It's just that often queries about Jesus's family are loaded to discount the virgin birth by showing Jesus had brothers and sisters...
Quite. The argument is not definitive because the use of the terms is not definitive.
Added to this is the strong tradition that Joseph was an older man who had children by a previous marriage. Also, in the Gospel of John, when Jesus is on the cross He tells John to take care of His mother, this assumes there were no other family members to care for her.
Some Christian denominations insist Mary was eternally virgin, while others allow that Mary had children after Jesus. Islam believes the virgin birth of Jesus, but I'm not sure where Islam stands on the issue of Mary's eternal virginity.
This requires reference to begin, and theologies in its development. That Mary was a virgin prior to the conception is an open question, but no reason to dispute it. The problem for theology is that Scripture only affirms Mary's virginity prior to conception.
The Tradition of her perpetual virginity appears emerges in the Protoevangelium of James (James), in circulation about 150AD. The Gospel was considered dubious by the Fathers, but nevertheless Ephesus (431AD) affirmed the belief, and the Second Council of Constantinople (553) gave Mary the title "
Aeiparthenons", meaning Perpetual Virgin.
Some of the early reformers, including Martin Luther, accepted the belief at first, but later changed their opinions on the insistence of more stringent reformers.
Mary is referred to as a virgin by Matthew and Luke. The Protoevangelium says Mary was a physical virgin after the birth, and remained so thereafter. Women married around the age of 12-15. Men around the age of 30. Joseph was an older man who had children from a previous marriage, which would explain the brothers and sisters.
The Protoevangelium would appear to be the source for the Quran's account of Mary, the selection of an older widower for her husband, and some of the infancy stories of Jesus. Islam rejects the notion of 'perpetual virginity' as it casts the wives of the Prophet in a lesser light.
By the early 4th century celibacy was regarded as the ideal, establishing a hierarchy of virginity, then widowhood, then the married state. Because the Mother of God could not be placed in the third tier, she had necessarily to belong to the first.
The Reformation's recourse to
Sola Scriptura to undermine the place of Tradition in the church led to the belief in the virgin birth, but not perpetual virginity.
The leaders of the Reformation, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin found themselves obliged to defend the Holy Family and, for a while, the idea of perpetual virginity against more radical reformers who wanted to present Jesus as not divine, but merely an inspired prophet. Later Protestantism largely rejects the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Symbolically, the perpetual virginity of Mary signifies a new creation and a fresh start in salvation history, following the theology of Irenaeus (c130-202), one of the earliest Fathers and who laid the foundations of both salvation theology and the idea of the recapitulation of the world based on his exegesis of St Paul – Jesus the New Adam, Mary the New Eve.
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A 'rational' argument can, of course, dismiss the idea of the Incarnation, Virgin Birth and the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, but we are not dealing with 'rational' events, so the measure of human credulity is no real test of truth.
Beyond that, the Church can offer rational argument in support of the doctrine, alongside rational rejections of it.
The only lingering question, for me, is two-fold:
1: The truth of the matter is probably known only to Mary herself, and really, it's her business and no-one else's. I can accept that she was a virgin prior to conception. I can accept that the conception was a miraculous event. I can accept her continuing celibacy (and therefore virginity) after the event. The question of whether her hymen remained intact, as the Protoevangelium states, is immaterial to me, personally, I'm dubious, but I doubt the whole of Christianity stands or falls on that biological detail.
2: Does it – the perpetual virginity – really matter?
