by Shadrack Benclamsi Ayemere
Revealing the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary and Child Jesus
The Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Only Child Jesus Christ
The traditional belief of all the Ancient churches is that the Virgin Mary remained a virgin all her life.
“For neither did Mary, who is to be honoured and praised above all others, marry anyone, nor did she ever become the Mother of anyone else, but even after childbirth she remained always and forever and immaculate virgin.” (Didimus the Blind, The Trinity. 381 AD)
Many Protestants choose to argue with this, quoting the following text:
Matt 1.24-25: And being aroused from sleep, Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife, and did not know her until she bore her son, the Firstborn. And he called his name Jesus.
There are two points here.
1. The word “until”, sometimes taken to imply that Joseph “knew” Mary after the birth of Jesus; and
2. “Firstborn”, sometimes taken to imply other children. 
With regard to the word “until”, let’s look at the following verses:
Matt 28.20: “..and surely I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
John 21.22: Jesus answered. “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
2 Sam 6.23: “no son was born to Michol, the daughter of Saul until her dying day.”
In all these examples, the word “until” does not mean that Jesus will cease to be with us after the end of the age, that John was intended to die should he still be alive when Jesus returned, or that Michol had a son after death. The word “until” shows that the writer is concerned primarily to inform us what happens before a specific event – not after.
For the rest, let us allow a very unexpected defender of Marian doctrine to answer the points:
There have been certain folk who have wished to suggest from this passage [Matt 1:25] that the Virgin Mary had other children than the Son of God, and that Joseph had then dwelt with her later; but what folly this is! For the gospel writer did not wish to record what happened afterwards; he simply wished to make clear Joseph’s obedience and to show also that Joseph had been well and truly assured that it was God who had sent His angel to Mary. He had therefore never dwelt with her nor had he shared her company… And besides this, Our Lord Jesus Christ is called the first born. This is not because there was a second or a third, but because the gospel writer is paying regard to precedence. Scripture speaks thus of naming the first-born whether or not there was any question of the second.” 
John Calvin; “Sermon on Matthew”, published 1562
BUT WHAT ABOUT JESUS’ BROTHERS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE?
There are several gospel references to Jesus having “brothers and sisters”. This is the most specific:
Matthew 13:55. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers, James, Joses, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us?”
One traditional response is that these may have been children of Joseph from an earlier marriage. Joseph is traditionally held to be much older than Mary.
Another important factor here is that the language used in the Palestine of Jesus’s time was Aramaic. In the Aramaic language used at that time, there was no word in existence to denote cousin. The Jews therefore had to use the word brother where they meant to describe any close male relative. This is so even today in many languages and cultures, particularly where there is an extended family system. The loose term “brother” or “sister” is used to cover the children of ones uncles and aunts as well as those of ones own parents.
WHAT PROOF IS THERE OF THIS?
Gen 14:14 “And when Abram heard that his Brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.”
The “brother” referred to here is Lot. Lot was the son of Aran, Abram’s own dead brother (Gen 11:26-28). He was therefore Abram’s Nephew, even though the text refers to him as a “brother”.
BUT THE NEW TESTAMENT WAS WRITTEN IN GREEK, WHICH DOES HAVE A WORD FOR COUSIN.
This is a bit of a red-herring for two reasons. Firstly, there is evidence from the Early Church Fathers that the Book of Matthew, at least, was originally written in Aramaic, and so was translated into Greek. Secondly, we know that the people of Palestine in Jesus’s time spoke in Aramaic, and it is therefore in Aramaic in which the oral stories which were later written down to form the Gospels, were transmitted. So it is likely that the Aramaic word “brother”, meaning not only sibling, but any kinsman, was translated into the Greek word “brother”, which has the tighter meaning of sibling only. This is clearly what has happened in Genesis 14.14 above.
SO WHO WERE THESE “BROTHERS OF JESUS?”
A. While James and Joses are mentioned as Jesus’s brothers in Matthew 13:55, it is made clear in Mathew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 that their mother was another Mary. 
Matthew 27:56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
This “other Mary” at the Cross, is revealed in John 19:25 to be the wife of Cleophas. Mary of Cleophas is therefore revealed as the mother of two of Jesus’s so-called “brothers”, James and Joses.
B. In John 19:25, the original Greek states. “But by he cross of Jesus were the Mother of Him AND the sister of the Mother of Him, Mary the wife of Cleopas AND Mary the Magdalene.” The precise positioning of the ANDs makes it clear that Mary the Wife of Cleopas, is also referred to as the Virgin Mary’s sister. Since we know no-one has two daughters and calls them BOTH Mary, we know that sister here does not mean sister. The same would apply to “brother” with reference to Jesus.
C. In the introduction to the Book of Jude, Jude introduces himself as: Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. If Jude/Judas were truly the brother of Jesus, why wouldn’t he say so? He identifies himself in his letter as brother of James, but significantly as servant of Jesus. To have identified himself as Jesus’s blood brother would have added enormous weight to his epistle, but he doesn’t so identify himself here. We know the reason, because James and Joseph have already been revealed to be sons of the other Mary in Matthew 27 and Mark 15. Judas then must also be a son of this other Mary. Mary wife of Cleophas. So another of Jesus’s so-called “brothers” is eliminated.
D. James “Brother of Jesus” is referred to as one of the APOSTLES by Paul in Galatians 1:19. . We know that neither of the Apostles named James was actually a Son of Mary. So James, “brother of Jesus” cannot be a Son of Mary. He is actually James, Son of Alphaeus (thought to be another form of Cleophas)! James is a kinsman of Jesus, but not a sibling.
A few more points:
In Luke 2:41-51, the twelve-year-old Jesus goes missing on a trip to Jerusalem, and is only found three days later in the temple. Yet in all this time no mention at all is made of any other children, even though the entire family made the journey together. If all the people mentioned in Matthew were actually surviving children of Mary, she would have had at least seven children younger than Jesus to look after! In fact both Mary and Joseph race back to Jerusalem to find him, through country filled with bandits, something they could not have done if there had been babies and other young children in need of care!
The people of Nazareth refer to Jesus as “the son of Mary” (Mark 6:3), not as “a son of Mary.”
Finally, if James and Joseph, Simon and Jude, were children of Mary, and if Jesus had even more brothers and sisters, why did Jesus commit His Mother to the care of St. John at His death?
Source: splendorofthechurch.com.ph