Mary is a Perpetual Virgin
Despite the Church’s teaching authority and all the evidence supporting Mary’s perpetual virginity, some recent Catholic catechesis has promoted the view that Mary and Joseph could have had children after Jesus was born. This assertion is not only imprudent or unlikely, but is heretical and patently false. Mary’s perpetual virginity is a dogma of the Catholic Faith, meaning it is infallible. This dogma states that Mary was a virgin before, during, and after Christ’s birth, and maintains her virginity in perpetuity (she is the “ever-virgin”). This dogma was defined at the Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D., making it the second longest held Marian dogma of the Church, after that of Mary’s Divine Motherhood. Essentially all Church Fathers attest to this fact.
Mary’s perpetual virginity is not just another happenstance attribute of hers. It is central to her identity. She is wholly and uniquely consecrated to God, appointed by God for an extra-special mission: to bear the Son of God in her womb, to raise Him, and to suffer and die spiritually with Him in a manner beyond anyone else’s, because of her extraordinary and unparalleled love. Her physical virginity is a sign of her spiritual total consecration to the Lord.
But then why all the confusion? Most of it results from the biblical passage referencing “brothers of the Lord” (Mk 6:3, 15:40). How, then, can Mary be a Perpetual Virgin? Well, these “brothers” are not blood brothers. They are other relatives. We know this for many reasons. Firstly, the Koine Greek (the language in which the New Testament was written) word for brothers is adelphos, but the word can also refer to a more distant relative or even a close friend/spiritual brother.
When Nazoreans reject Christ, they question Him, rhetorically asking if “his brothers [are] James and Joseph and Simon and Judas” (Mt 13:55). At the Crucifiction, we read that “Mary the mother of James and Joseph” was by the Cross (Mt 27:56). Whoever this Mary was, she was not the Blessed Virgin Mary, or else St. Matthew would have listed her as Christ’s mother. Additionally, when St. Paul goes up to see St. Peter, he also sees no other apostles except “James the Lord’s brother” (Gal 1:19). There were two apostles named James: one was the son of Alphaeus and the other the son of Zebedee, but neither the son of Joseph. We can prove via scripture, therefore, that James and Joseph are not blood brothers of Christ meaning that Christ’s accusers in Matthew 13 were probably not referring to Christ’s biological brothers when they grouped together James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.
Furthermore, St. Paul references Christ’s appearance “to more than five hundred brothers at once,” using adelphos to refer to these “brothers” (1 Cor 15:6). It seems quite unlikely that the Blessed Virgin had 500 biological children! There is much more evidence for Mary’s perpetual virginity, some of which we will touch on now.
In fact, this teaching has a clear basis in Scripture. St. Joseph, being an upright man who knew the law, would have known that he could never have sex with Mary. In the second book of Samuel, one of King David’s sons, Absalom, raises a coup against his father, vying for the throne of Israel. To insult and embarrass his father, he takes ten of David’s concubines (marriage laws were different in the Old Testament) and sleeps with them. After David defeats Absalom, he takes back these ten concubines and cares for them. However, he never had conjugal relations with them again, because they, in a sense, were no longer his. When St. Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, his first instinct was that she had been unfaithful. Otherwise, he would not have wanted to divorce her. However, when he realized that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that she had become pregnant, he “took [her] into his home” (Mt 1:24). However, he, being a “just man of the law,” would have known that he could never have conjugal relations with Mary, because she was not “his,” in a similar way to how the concubines were not David’s.
Mary is also the New Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant (in the Old Testament) contained the original tablet with the Ten Commandments that God inscribed on Mount Sinai, a piece of the manna that the Israelites ate during their forty years in the desert, and Aaron’s priestly staff, which sprouted buds as a sign that the tribe of Levi were to become priests (see Numbers 17). This ark was a most sacred thing for the Israelites, because God chose to work much through the ark. For example, when foreign enemies stole the ark from the Israelites, they soon perished and so returned the ark to the Israelites. No one, not even the ordinary Israelite could touch the ark, save holy priests.
Firstly, we can address Mary’s “arkship” from logic. As we discussed in the Eucharist section of this work, many things in the Old Testament are types or foreshadowing of things in the New testament. By calling Mary the New Ark of the Covenant, then, we are claiming that the Ark of the Covenant is a type of Mary. The original Ark contains three things, as we mentioned: the Ten Commandments, the manna, and Aaron’s priestly staff, and each can be ascribed to a particular office. For example, the Ten Commandments symbolize authority, such as that of a monarch governing his subjects, the manna foreshadows the Most Holy Eucharist, which it the greatest sacrifice that a priest (or anyone can make) and is only made by a priest, and Aaron’s staff symbolizes the prophetic office, for the Lord makes “Aaron…[Moses’] prophet” (Ex 7:1).
Jesus Christ is Priest, Prophet, and King, for He sacrifices Himself for the salvation of the world, He refers to Himself as a prophet and calls the world to repentance, and He is King because “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to” Him (Mt 28:18). If the Ark of the Covenant bears the three symbols of these three offices, the fact that Mary bears the fulfillment of these three offices suggests she is the fulfillment of/the New Ark of the Covenant.
We see biblical proof of this point. When King David led the Israelites along the road to……, some men had to carry the ark on wooden beams, so as not to touch it, for they were not worthy to do so, as the Lord had commanded. But Uzzah, one of the men charged with carrying the ark, decided to lay the ark down on oxen instead of carrying it because he did not want to do the work, thus explicitly disobeying the Lord. As the oxen moved, the Ark began to slip off, so Uzzah touched the ark to prop it back up on the ox, and immediately was “smote…because he put forth his hand to the ark” (2 Sam 6:7). David then trembled in awe of the Lord, saying: “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sam 6:9). When Mary visits Elizabeth after she is with the Christ Child in her womb, Elizabeth says to her: “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). (There are many more proofs, but we shall not detail them here, for sake of brevity.)
Because the Ark was so holy, no one could touch it. Therefore, it is likewise with Mary. Only God has dominion over her. She bears the fulfillment of the types contained in the Ark in her womb, but Christ incarnates into her womb via the Holy Spirit, not via ordinary means. As discussed earlier, St. Joseph, being an upright man of the law, would have known that he could never have conjugal relations with Mary, and would have acted accordingly. Mary, with her vast charity, would have not even been tempted to do so. Therefore, to assert that Mary had conjugal relations is to completely misunderstand the significance of Mary’s perpetual virginity. Her perpetual virginity is not a degeneration of the sexual act, but shows that she who has a special mission is consecrated in a special way to God.
Another objection raised is that Mary did not need to be married, yet she married St. Joseph, so how can we think the couple did not have conjugal relations? Why else would God have wanted St. Joseph to marry Mary. Well, we have already discussed that St. Joseph could by no means have relations with Mary and be faithful to God. So we know based on those facts alone that St. Joseph did not have relations with Mary. But Mary also needed physical protection and care. Israelite women would have had a tough go at getting a job and supporting themselves. There were not many (if any) working moms in ancient Israel. Moreover, after Mary has a child, people would wonder who the Father is, and would probably not believe Mary if she told them that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that she conceived. Thus, according to Mosaic Law, she would be stoned (see Jn 8:4-5).