(02-21-2019, 11:24 PM)Channalee Wrote: At the risk of taking this further off-topic, I'm going to seize this opportunity to ask you about something, Jude, that has had me puzzled. (Because I like the way you explain the Catholic view of things):
I was surprised when I was present at a conversation between a Protestant and a Catholic who were arguing about whether Jesus had biological brothers and sisters. I had no idea at the time that Protestants and Catholics differed on this issue: That Catholics said that Jesus' mother Mary never had any other children by her husband Joseph, but that Protestants said she had and that Jesus' siblings were mentioned in the gospels. The Catholic was actually offended by the Protestant even suggesting that Mary might have had any sexual relations with Joseph.
Was this an atypical argument that I just stumbled across and witnessed, or is there really a serious disagreement between Protestants and Catholics about whether Jesus had any biological siblings?
Was this argument atypical? Unfortunately not. The Catholic doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ was extended and interpreted to insist upon Mary's perpetual virginity. This in SPITE of the fact that the Gospels CLEARLY mention the brothers of Jesus. Subsequently, the official Catholic interpretation of the mention of Jesus' brothers is that they were really his cousins, but that's such a stupid idea to me. As my priest once said during Mass, "They say that they're cousins but Hebrew and Greek have words for 'cousin.'"
In other words, I would never euphemistically refer to my cousin as "my brother," so it's really kinda ridiculous to me that Catholics argue this. Nevertheless, it is official teaching that Mary was a perpetual virgin.
To put a finer point on this, James is a figure who is specifically mentioned as Jesus' brother and was the leader of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. We KNOW that Jesus has brothers, it's just that Catholicism sometimes adds a lot of bells and whistles to fix a lot of things that don't need to be fixed. It goes against Christian scripture in my mind: The Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verse 25 reads that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son."
So I mean . . . it's clear that Mary and Joseph had marital relations. We Catholics . . . can get bent out of shape over stupid stuff that's really should be kinda easy to see and is obvious to everyone BUT us.
As to whether this applies to all Catholics? It's going to depend on the Catholic you ask. Like, I know Catholics (and I'm one of them) who don't believe in the Virgin Birth as a literal phenomenon but understand this as a metaphorical statement on the nature of Jesus. Lots of the more liberal Catholics would be more open to discussing and debating the Virginity of Mary while some of the more conservative Catholics will fight over this stuff.
Church politics! Like regular politics but now with religion mixed in; and everyone knows that that always goes well . . . .
Church politics! A combination designed to make your mouth water in that way it does right before you get sick.