Did Mary have any other children besides Jesus?

The short answer to this question is “no.” The only child that the Blessed Virgin Mary ever gave birth to is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary’s perpetual virginity is something that we are obligated to believe as Catholics.

This belief, however, is often challenged by Protestants and they often use Scripture to argue their point. As I will point out in this article, we will see that Scripture actually proves Mary’s perpetual virginity. 

First, some Protestants will point to the following passage from Matthew: “He (Joseph) had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus.” Some will claim that this implies that he did have relations with her after the birth of Jesus. On the contrary, what Matthew is trying to tell us here is that Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus, the use of the word “until” (heos in Greek) does not imply that he had relations with her at that time or later.

Consider, for example, the use of the same word in 2 Samuel 6:23: “Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until (heos) the day of her death.” Would we be correct in assuming that Michal had a child the day she died or after? Clearly, this is saying that she never had a child her whole life long. The word “until” should be understood similarly in Matthew noted above.

Some might then point to where Luke clearly identifies Jesus as Mary’s firstborn Son (Luke 2:7). However, being designated as the “firstborn son” does not imply that Jesus had younger brothers. Any male child that lived his whole life as the only child or with only younger sisters would have been known as the “firstborn son.” This is because the firstborn son had, according to Jewish law, certain rights and responsibilities.

Later, we do see that there are men in the Bible who are referred to as Jesus’ “brothers.” What are we to make of this? Simply put, these were Jesus’ cousins. There are a few reasons as to why we believe this. First, Aramaic (the spoken language of the Jews at the time) had no word for cousin. Those whom we term “cousin,” the Jews would have called “brother” or “sister.”

This is further supported by the fact that Jesus, while on the cross, entrusted Mary to St. John. At this time, it was the duty of the eldest son to care for his mother once his father had passed. In the case of Mary, this was obviously Jesus. If a woman’s oldest son died before she did, then her next oldest son would have to care for her. However, Jesus entrusts her to St. John. This implies that he had no brother to leave her to.

Then, in Acts of the Apostles (1:14-15), we see that the Jesus’s brothers are more than 100 men! This should put each objection firmly to rest, but there is one more fact that points to Mary’s perpetual virginity: the fact that she is the new Ark of the Covenant for being pregnant with the Son of God, she became the dwelling place of God. We see further that there are very clear parallels between the Ark being brought into Jerusalem and the Visitation. The Ark of the Covenant was the dwelling place of God in the Old Testament. And because of God’s holiness, it could not be touched. In fact, a man was smitten for doing just that (2 Samuel 6:6-7). With this knowledge, would St. Joseph have dared to have relations with Mary? Certainly not! We see, therefore, very clearly that Mary had no other children besides Jesus and remained a virgin her entire life. 

Fr. Greg Luger is pastor at the Churches of St. Jerome in Mohall, St. James in Sherwood and St. John in Lansford. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.