Question:
How can Mary of Nazareth be called a perpetual virgin when the Bible
statement about the `brethren of the Lord' proves her to have had:
other children besides Jesus?
Reply:
This objection to Catholic belief has been refuted over and over.
We just give here a good summary of the subject by David Goldstein,
in his book: "What say you", Radio Replies Press, St. Paul, MN, 1945.
So your contention would be true if it were proper to use the term
brethren in the narrow sense in which you use it. But brethren in
the Bible has a very wide significance, which you ignore. For instance,
in Genesis 29:15, we read:
And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother; should
thou therefore serve me for nought?
According to
your limited use of the term, Jacob must have been a blood-brother
of Laban, when he was only a nephew. In Genesis 13:8, Abram said to
Lot, we are "brethren", when Lot was Abram's kinsman. In the Bible
we learn that tribesman were called brethren (lev. 21:16); as were
men belonging to the same nation (Ex. 2:11).
The word brethren
also has an extensive meaning in our own language and times. Friends
concluding a covenant; members of the same club or union; fellows
of the same God the Father, are called brethren. Preachers of the
word of God address their congregations as brethren, when none of
the listeners are blood relatives. Thus you see that the word "brethren"
has a wider significance than sons of the same mother.
The question
as to who are the "brethren" to whom you refer, is not absolutely
certain. The claim made that they were children of Joseph by an earlier
marriage has been dismissed as untenable. Being older than Jesus,
as they would have to be, our Lord could not be the "first-born",
heir to the throne of David, as He is listed in the genealogies, if
he had brothers through Joseph, according to Jewish Law. It is generally
believed that James (afterward Bishop of Jerusalem), Joseph, Simon
and Jude were cousins of Jesus. They are held to be sons of Mary,
the wife of Cleophas (also called Alepheus), who was the Blessed Virgin's
cousin. They could not be called cousins, for there is no such word
in the Hebrew or Aramaic language, hence the word cousin is not in
any part of the Old Testament.
The writers of
Holy writ were compelled to use the word Ah to describe kinsman,
which translated literally is brother. Calvin, the father of Protestant
"theology", in refuting Helvedius, who maintained that "brethren"
referred to uterine brothrers, said: "We have already stated that
according to the Hebrews all relatives are called brothers."
One thing is
certain, it would not have been within the province of Jesus on the
Cross to place His mother in the care of St. John if He had brothers
(St. John 19:26, 27). Again, Jesus, and He alone, is called in the
Bible "the son of Mary" (St. Mark, 6:3).
Weak, indeed,
is the arguement against the perpetual virginity of Mary when opponents
of Catholic belief, in order to sustain their contention, find it
necessary to hark back to a narrow interpretation of the word "brethren"
that has been refuted times without number ever since the Catholic
Church translated the Bible into Latin, fifteen centuries ago. St.
Jerome answered that false concept in the fourth century, in writing
on the Perpetual Virginity of Mary.
That question
is settled for Catholics, not merely by their study of the matter,
but by the infallible authority of the Church, expressed in its definition
of the Virgin Birth of Jesus, at the 5`°' General council of Constaninople
(553 A.D.), and the Lateran Council at Rome (640 A.D.).
