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Mary is declared by the Catholic Church to be “virginitas carnis” as a pure virgin in body when Christ was conceived, “virginitas in partu” which means basically that she gave birth to Christ without the usual pain with the richness of Christ imparted to her during that process, and “virginitas post partum” which means “perpetual virginity.”1 Catholic believers ascribe to all of these beliefs and denial of even one of them is taken by the Church to be denial against the Lord Himself.2
The arguments to support this belief are best highlighted by St. Ambrose’s enthusiastic defense3 that Mary was always a mistress of virginity that only knew God intimately; to suggest a mere man followed after God, is to direct vulgarity against her.4 Further, Joseph, known as a just man, would have had to lose his mind completely to seek carnal intercourse with the mother of God.5
St. Thomas listed four reasons why the Virgin Mary preserved her virginity: “(1) The unique character of Christ as the Only-begotten Son of God; (2) The honor and dignity of the Holy Ghost, who overshadowed her virginal womb; (3) The excellency of the title Deipara, and (4) The honor and chivalry of St. Joseph, who was commissioned to be the protector and guardian of his chaste spouse.”
Since there is no direct relationship with this idea to Scripture, it seems apparent that it is the typological declaration of Mary as “mother of God” rather than “human mother to the human part of Christ” that creates this false belief. The perpetual virgin belief also rests upon the typological ideas of sainthood with regards to Joseph. Mary becomes a “type” of God’s mother, which translates so firmly into the false notions of the Catholic Church, that apparent Scripture referring to her other children are guffawed and linked to a possible relationship of Joseph with another woman prior to Christ’s conception (based some upon apocryphal sources with the notion that Joseph also abstained from carnal intercourse after Christ’s birth), with Mary assuming a step-mother role, as Joseph assumes the step-father role with Christ.6
So, typological associations are some of the best Bible Studies to do when the Holy Spirit leads us to connect the deep mysteries of God in a way that it gives us new understanding to his nature and will. But, if great care is not taken to ensure full Scripture support, hermeneutical interpretations can go south quickly, and lead to a great deal of false teachings against Christ and His Word.
Bibliography
Pohle, Joseph, and Arther Preuss. Christology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Incarnation, Dogmatic Theology. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1913.
References
1 Joseph Pohle, and Arther Preuss, Christology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Incarnation, Dogmatic Theology (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder, 1913), Section 3, 83-104.
2 Ibid., 101.
3 I researched the original writings that contain Ambrose’s position; however, most are in Latin, and beyond my scholarship. His words for part of this are found in “De Inst. Virg., VI, 44: “Sed non deficit Maria, non deficit virginitatis magistra; nec fieri poterat, ut quae Deum portaverat, portandum hominem arbitraretur. Nec Ioseph, vir iustus, in hanc prorupisset amentiam, ut matri Domini corporco concubitu misceretur.”
4 Pohle, 102.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., 99. |