The perpetual virginity of Mary is a Christian doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin "before, during and after" the birth of Christ. In Western Christianity, the Catholic Church adheres to the doctrine, as do many Anglicans, some Lutherans, Reformed, and other Protestants. In Eastern Christianity, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East both adhere to this doctrine as part of their ongoing tradition, and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize Mary as Aeiparthenos, meaning "ever-virgin". It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Most modern nonconformist Protestants, together with many nondenominational Christians, reject the doctrine.
The extant written tradition of the perpetual virginity of Mary first appears in a late 2nd-century text called the Protoevangelium of James. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 gave her the title "Aeiparthenos", meaning Perpetual Virgin, and at the Lateran Synod of 649 Pope Martin I emphasized the threefold character of the perpetual virginity, before, during, and after the birth of Christ. The Lutheran Smalcald Articles (1537) and the Reformed Second Helvetic Confession (1562) codified the doctrine of perpetual virginity of Mary as well.
The doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity has been challenged on the basis that the New Testament stipulates that Joseph did not have sexual intercourse with Mary until after the birth of Jesus,"He had no relations with her until she bore a son" — "And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS." — and mentions the brothers (adelphoi) of Jesus, who may have been: sons of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph; sons of Joseph by a former marriage; or sons of the Mary named in Mark 15:40 as "mother of James and Joses", who has been identified as either the wife of Clopas and sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a sister-in-law to Joseph.
Origin and history
1st century Early Christian writings from the late first and early second centuries offer only sparse and sometimes unclear hints about virginity and celibacy, and in the Gospels Mary’s virginity is mentioned only briefly, in a way that keeps the focus on the virginal conception rather than on any later state of her life.The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality. (2019). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 557. "In first- and early second-century Christian writings, textual traces and tendencies that advance virginity or celibacy may seem slight and sometimes ambiguous, yet they proved and still prove compelling. According to the Gospels, as best we can tell, Jesus appears to be unmarried, as does John the Baptist, and Mary's virginity draws spare but resonant narrative attention."
The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke present Mary as a virgin at the time she conceives Jesus, a conception that does not involve sexual relations with a man, but this fact by itself does not require the further claim that she remained a virgin in childbirth or afterward.Brown, R. E., Donfried, K. P., Fitzmyer, J. A., & Reumann, J. (1978). Mary in the New Testament. Paulist Press. p. 271. "The most common emphasis in the references to Mary as "virgin" was her virginity before giving birth, i.e., she conceived Jesus without involvement of a male.This is what the birth narratives in Matthew's and Luke's Gospel imply. However, such a conception need not imply Mary's virginity in giving birth or her perpetual virginity after Jesus' birth."
Only in later doctrinal reflection do Christians explicitly describe Mary as virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ, with the second-century Protevangelium of James providing the earliest surviving text that clearly supports this view.Espín, O. O., & Nickoloff, J. B. (Eds.). (2007). An introductory dictionary of theology and religious studies. Liturgical Press. p. 1465. "Church formulations claim that the Mary was a virgin "before"(virginal conception), "during" (miraculous delivery), and "after" she gave birtht o Jesus (perpetual virginity) ....There is no biblical basis for the idea of Mary's perpetual virginity. "The Protevangelium of James," a noncanonical"gospel" from the mid-second to early third centuries, is the earliest extant evidence for the tradition of Mary's perpetual virginity." The increasing acceptance of Mary’s perpetual virginity, together with theological formulations shaped by the text, came to serve as a marker of emerging ascetic tendencies in later centuries.Ferguson, E. (Ed.). (1999). Encyclopedia of early Christianity (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 844. "Two gauges of the antisexual tendency of early Christian theology are the campaign against second marriage and the growing acceptance of belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary. Second marriage is treated largely as a matter of moral weakness, appropriate only for those lacking sexual self-control...The theory of Mary's perpetual virginity, stimulated by the second-century Protevangelium of James, served to bolster the ascetic movement of the fourth century."
The Odes of Solomon have been interpreted as implying that Mary was a virgin even during childbirth as well as stating that Mary did not have pain during childbirth. Similar statements exist in the Ascension of Isaiah; for example, the passage "And after her astonishment had worn off her womb was found as (it was) at first, before she had conceived" is described by scholars as an "extraordinary process".
2nd century
The virgin birth of Jesus is found in the Gospel of Matthew and possibly in Luke, but it seems to have little theological importance before the middle of the 2nd century.
Church fathers Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, though mentioning the virgin birth, nowhere affirmed explicitly the view that Mary was a perpetual virgin. This idea, however, appears in at least three works: the Gospel of James, the Gospel of Peter and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. All of these early sources independently assert that the so-called "brothers of the Lord" were children of Joseph's first marriage.
According to Anglican scholar Richard Bauckham, these works "show no signs of literary relationship" and probably "evidence of a well-established tradition in (probably early) second-century Syrian Christianity that Jesus' brothers and sisters were children of Joseph by a previous marriage". According to Bauckham, Ignatius of Antioch also believed in the doctrine of Mary's virginity during birth.
The Gospel of James states that Mary remained a life-long virgin, because Joseph was an old man who married her without physical desire, and the brothers of Jesus mentioned in the canonical gospels are explained as Joseph's sons by an earlier marriage.
The Gospel of James seems to have been used to create the stories of Mary which are found in the Quran, but while Muslims agree with Christians that Mary was a virgin at the moment of the conception of Jesus, the idea of her perpetual virginity thereafter is contrary to the Islamic ideal of women as wives and mothers.
The Second Apocalypse of James portrays James, not as a child of Joseph but of a certain "Theudas", a relative of Jesus.
The 8th book of the Christian Sibylline Oracles, which may have been composed in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, describe Mary as "always virgin" (αἰεὶ κούρῃ) and that she received God in her "intact bosom" (ἀχράντοισι ... κόλποις).
Hegesippus's writings are not clear on this subject, with some authors arguing that he defended the doctrine, while others arguing that he disputed the perpetual virginity of Mary.
The Ebionites denied the virgin birth and Mary's perpetual virginity.
3rd century Clement of Alexandria is counted among the early Greek Fathers who held that Jesus' brothers were the children of Joseph by a previous marriage, a view Schaff describes as "the general opinion of the early Greek Fathers" and "best attested by ecclesiastical tradition". Luigi Gambero presents Clement as explicitly witnessing to the Church’s faith in Mary’s perpetual virginity, including the report that Mary was examined by a midwife after the birth and found to be a virgin, and he cites Clement’s claim that "These things are attested to by the Scriptures of the Lord."Gambero, L. (1999). Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in patristic thought (T. Buffer, Trans.). Ignatius Press. p. 70–71. Hunter adds that, although the Protevangelium of James is first mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, Clement "does not pursue any of its themes".Hunter, D. G. (1993). Helvidius, Jovinian, and the virginity of Mary in late fourth-century Rome. Journal of Early Christian Studies, 1(1), 47–71. p. 65
Origen used the Protoevangelium's explanation of the brothers to uphold the perpetual virginity of Mary ("There is no child of Mary except Jesus, according to those who think correctly about her"). Origen also mentioned that the Gospel of Peter affirmed the perpetual virginity of Mary, saying that the "brothers" of Jesus were from a previous marriage of Joseph.
Tertullian, who came between Clement and Origen, denied Mary's virginity during birth to refute the docetist idea that the Son of God could not have assumed a human body, stating: "although she was a virgin when she conceived, she was a wife when she brought forth her son". However, is not entirely clear on the issue of Mary's virginity after childbirth, with some scholars denying his traditional association with Helvidius's position.
Helvidius argued that Victorinus believed that Mary had other children. According to Jerome Helvidius was misinterpreting Victorinus. Epiphanius invented a name "Antidicomarians" for a group of people who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, which Epiphanius attacked.Stephen J. Shoemaker, "Epiphanius of Salamis, the Kollyridians, and the Early Dormition Narratives: The Cult of the Virgin in the Fourth Century", Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3 (2008), pp. 371–401. Their same views were also mentioned earlier by Origen, although he too rejected them as heretical. They were active from the 3rd to the 5th century.William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity (Scarecrow Press, 2012 []), p. 31.
According to Epiphanius the Antidicomarians claimed that Apollinaris of Laodicea or his disciples denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, though Epiphanius doubted the claim.
Eusebius (260/265–339/340) and Epiphanius (c. 310/320–403) defended the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) held that Mary was "ever-virgin".Марчев, Радостин. Belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary in the first four centuries and its implications for Orthodox-Protestant dialogue.
4th century By the early 4th century the spread of monasticism had promoted celibacy as the ideal state, and a moral hierarchy was established with marriage occupying the third rank below life-long virginity and widowhood. Eastern theologians generally accepted Mary as Ever-virgin (Aeiparthenos), but many in the Western church were less convinced.
Helvidius objected to the devaluation of marriage inherent in this view and argued that the two states, of virginity and marriage, were equal. His contemporary Jerome, realising that this would lead to the Mother of God occupying a lower place in heaven than virgins and widows, defended her perpetual virginity in his immensely influential Against Helvidius, issued c.383.