Perpetual virginity of Mary
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 Lutherans, some Anglicans, 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, such as the Plymouth Brethren, 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 and the Reformed Second Helvetic Confession 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 explicitly affirms her virginity only until the birth of Jesus and mentions the brothers 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 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.
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. 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.
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 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 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" and that she received God in her "intact bosom".
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
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." Hunter adds that, although the Protevangelium of James is first mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, Clement "does not pursue any of its themes".Origen used the Protoevangelium's explanation of the brothers to uphold the perpetual virginity of Mary. 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. 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.
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 and Epiphanius defended the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Hippolytus of Rome held that Mary was "ever-virgin"
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, 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.
In the 380s and 390s the monk Jovinian denied Mary's virginity during childbirth, writing that if Jesus did not undergo a normal human birth, then his body was something other than a truly human one. As reported by Augustine, Jovinian "denied that the virginity of Mary, which existed when she conceived, remained while she gave birth." Augustine goes on to say that the reason for Jovinian's denial of Mary's virginity was that the doctrine was too close to the Manichean view that Christ was simply a phantom. According to Ambrose, Jovinian maintained that Mary had conceived as a virgin, but she had not given birth as a virgin. Jerome wrote against Jovinian but failed to mention this aspect of his teaching, and most commentators believe that he did not find it offensive. Jovinian also found two monks in Milan, Sarmatio and Barbatian, who held similar views as Jovinian.
Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, was a prominent defender of Mary's virginity in partu and became a principal target of contemporary accusations of Manicheism. In 391, in his treatise Concerning Virginity, he argued that both the physical birth of Jesus from Mary and the baptismal rebirth of Christians from the Church had to be wholly virginal, including during birth, in order to remove the stain of original sin, of which the pains of childbirth were, in his view, the bodily sign. It was due to Ambrose that virginitas in partu came to be included consistently in the thinking of subsequent theologians.
Bonosus of Sardica also denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, for which he was declared a heretic. His followers would survive for many centuries, especially among the Goths. Additionally, the perpetual virginity of Mary was denied by some Arians.
Jovinian was condemned as a heretic at a Synod of Milan under Ambrose's presidency in 390 and Mary's perpetual virginity was established as the only orthodox view. Further developments were to follow when the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 formally gave her the title Aeiparthenos, and at the Lateran Synod of 649 Pope Martin I emphasised the threefold character of the perpetual virginity, before, during, and after the birth of Christ.
Athanasius of Alexandria declared Mary Aeiparthenos, and the liturgy of James the brother of Jesus likewise required a declaration of Mary as ever-virgin. This view was defended by Augustine, Hilary of Poitiers, Didymus the Blind, among others.
The Apostles' Creed taught the doctrine of virginitas in partu.