Mary
The Jewish Piety of Joseph and Mary/ The Sense of the Sacred
A compelling argument for the perpetual virginity is the faith of Joseph and Mary as good Jews. If Joseph was a good Jew and was raised in a religion that had stories of people touching the Ark of the Covenant and being killed for it, and worshipped in the Temple where only the High Priest dared enter the Holy of Holies, how would he regard Mary who bore the Son of God. Mary bears the Root of Jesse, the Bread of Heaven (John 6), the Word of God (John 1). The Ark contains the rod of Aaron, Manna and the Law. Mary is a “human Ark of the New Covenant”! Now is Joseph going to use Mary for "common use" after she bears God? Not that sex is bad, evil or wrong just as eating and cooking meat are not bad evil or wrong, but when put into service to God in the Temple they became holy, sacrifices and only the Priests could participate. The issue is that modern Christians in general do not have this OT sense of "sacredness" in their radar screens. It is beyond people in our sexualized culture that there can be any higher union between two people than mutual orgasms. Jesus and Paul both say that there are eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom and (I Cor. 7) there is abstinence by mutual consent that is holy in the context of marriage. The perpetual virginity fits in the context of the first century, not in ours. The issue with most protestants as I see it is not the perpetual virginity per se, but what they think it leads to in their romeaphobia, which is the “worship of Mary”.
this is from http://www.forthelife.org/a6.htm
also check out: http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9174.asp
read Revelation 11:19-12 and Psalm 45
A compelling argument for the perpetual virginity is the faith of Joseph and Mary as good Jews. If Joseph was a good Jew and was raised in a religion that had stories of people touching the Ark of the Covenant and being killed for it, and worshipped in the Temple where only the High Priest dared enter the Holy of Holies, how would he regard Mary who bore the Son of God. Mary bears the Root of Jesse, the Bread of Heaven (John 6), the Word of God (John 1). The Ark contains the rod of Aaron, Manna and the Law. Mary is a “human Ark of the New Covenant”! Now is Joseph going to use Mary for "common use" after she bears God? Not that sex is bad, evil or wrong just as eating and cooking meat are not bad evil or wrong, but when put into service to God in the Temple they became holy, sacrifices and only the Priests could participate. The issue is that modern Christians in general do not have this OT sense of "sacredness" in their radar screens. It is beyond people in our sexualized culture that there can be any higher union between two people than mutual orgasms. Jesus and Paul both say that there are eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom and (I Cor. 7) there is abstinence by mutual consent that is holy in the context of marriage. The perpetual virginity fits in the context of the first century, not in ours. The issue with most protestants as I see it is not the perpetual virginity per se, but what they think it leads to in their romeaphobia, which is the “worship of Mary”.
this is from http://www.forthelife.org/a6.htm
also check out: http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9174.asp
read Revelation 11:19-12 and Psalm 45