Why do Catholics believe that Mary was a Perpetual Virgin? (punishment, woman)
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The Gospel does not say that Mary's care was given to the Apostle John. Read your New Testament more closely. And to whose house did Mary go? Was it within one hour of Jerusalem as the bible says?
The Protoevangelium is just a story written very long after the death of James. It's fictional not historical.
Merry Christmas Antredd. I knew of course that you know that Joseph wasn't Jesus' birth father, but I just wanted to mention for the readers that Jesus' brothers were His half brothers though that still makes them real brothers. They were not his cousins as some people believe. I think the main purpose that Matthew had in presenting his gospel account was to show that Joseph could not have been Jesus' blood father because of the Coniah curse in which God said that Jeconiah would never have a son that would sit on the throne of David. That makes two reasons why the virgin birth was necessary. To be born free from sin, and to have the right to sit on David's throne.
RESPONSE:
Yet according to II Samual and II Chronicles, the messiah had to be the biological son of both David and Solomon. (...of the loins of, or of the seed of...).
And as a practical matter, if Jesus was the biological son of only Mary, he couldn't have possessed a Y chromosome ( since a woman doesn't have one to pass on) and would have had to have been a woman.
First, of all James had been dead for a very long time before the Proevangelium was written. Secondly, a birth doesn't occur which leaves the hymen intact, ie. bypasses the birth canal. And mountains don't open to swallow up John's mother and himself.
You have to learn the difference between history and historical fiction!
First, of all James had been dead for a very long time before the Proevangelium was written.
Secondly, a birth doesn't occur which leaves the hymen intact, ie. bypasses the birth canal. And mountains don't open to swallow up John's mother and himself.
You have to learn the difference between history and historical fiction!
My apologies...I didn't realize you were speaking about an extra-canonical document. I should have kept my nose out of it.
There is no sin involved, but from a theology point of view Virgin Mary needs to be special because she is the mother of God. There is more than just perpetual virginity. Do not forget:
The Immaculate Conception is a dogma of the Catholic Church maintaining that from the moment when she was conceived in the womb, the Blessed Virgin Mary was kept free of original sin, [1][2] so that she was from the start filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred in baptism. It is one of the four dogmas in Roman Catholic Mariology.[3]
WIKI
So you are saying that the original sin was having sex?
I thought it was eating that apple.
How exactly could she still be a virgin after having given birth?
That is physically impossible your know?
Unless of course this was not a physical birth.
So you are saying that the original sin was having sex?
I thought it was eating that apple.
How exactly could she still be a virgin after having given birth?
That is physically impossible your know?
Unless of course this was not a physical birth.
Are you trying to apply logic to theology? It does not work that way.
Within theology it is possible for the Virgin Mary to deliver Jesus and still have an intact hymen. Do not forget we are discussing religion here.
We also say the man lived until his death in 2013. So to say "until",can mean that. It doesn't have to mean Mary ever had relations with Joseph.
But put it together with the fact that Jesus' brothers are mentioned in several places and it sure sounds like she did what married women do with their husbands.
No. I am pointing out that virgin births were rather common among chroniclers of the age. What's more, you're really employing a circular argument here, basically saying that Mary is the mother of God, therefore she needs to have a virgin birth, because the mother of God needs to have a virgin birth, etc. etc. But really? Why is a virgin birth necessary in the first place? If we could somehow prove that Christ did not have a virgin birth, would that change your faith in Him at all? Would it really matter? I think that is really the central problem with the theology you're trying to defend, for it needs the encrustation of myth and signs to support the notion of Christ's divinity when His words and actions should be sufficient.
Meanwhile, the Gospel according to Matthew is rather clear on this. It simply states that Mary did not have sex with Joseph until after Jesus was born. When it comes to Christ's virgin birth, I suppose we could take that at face value despite the fact that virgin births were standard fare back then. But the assertion of Mary as perpetual virgin actually contradicts what is stated rather clearly in the scripture. I think, in that situation, you have an instance where the internal logic of dogma actually denies scripture rather than supporting it.
Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. A spirit not a human, it didn't take intercourse to do it, it took only the word of God and Jesus was in Mary's womb. Even Mary did not understand how it was to be accomplished, she asked how it was to be when she never "knew" a man.
We also have heard Jesus is our brother. We don't think Mary gave birth to us.
Like I said. This is just religion and religion does whatever it wants. And the Bible is also religion and it can be interpreted anyway we want.
The Immaculate Conception is way up there in terms of trying to tie all loose ends.
No, no, no, no, no. Religion does not do what it wants, if the supposition does not make sense with what the bible says it is not taught as the truth. These doctrines did not come out of thin air. Many church scholars studied them for years before declaring a doctrine.
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