Do Catholics believe that Mary mother of Jesus had other children?

Answer 1

There are a few bible verses which refer to Jesus's brothers, for example Mark 3:31, Luke 8:19 and Matt 12:46 all say variants of "Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him..."

Catholic dogma teaches that Mary was a virgin all her life, and that when The Bible talks about Jesus's brothers, it is really talking about some other male relatives. Unfortunately for the purposes of clarity on this issue, the Greek word translated as "brothers" could also mean "brethren" and can, even in modern Greek vernacular, depending strictly upon context, refer to male cousins.

The vast majority of non-Catholic theologians do support the translation that Mary had other children besides Jesus, and can find no reason for that to diminish Christ's authority as the son of God. Certainly there was no contraception at the time so sex meant babies: unless Mary or Joseph was infertile then the only way to avoid children was to avoid sex, and it would be incredibly odd for a married woman never to have had sex with her husband.

It is this contributor's opinion (and I am married to a Roman Catholic), that the unusual interpretation of "Jesus's Brothers" is an artifact of the Catholic paradigm of sex being undesirable - if you believe that sex is impure, then clearly the pure mother of God wouldn't have had it. Translation of vague terms must therefore take that into account, hence a word most likely to mean"brothers" is translated as "cousins".

It is a constant problem with bible translation - any attempt to translate a dead language into a modern language necessarily means that the translator's opinion comes into play occasionally; that's why we have so many bible translations, and even more interpretations of those translations. All of this is why we have such a rich variety of christian theology and dogma.

Answer 2

The Blessed Virgin Mary was a virgin her entire life. She was just mothered Jesus Christ with the power of the Holy Spirit and didn't have any other children. But today we all are her children and she is called the Mother of Mankind.

Answer 3

No. Most Catholics to my understanding believe that Mary remained a virgin even after the birth of Jesus. Jesus' brothers and sisters mentioned in the gospels are taken to be Mary's stepchildren, perhaps children of Joseph from a previous marriage.

Personally, I believe that position strains the fairly plain language of Scripture that says simply that Mary did not "know" Joseph until after Jesus was born. It's necessitated by a doctrine of Mary that elevates her to a status not supported by Scripture. Obviously, I'm not a Catholic.