Most of our Protestant "brothers" and "sisters" are convinced that the Bible shows that Jesus had brothers and sisters. They say, "Yes, Mary was a virgin before and during Jesus' birth, but she did not remain one."

Protestants reference a number of Biblical passages to try and prove their point. Let's address several of them; including Mk 6:1-6 that says, "...is He (Jesus) not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?"

Notice that Mk 6:3 calls Jesus "THE" son of Mary, not "A" son of Mary. Other passages, Mt 27:56, Mk 15:40, and Jn 19:25, show James and Joses (Joseph) to be sons of another Mary, not sons of Jesus' mother. Most importantly, no where in Scripture is any male (other than Jesus) or female called the son or daughter of the Blessed Mother.

Neither Hebrew, the language that most OT Books were originally written in, nor Aramaic, the language spoken by Jews of Israel in Jesus' day, has a word for cousin, nephew, or other kinsmen. So in Hebrew and Aramaic a cousin would be called "brother" or "the son of my father's brother." The Book of Genesis offers us an example of this. We see in Gn 11:27 and 12:5 that Lot is the son of Abraham's brother, which makes Lot his nephew. Yet, in Gn 14:14, the typical or literal translation refers to Lot as Abraham's brother. (The King James translation does this.) The Jews called close relatives "brothers" without necessarily meaning "blood-brothers."

Lk 1:34 is a key verse in showing Mary's perpetual virginity, but it's a challenging one to follow. After the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she shall conceive a son, Mary says, "How can this be? I do not know man." At first glance, Mary's question appears to show that she doesn't know how men and women have babies. After further thought, we realize that Mary knew that a man and a woman join together to bring forth children. Her statement to Gabriel is a statement of her vow of permanent virginity. Since she was betrothed to Joseph, Gabriel's words to her, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son," would not have been a problem if she planned to have sexual relations with Joseph. She would have seen the angel's words as merely a forecast of Joseph and her having marital relations. The only explanation of her question to Gabriel is that she had taken a vow of permanent virginity. While this was unusual in the first century, it was not unheard of.

Protestants like to quote Mt 1:25: "He (Joseph) had no relations with her (Mary) until she bore a son." They say the "until" means that after Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph did have marital relations. Yet, in OT and NT times, it is not necessarily the case that after the "until" is reached something else occurs.

Saint Paul says in 1 Tim 4:13, "Until I come, attend to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, to teaching..." Is Timothy to believe that Paul will want him to stop reading, preaching, and teaching after he returns? I doubt it. Lets check out an OT passage: 2 Sam 6:23. It says, "And so Saul's daughter Michal was childless until the day of her death." I doubt that after she died she had children.

I'll close with two points. First, we can feel pretty confident in saying that when Jesus was 12, and Mary and Joseph found Him in the temple, they weren't dragging any other sons or daughters along with them. Second, we're familiar with Saint John's gospel passion story. It's the one where Jesus entrust His mother to His beloved disciple. If the four brothers mentioned in Mk 6:3 were Jesus' blood-brothers, would He be so presumptuous as to entrust their mother to Saint John? I doubt it.

The Catholic Church has taught for nearly 2000 years that Mary was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. He was her first-born and only child. Such early Protestant reformers as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli also believed in Mary's perpetual virginity---at least "until" their death.

For more insight read CCC paragraphs 496-507, 510. If you want more information about the topic, I recommend Karl Keating's book, "Catholicism and Fundamentalism: the Attack on 'Romanism' by 'Bible Christians'," pages 282-289. Also, review the following Bible passages: Lk 1:34; Lk 2:41-51; Mk 6:3; Mt 13:55-56; Mt 27:56; Jn 19:25; Jn 19:26; Jn 7:3-4; Mk 3:21; Mt 1:25; Mt 28:20; 1 Tim 4:13; 2 Sam 6:23; 1 Cor 15:25; Lk 1:80; Ex 13:2, Nb 3:12; Ex 34:20.