Does the Bible say that Mary had other children?

Answer 1

Here's one thought:

The 'proof' is in The Bible itself.

**The scriptures say that Joseph had no intercourse with Mary UNTIL she gave birth to Jesus, indicating that they had intercourse after the birth of Jesus, so could have had other children(Matthew 1:25).

**Jesus was Mary's FIRSTborn (Luke 2:7), indicating that she had OTHERS **People who knew them acknowledged that Jesus was "the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon," adding, "And his sisters are here with us, are they not?"-Mark 6:3.

**The Gospels, the book of Acts, and two of Paul's letters talk about "the Lord's brothers," "the brother of the Lord," "his sisters," "his brothers," naming four particularly: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. (Matthew 12:46; Matthew 13:55, 56; Acts 1:14; 1Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19)

**Jesus 'brothers' and his 'disciples' were two different things (John 2:12); During his ministry, while his disciples knew him to be the Christ(Matthew 16:16), his fleshly brothers did not believe he was the Messiah until later(John 7:3-5) Jesus turned the care of Mary over to John when he died, because his brothers weren't believers yet (John 19:26, 27), but after his resurrection, his fleshly 'brothers'(other children of Mary and Joseph) became disciples too(Acts 1:14)

Answer 2

A:

Mark 6:3 tells us that Jesus had brothers and sisters, for example Mark 6:3: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him." Whenever the gospels speak of Jesus' brethren, they are always portrayed as being with his mother, Mary, in an apparently close relationship. For example, Mark 3:31: "There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him."

Passages like these leave no doubt that those whom the gospels call Jesus' brothers and sisters really were his brothers and sisters, not cousins as some who wish to portray Mary as a perpetual virgin would suggest. The close relationship that Jesus' brothers had with Mary, even as adults, suggests that she really was their mother, not just a step-mother as others suggest.

In order to preserve the traditional perpetual virginity of Mary, some teach that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were actually children of Joseph from a previous marriage. Paul refers to James as the brother of Jesus, who was still young and active enough to be a strong leader of the Jerusalem church, probably well into the fifties of the first century. This tells us that for James and the other children to have been born before Jesus was born, in 5 BCE or earlier, they must still have been quite young. However, it seems clear from the nativity accounts that the authors of Matthew and Luke did not believe that Joseph had any children born before Jesus.

In Matthew's account, Joseph would scarcely have fled to Egypt without his other young children, yet the account talks only of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. In Luke's account, Joseph would hardly have taken the heavily pregnant Mary all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, leaving his other young children to fend for themselves, yet Joseph and Mary had no other children with them. Luke 2:42-44 also portrays Jesus as still an only child at the age of twelve.

The Bible does not tell us directly, but the only rational explanation is that these brothers and sisters were born to Mary after Jesus was born.

Answer 3

The Bible mentions that Mary gave birth to Jesus as a virgin but does not explicitly state that she had other children. The Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, which asserts that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus.