But isn’t it generally agreed that Jesus had siblings? I’m not looking for argument but the siblings thing has always confused me; I don’t remember ever hearing it discussed, much less explained.
The Catholics think that Mary was taken bodily to heaven? Like, before she died?
And how do Catholics reconcile when Paul talks about meeting Jesus’s brother? As someone who was raised Protestant (Baptist), this Catholic obsession with Mary seems strange to me.
Catholic doctrine is the Perpetual Virginity of Mary – she remained a virgin her whole life until being bodily assumed into heaven (the Assumption of Mary).
References to Jesus’ siblings, in this view, actually refer to his cousins, half-siblings (through Joseph), or followers.
Most non-Catholic Christians do not believe in Mary’s perpetual virginity, nor her bodily assumption. Neither is documented in the Gospels or other scriptures.
The Protestant churches, which do not accept the doctrine of Aeiparthenos (“Mary, ever virgin…”) certainly point to Scripture like Mark 3:31-32:
Of course, this wasn’t written in English. The English was translated from the original Greek, and the word was adelphos, which means brother. But it also means kinsman of a more distant sort. In Genesis, Jacob is called the “brother” of his Uncle Laban, and there are many more Old Testament examples of the same thing – kinsmen being called ‘brother.’ Of course, the Old Testament was in Hebrew, translated to the Greek, and the Greek translation used adelphos. There was no contemporary separate Hebrew word for “cousin.”
As one commentator writes:
Correct. While there is no explicit statement in Scripture that says Mary was taken bodily into Heaven, the idea isn’t unprecedented. Enoch and Elijah were Old Testament prophets who were taken bodily away by God. Further, Mary was conceived without the stain of Original Sin, which meant that her body would have been free from the penalty described to Adam in Gen 3:19 –
See the cousins language commentary above.
Here’s the Straight Dope: Did Jesus have siblings?
When Mary being Jesus mother comes up, I picture “Rosemary’s Baby”. A sex act with god ,the Father. It just seems wrong.
Back to the OP, an easy way to remember that Immaculate Conception doesn’t refer to Jesus is the fact that the IC is celebrated in early December and Christmas in late December. At least, if one is a church-going Catholic . . .
I was taught the Assumption of Mary as a kid, and we even had a stained glass window depicting it in our Church.
That’s why I was very surprised when I came across an engraving by Brueghel showing The Death of the Virgin – it shows Mary dying in bed, surrounded by Apostles. Moreover, it was only one of a number of variations of that theme. I was surprised to find that the Assumption was not a universal belief. In fact, some of these works were by Catholics:
Wouldn’t '…to make wine in" be more appropriate?
Beer is a better analogy if you’re making a comparison to godliness.
<aside>
Quoth The Second Stone:
I’ve seen a few stunning redheads around here, and I know of a few Bozemanites who became famous, but I’m not aware of an intersection between the two sets. But I’m always willing to broaden my horizons: What was her name?
</aside>
Imagine that people started using “unicorn” to mean a mythical stalk of corn with a single ear. And then in 50 years more people understood and used it to mean the corn definition. Or only that millions understood and used it that way. Why would that not be valid definition of “unicorn”?
That is the situation we are in now with “Immaculate Conception.” I do not have proof, but I bet a poll would show more people think it refers to Jesus’ conception.
The analogy is flawed, because the definition of Immaculate Conception has not undergone such a radical transformation. The definition in reference to Jesus’ conception is just a product of ignorance of Christian doctrine. Doctrine outweighs the misapprehension of a bunch of wankers, no?
Why? Do the learned own the language?
I wager that plenty of people who do not understand the difference between atom and molecule, or chemical element and chemical compound. That does not mean that CO2 is the description of an atom, or that that water is a chemical element.
The fact that some people believe the word niggardly is a racial slur does not make it so.
Speaking of things that a lot of people get wrong…
Maybe there are not enough people who believe “niggardly” is a racial to make it one.
But the only thing that makes “nigger” a racial slur is people believing it is a racial slur.
If that’s what a “unicorn” is, then what’s the word for the beast that looks like a cross between a horse and a narwhal?
Likewise, Catholicism does have a doctrine that Mary was conceived without original sin, and there’s a term for that doctrine.