But he had no union with her UNTIL she gave birth to a son." Sorry, but that puts paid to “perpetual virgin”.
“Michal the daughter of Saul had no children till the day of her death” (2 Sam. 6:23). Are we to assume she had children
after her death?
“no one knew the location of [Moses’] grave until this present day” (Deut. 34:6). But we know that no one has known since that day either.
Sorry, but nothing can be proved from the use of the word “until” in Matthew 1:25.
BTW, there’s also Matthew 13: 55/56: "they asked: isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
These are the only named “brothers” of Jesus in all of Scripture… and Scripture plainly shows that they are
not sons of Mary and Joseph.
There are two men named James among the disciples. One, of course, is the brother of John and the son of Zebedee. This cannot be him then. So, this is the other James, called in Scripture James the less:
Mark 15:40: “There were also women looking on afar off: among whom were Mary Magdalene, and ** Mary the mother of James the less, and of Joseph,** and Salome.”
So James is indeed the son of a woman named Mary. Not only that, but Joseph is his brother. That’s two of the four, right? Then, in Matthew, reciting the names of the twelve:
Matt 10:3: “…'
James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus.”
This too is talking of James the less, as the other James, son of Zebedee, is spoken of in the previous verse. It is NOT a trick or really that hard! * Alphaeus* is this James’ father, not Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of the Lord.
Now go to John also speaking of those witnessing the Crucifixion:
John 19:25: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother (
Mary) and His mothers sister, *** Mary the wife of Cleophas***, and * Mary Magdalene*.”
Look up John 19:25 at
blueletterbible.org/ and click the ‘C’ icon (for the Strong’s Concordance), then click the Strong’s number for the name Cleophas. It comes up “father of James the less, the husband of Mary the sister of the mother of Jesus.”
Did you get that? That Mary, who was the mother of James the less, and of Joseph, from Mark 15:40, is the wife of Cleophas, the father of James the less, and she is called the ‘sister’ of Our Lord’s mother - Mary!
So, two of the four ‘brothers’ have been identified as the children of parents other than Joseph and the Virgin Mary. Of the brothers named, that still leaves Jude and Simon. Next, Jude:
Acts 1:13 ** "…James, the son of Alphaeus , and Simon Zelo’tes, and ** Jude the brother of James…"
There goes Jude out of the mix! *** Matter of fact, Jude says the same in his own epistle: Jude 1:1 "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ *** and brother of James…"
Lastly, Simon. Simon, called the Zealot, is identified as coming from Cana, not Nazareth as were Joseph, Mary and the Christ! Luke 6:15 "and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and ** Simon who was called the Zealot,"
Mark 3:18 “Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and ** Simon the Cananaean**…”
Matt 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a
Nazarene.
Simon is a
Cananean, while Jesus is a
Nazarene!
We see that Simon the Zealot being from Cana, and a ‘brethren’ or ‘brother’ of the Christ. Let’s go to John’s Gospel, chapter 2. Mary and Our Lord are invited to a wedding there. So, close business associates, maybe, of Joseph from the carpentry trade, or more likely - family, or brethren, relatives, are having this wedding. Like, maybe the Holy Family had actual kinfolk in Cana, be they cousins, in-laws, nephews, aunts, uncles, all of which are routinely called ‘brethren’.
Remember what Mary said to the servants? She told them to ‘Do as He says.’
Think about that a second? What would give this humble woman from Nazareth any position to so speak to the servants of someone else in an entirely different town, at their wedding? The simplest and most easily understood answer would be – she is a family relation to those giving the wedding feast…
So Simon is from Cana, and a ‘brother’ of the Lord! He’s not a sibling though, but very likely related. And James, Joseph and Jude all have the same father and mother, and it is not Joseph and the Virgin Mary, but their mother is named Mary and called the sister of Jesus’ mother Mary. Even here ‘sister’ may not mean blood sibling, or we have two sisters with the same name in the same family.
All THESE large nuggets from the Gospel PROVE that Mary was a loving wife AND mother to a large brood. Good for you, Mother Mary.
The “large brood” you speak of must be the one in Acts 1:15 – “In those days Peter rising up in the midst of the brethren, said: (now the number of persons together was about
an hundred and twenty”
That’s a lot of brothers of Jesus!
According to
onechurch.org/Brothers_in_the_NT.htm the vast majority of the time that the Greek word “adelphos” and its feminine form “adelphe” appear in the New Testament – in the King James Version they are usually translated “brother”, “brethren”, “sister”, or “sisters” – it can not or almost certainly does **not **refer to a family sibling.
No, all these large nuggets from the Gospel actually prove the
opposite of what you think they prove.
