The virginity of Mary.
The virginity of Mary.
§ 387. Eighth: “One must believe that blessed Mary was ever a virgin, as the entire Church has always believed, contrary to Helvidius. Yet in Scripture there is no testimony regarding this matter.” We respond. (1) Basil says in his Homily de nativ. Christ., vol. 1, p. 389: “We must not debate inquisitively about this subject—whether after she had given birth to the Savior, Mary again contracted marriage or, on the other hand, remained a virgin—since this does not have to do with the mystery of faith.” He says, “The ‘afterward’ (namely, after Christ’s birth) is something with which we do not meddle with respect to the matter of the mystery”; and he immediately adds the reason: “because it does no harm to the matter of piety.”
(2) We respond from Jerome, Contra Helvidium: “We believe that God was born of the womb of the virgin because we read it. We do not believe that Mary had intercourse with Joseph after the birth because we do not read it.” It is sufficient for our faith, therefore, that the mother of the Messiah is called a “virgin” (Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:35).
(3) Epiphanius (Contra Antidicomarianitas), Ambrose (Epistles 79 and 81), and Jerome (Contra Helvid.) try to demonstrate the perpetual virginity of Mary from the Scriptures. They bring up the statement of Ezek. 44:2 concerning the “closed gate” and also that the care of Mary is entrusted to John. Jerome uses this reasoning: “If Joseph was moved solely by the angel’s revelation made to him in a dream to so great a reverence that he did not know Mary, why would he not be greatly moved later, when he heard the shepherds, Simeon, and Hannah saying such divine things about the boy?” Therefore they judged that they could deduce this dogma not from tradition alone but from the Scriptures.
(4) The argument that Helvidius developed from the word “until” in Matt. 1:25 to establish his opinion can be explained from the Scriptures themselves. “Until” in the Scriptures often denotes perpetuity, as if removing what precedes in such a way that it does not posit what follows (Ps. 110:[1]; 1 Sam. 15:35; 2 Sam. 6:23). Jerome gives us the example “Helvidius died before he repented” to show that even in common speech, this figure of speech taken exclusively was used.