Did Mary remain a perpetual virgin after Jesus was born? Or does the cumulative evidence of the New Testament indicate that Mary and Joseph later had a normal marriage and additional children?
In this episode of the Cold-Case Christianity Podcast, J. Warner Wallace examines this important—but nonessential—Christian debate using the same kind of cumulative reasoning jurors use in criminal trials.
No single passage has to settle the issue by itself. But what happens when we gather the entire body of evidence?
We investigate:
Jesus' named brothers: James, Joses, Simon, and Judas
The Gospel references to Jesus' sisters
Matthew 1:25 and Joseph's abstinence "until" Jesus' birth
Luke's description of Jesus as Mary's "firstborn"
Paul's description of James as "the Lord's brother"
Paul's use of the Greek word for "cousin" elsewhere
Jesus entrusting Mary to John at the cross
The claim that Joseph was an elderly widower with children from a former marriage
The noncanonical Protoevangelium of James and its influence on later tradition
The competing explanations offered by Origen, Jerome, Helvidius, and later church tradition
This episode does not question the virgin conception or virgin birth of Jesus. Those are clear biblical teachings. Instead, it asks whether the further claim of Mary's lifelong virginity is the best explanation of the biblical and historical evidence.
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