Whether Christ's Mother Remained a Virgin After His Birth?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Mother did not remain a
virgin after His Birth. For it is written (Matt. 1:18): "Before
Joseph and Mary came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost." Now the Evangelist would not have said this--"before they
came together"--unless he were certain of their subsequent coming
together; for no one says of one who does not eventually dine "before
he dines" (cf. Jerome, Contra Helvid.). It seems, therefore, that the
Blessed Virgin subsequently had intercourse with Joseph; and
consequently that she did not remain a virgin after (Christ's) Birth.
Obj. 2: Further, in the same passage (Matt. 1:20) are related the
words of the angel to Joseph: "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife." But marriage is consummated by carnal intercourse. Therefore
it seems that this must have at some time taken place between Mary
and Joseph: and that, consequently she did not remain a virgin after
(Christ's) Birth.
Obj. 3: Further, again in the same passage a little further on (Matt.
1:24, 25) we read: "And" (Joseph) "took unto him his wife; and he
knew her not till she brought forth her first-born Son." Now this
conjunction "till" is wont to designate a fixed time, on the
completion of which that takes place which previously had not taken
place. And the verb "knew" refers here to knowledge by intercourse
(cf. Jerome, Contra Helvid.); just as (Gen. 4:1) it is said that
"Adam knew his wife." Therefore it seems that after (Christ's) Birth,
the Blessed Virgin was known by Joseph; and, consequently, that she
did not remain a virgin after the Birth (of Christ).
Obj. 4: Further, "first-born" can only be said of one who has
brothers afterwards: wherefore (Rom. 8:29): "Whom He foreknew, He
also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son;
that He might be the first-born among many brethren." But the
evangelist calls Christ the first-born by His Mother. Therefore she
had other children after Christ. And therefore it seems that Christ's
Mother did not remain a virgin after His Birth.
Obj. 5: Further, it is written (John 2:12): "After this He went down
to Capharnaum, He"--that is, Christ--"and His Mother and His
brethren." But brethren are those who are begotten of the same
parent. Therefore it seems that the Blessed Virgin had other sons
after Christ.
Obj. 6: Further, it is written (Matt. 27:55, 56): "There were
there"--that is, by the cross of Christ--"many women afar off, who
had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him; among whom was
Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the
mother of the sons of Zebedee." Now this Mary who is called "the
mother of James and Joseph" seems to have been also the Mother of
Christ; for it is written (John 19:25) that "there stood by the cross
of Jesus, Mary His Mother." Therefore it seems that Christ's Mother
did not remain a virgin after His Birth.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ezech. 44:2): "This gate shall be
shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it;
because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it." Expounding
these words, Augustine says in a sermon (De Annunt. Dom. iii): "What
means this closed gate in the House of the Lord, except that Mary is
to be ever inviolate? What does it mean that 'no man shall pass
through it,' save that Joseph shall not know her? And what is
this--'The Lord alone enters in and goeth out by it'--except that the
Holy Ghost shall impregnate her, and that the Lord of angels shall be
born of her? And what means this--'it shall be shut for
evermore'--but that Mary is a virgin before His Birth, a virgin in
His Birth, and a virgin after His Birth?"
_I answer that,_ Without any hesitation we must abhor the error of
Helvidius, who dared to assert that Christ's Mother, after His Birth,
was carnally known by Joseph, and bore other children. For, in the
first place, this is derogatory to Christ's perfection: for as He is
in His Godhead the Only-Begotten of the Father, being thus His Son in
every respect perfect, so it was becoming that He should be the
Only-begotten son of His Mother, as being her perfect offspring.
Secondly, this error is an insult to the Holy Ghost, whose "shrine"
was the virginal womb [*"Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti" (Office of B. M.
V., Ant. ad Benedictus, T. P.)], wherein He had formed the flesh of
Christ: wherefore it was unbecoming that it should be desecrated by
intercourse with man.
Thirdly, this is derogatory to the dignity and holiness of God's
Mother: for thus she would seem to be most ungrateful, were she not
content with such a Son; and were she, of her own accord, by carnal
intercourse to forfeit that virginity which had been miraculously
preserved in her.
Fourthly, it would be tantamount to an imputation of extreme
presumption in Joseph, to assume that he attempted to violate her
whom by the angel's revelation he knew to have conceived by the Holy
Ghost.
We must therefore simply assert that the Mother of God, as she was a
virgin in conceiving Him and a virgin in giving Him birth, did she
remain a virgin ever afterwards.
Reply Obj. 1: As Jerome says (Contra Helvid. i): "Although this
particle 'before' often indicates a subsequent event, yet we must
observe that it not infrequently points merely to some thing
previously in the mind: nor is there need that what was in the mind
take place eventually, since something may occur to prevent its
happening. Thus if a man say: 'Before I dined in the port, I set
sail,' we do not understand him to have dined in port after he set
sail: but that his mind was set on dining in port." In like manner
the evangelist says: "Before they came together" Mary "was found with
child, of the Holy Ghost," not that they came together afterwards:
but that, when it seemed that they would come together, this was
forestalled through her conceiving by the Holy Ghost, the result
being that afterwards they did not come together.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Nup. et Concup. i): "The Mother
of God is called (Joseph's) wife from the first promise of her
espousals, whom he had not known nor ever was to know by carnal
intercourse." For, as Ambrose says on Luke 1:27: "The fact of her
marriage is declared, not to insinuate the loss of virginity, but to
witness to the reality of the union."
Reply Obj. 3: Some have said that this is not to be understood of
carnal knowledge, but of acquaintance. Thus Chrysostom says [*Opus
Imperf. in Matth., Hom. 1: among the spurious works ascribed to
Chrysostom] that "Joseph did not know her, until she gave birth,
being unaware of her dignity: but after she had given birth, then did
he know her. Because by reason of her child she surpassed the whole
world in beauty and dignity: since she alone in the narrow abode of
her womb received Him Whom the world cannot contain."
Others again refer this to knowledge by sight. For as, while Moses
was speaking with God, his face was so bright "that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly behold it"; so Mary, while being
"overshadowed" by the brightness of the "power of the Most High,"
could not be gazed on by Joseph, until she gave birth. But afterwards
she is acknowledged by Joseph, by looking on her face, not by lustful
contact.
Jerome, however, grants that this is to be understood of knowledge by
intercourse; but he observes that "before" or "until" has a twofold
sense in Scripture. For sometimes it indicates a fixed time, as Gal.
3:19: The law "was set because of transgressions, until the seed
should come, to whom He made the promise." On the other hand, it
sometimes indicates an indefinite time, as in Ps. 122:2: "Our eyes
are unto the Lord our God, until He have mercy on us"; from which it
is not to be gathered that our eyes are turned from God as soon as
His mercy has been obtained. In this sense those things are indicated
"of which we might doubt if they had not been written down: while
others are left out to be supplied by our understanding. Thus the
evangelist says that the Mother of God was not known by her husband
until she gave birth, that we may be given to understand that still
less did he know her afterwards" (Adversus Helvid. v).
Reply Obj. 4: The Scriptures are wont to designate as the first-born,
not only a child who is followed by others, but also the one that is
born first. "Otherwise, if a child were not first-born unless
followed by others, the first-fruits would not be due as long as
there was no further produce" [*Jerome, Adversus Helvid. x]: which is
clearly false, since according to the law the first-fruits had to be
redeemed within a month (Num. 18:16).
Reply Obj. 5: Some, as Jerome says on Matt. 12:49, 50, "suppose that
the brethren of the Lord were Joseph's sons by another wife. But we
understand the brethren of the Lord to be not sons of Joseph, but
cousins of the Saviour, the sons of Mary, His Mother's sister." For
"Scripture speaks of brethren in four senses; namely, those who are
united by being of the same parents, of the same nation, of the same
family, by common affection." Wherefore the brethren of the Lord are
so called, not by birth, as being born of the same mother; but by
relationship, as being blood-relations of His. But Joseph, as Jerome
says (Contra Helvid. ix), is rather to be believed to have remained a
virgin, "since he is not said to have had another wife," and "a holy
man does not live otherwise than chastely."
Reply Obj. 6: Mary who is called "the mother of James and Joseph" is
not to be taken for the Mother of our Lord, who is not wont to be
named in the Gospels save under this designation of her dignity--"the
Mother of Jesus." This Mary is to be taken for the wife of Alphaeus,
whose son was James the less, known as the "brother of the Lord"
(Gal. 1:19).
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