinced to take her as his wife. I would see no reason to delay the marriage after that. It certainly would have placed Mary in a position, carrying the Messiah, yet still unmarried if they delayed. I would say that the angel coming to Joseph to convince him was a matter of necessity so that the marriage could go forward.
this scripture verse provides the answer
First off Mary and Joseph were not married when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. This is why the angel came to Joseph and said :
Mary and Joseph were betrothed. A traditional Jewish marriage, assuming it was understood in the same way as it was in the Second Temple Period, consists of two separate acts. The first is engagement, more serious and binding than the secular understanding, because the couple is in fact legally married, although they don’t have relations or live together until the second act. Therefore, Mary would be a virgin at the time of the Annunciation, and Joseph would need a divorce to call off the marriage.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_marriage)
Yes, but isn’t sex outside of marriage still adultery?
Oh, duh! I forgot there wasn’t actually any sex involved… but there must have been penetration of some kind, right? Or is there another way? Just trying to figure out how the sperm would have fertilized the egg without penetration?
No. There was no penetration. No sperm involved. The only human element was Mary. The rest was God.
No, sex outside of marriage is ‘fornication.’ There is a difference. But there was no sex, so the point is moot.
OK, I was reading Matthew 5:28 and it uses the word “adultery.” I didn’t realize that passage only applied to married men (it doesn’t state that explicitly).
If you ignore the culture, than you come up with this type of statement. It has already been well explained by Leegal and Bezant that they indeed were married. The scripture you quote shows that they were married.
They proved that they were married when Jesus was born, not that they were married at the annunciation.