“While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
-Luke 11:27-28
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When an evangelical is asked to name something that divides Evangelicalism from Roman Catholicism, many times he/she will bring up
the Marian doctrines. In fact, when a Protestant converts to Roman Catholicism, one of the last things that he/she is able to
accept is the Marian doctrines, and usually, the convert accepts them only on the basis of the supposed infallibility of the Church
of Rome. There is currently not a plan to write an article on the Biblical arguments used by Roman Catholics in support of the
Marian doctrines. For a refutation of these arguments, the reader is referred to Eric Svendsen’s Who Is My Mother? (Amityville:
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Perpetual Virginity
Many Roman Catholic apologists claim that all the early fathers believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary (i.e. she remained a virgin her whole life). Indeed, after the third century, almost all of the early fathers believed in such a doctrine. However, before that time, the doctrine was becoming popular, and there were not just a few early fathers who denied the doctrine (which confirms that it was not an apostolic doctrine). As J.N.D. Kelly notes:
“On the other hand, while Tertullian assumed that she had had normal conjugal relations with Joseph after Jesus’s birth, the ‘brethren of the Lord’ being His true brothers…but Basil of Caesarea, when criticizing the latter, implied that such a view was widely held and, though not accepted by himself, was not incompatible with orthodoxy...”
–J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian
Doctrines, rev. ed. (
Here are some of the quotes from early fathers that confirm this (emphasis mine):
Irenaeus
“For as by one man's disobedience sin entered, and death obtained [a place] through sin; so also by the obedience of one man, righteousness having been introduced, shall cause life to fructify in those persons who in times past were dead. And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (“for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground”), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for “all things were made by Him,” and the Lord took dust from the earth and formed man; so did He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam [into Himself], from Mary, who was as yet a virgin.”
-Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.21.10
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-60.htm#P7836_2143030
[He implies that she was a virgin at this time, but was no longer one at a later time.]
To this effect they testify, saying, that before Joseph had
come together with Mary, while she therefore remained in virginity, “she was found with child of the Holy Ghost;”
-Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.21.4
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01-60.htm#P7836_2143030
[His implication is that there was a later time when Joseph did ‘come together’ with Mary (i.e. in a sexual sense).]
Hegesippus
“The second-century writer, Hegesippus, on the other hand, mentions James “the brother…of the Lord,” and Jude “who is said to have been the Lord’s brother…according to the flesh,” as well as Simeon the son of Clopas whom Hegesippus calls the “cousin…of the Lord.” The fact that Hegesippus knows of a distinction between these two relationships indicates that when he uses [adelphos] he does so with biological siblings in mind.”
-Eric Svendsen, Who Is My Mother? (Amityville:
[The references are to Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 2.23, 3.22, 4.22 respectively.]
Tertullian
“They say that He testifies Himself to His not having been born, when He asks, “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” In this manner heretics either wrest plain and simple words to any sense they choose by their conjectures, or else they violently resolve by a literal interpretation words which imply a conditional sense and are incapable of a simple solution, as in this passage… For tell me now, does a mother live on contemporaneously with her sons in every case? Have all sons brothers born for them? May a man rather not have fathers and sisters (living), or even no relatives at all...It remains for us to examine His meaning when He resorts to non-literal words, saying “Who is my mother or my brethren?” It seems as if His language amounted to a denial of His family and His birth; but it arose actually from the absolute nature of the case, and the conditional sense in which His words were to be explained… He did not so much deny as disavow them. And therefore, when to the previous question, “Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?” He added the answer “None but they who hear my words and do them,” He transferred the names of blood-relationship to others, whom He judged to be more closely related to Him by reason of their faith.”
-Tertullian, Against Marcion 4.19
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-03/anf03-31.htm#P5992_1802834
“Behold, there immediately present themselves to us, on the threshold as it were, the two priestesses of Christian sanctity, Monogamy and Continence: one modest, in Zechariah the priest; one absolute, in John the forerunner: one appeasing God; one preaching Christ: one proclaiming a perfect priest; one exhibiting “more than a prophet,” -him, namely, who has not only preached or personally pointed out, but even baptized Christ. For who was more worthily to perform the initiatory rite on the body of the Lord, than flesh similar in kind to that which conceived and gave birth to that (body)? And indeed it was a virgin, about to marry once for all after her delivery, who gave birth to Christ, in order that each title of sanctity might be fulfilled in Christ’s parentage, by means of a mother who was both virgin, and wife of one husband.”
-Tertullian, On Monogamy 8
http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-04/anf04-17.htm#P1162_303350
Eric Svensen comments on this passage:
“Here Tertullian tells us that there are two ‘priestesses of Christian sanctity”-modest monogamy and absolute continence. The first, represented by the father of John the Baptist, is a life of marriage to one spouse in which marital relations are assumed (witness his son). The second, represented by the Baptist himself, is a life of absolute celibacy that assumes virginity. Tertullian makes the point that Mary represents both categories at different stages of her married life: “The parallel with Zechariah naturally suggests normal intercourse and childbearing.””
-Eric Svendsen, Who Is My Mother? (Amityville:
Basil of
Although he did believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary, Basil stated that there were those who didn’t, and that they were fully in the realm of orthodoxy:
“…but Basil of Caesarea, when criticizing the latter, implied that such a view was widely held and, though not accepted by himself, was not incompatible with orthodoxy...”
–J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, rev. ed. (
History and the
Marian Doctrines
(Part 1)