Brother Of Jesus II
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THE PERPETUAL VIRGINITY OF MARY
(Some information contained in this presentation and another on
“The Brothers of Jesus “ may be similar but I felt necessary to give a “background” for the teaching.)
Luke 2:1 - 14.7: "... and she gave birth to her firstborn son.":
In Mosaic Law the first male child in a family had certain rights and obligations. Luke was pointing out that Jesus had these rights and obligations! Not that Jesus was the first of a large family.!
Matthew 12:47."Someone told Him, 'Your Mother and your brother's are standing outside, asking to speak with you." "Some" believe that Jesus had siblings due to this statement. We know that even today when we translate from one language to another we sometimes lose the meaning in the translation! In the time of Jesus the Hebrew language had only one word for brothers or cousins, so the translation could have meant close or distant, relatives!6:3; "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses..." {THE SON} one son, the writer would have said, "one of the sons of Mary", not son!
In depth explanation [Matthew 13:55-56] "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his bretheren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us?"
In all the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death women were present.
Mary Magdalene's name is found in each account . And there is another Mary.[Mt. 27:55, 28:1]the mother of James and Joseph is mentioned. [Mk. 15:40, 16:1] Mark 15, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses and in Mark 16, Mary the mother of James [Lk. 24:10] the mother of James [Jn. 19:25] mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas. (SHE WOULD BE A RELATIVE OF JESUS] about this... "His mother's sister Mary"! "His mother's sister Mary"! That would mean according to Scripture that Mary's parents named two of their daughter's Mary! It is possible that Mary, the wife of Clopas: which is also Jesus' RELATIVE, is the same Mary found in all the Gospel accounts of Jesus' death! In all the Gospel accounts another Mary is mentioned, in every Gospel she is mentioned as the mother of James, except the Gospel of John! In John's account he uses the more familiar term of the sister of Mary, which he would know because we know from Scripture as well as oral tradition that Mary, the mother of Jesus; went to live with the Apostle John after the Crucifixion! We could also conclude that THIS Mary, is the mother of the so-called bretheren of Jesus, mentioned in Matthew 13:55. THAT WOULD MAKE JAMES AND JOSEPH THE COUSINS OF JESUS!
If Jesus had brothers, His statement to His Mother in the Gospel of John 19:26-27, "behold your son...Then He said to the disciple,"Behold your mother." This would have been a grave insult to His real brothers, that is, to give the care of their mother to a non-relative.
Catholics know that this was Jesus' way of giving His mother to the Church that he established.
By calling Mary "ever virgin", Tradition is saying that after conceiving Jesus in virginity Mary always remained a virgin, abstaining from all conjugal relations. This also implies that the birth of Jesus left intact the virginity of His Mother.