The Perpetual Virginity of Mary [Why I Changed My Mind]

I changed my mind about the perpetual virginity of Mary. Here's why.

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Theoria is a YouTube Channel started by an Eastern Orthodox Christian and professional, freelance videographer and animator in 2015. Since that time, we have produced a number of video series' explaining Eastern Orthodox doctrine and practice with the likes of Frederica Matthewes-Green, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, Rod Dreher, and more.

Our goal is to produce quality videos and digestible YouTube shorts utilizing the rich theological tradition of the Church Fathers. We also seek to comment on cultural events from a paradigm within the framework of Eastern Orthodox theology.

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[Iloveartalway]

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner🙏☦️!

[heatherluvs]

This was excellent! As a Protestant studying Orthodoxy, this helped me a lot

[caroldonaldson]

As a Protestant, this was super helpful - thank you!🙏

[jonathanreeve]

Wonderful, a presentation offered clearly, powerfully and above all in love.

[corex]

Precarious Protestant here. Ok I get it. Pretty emotional right now.

[jvlp]

The Doctrine of PERPETUAL VIRGINITY of Blessed Mary is one of the greatest HERESY ever invented by the Roman Catholic Church... We loved and honored Blessed Mary through the Biblical TRUTH without compromise and not through Man's (Pope's) way... for St. Peter and St. Paul including the early Christian Churches in the 1st Cent. A.D. does not support this doctrine...
"For if We (Apostles) or an Angel from Heaven teaches/preaches other Gospel other than the Gospel we (apostles) have preached, taught and received from us (apostles), let the CURSE of God be upon them / be an Anathema / be condemn eternally / be doomed to destruction." (ref. Galatians 1:8 / KJV, NKJV, NIV, ESV, NET, ASB, etc.)...
Glory and Praise be to God in Christ Jesus... Amen and Amen.

[forevermore]

Thank you for this. Very thoughtful and honest. I became orthodox in July and am still getting to know Mary and appreciate her. Having come from a Protestant background, it does take some time and I can totally relate to what you say. One thing I was quick to notice was how women such as myself have such an esteemed role model in Mary, What a great joy in such a feminist-centric world.

[JJ-szno]

His initial basis in Matthew 1:25 is incorrect. Eos (until) is in fact a time limiting expression. It was used as a time limiting expression in a few verses before in Matthew 1:17

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations; and from David until (eos) the exile to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon until (eos) the Messiah, fourteen generations.

Matthew actually constantly uses the term as a limiting expression not as an eternal expression.
Matthew 2:9, 13, 15; 5:18 to name a few

To me this is clearly a stretch of the scriptures to fit a personal belief. I understand that many early church fathers believed in this teaching, but they are not above questioning. They got many things wrong when we look back at it.

[Mark-ybsp]

Words cannot express what I feel right now, except that you have unraveled 45 years of Protestant bondage within me. I now understand. Thank you! 😭

[reesescuptn]

I'm an Orthodox curious Episcopalian. These videos have been very enlightening. I want to learn more!

[lucianbane]

that first example: He knew her not "until" she bore her firstborn son

Wow you quoted John Calvin who was basically an Augustinian student (since he quotes Augustine over 200 times in his works), as your evidence??? For one, Calvin is not an early church father and two, neither was Augustine. That's like saying Trump is a founding father of our nation and we're only a little over 200 years from the birth of it.

#1
The meaning of "until" has more than one meaning. It can and should be interpreted as it seems it should be in this sentence. Such a convolution put upon something as simple as this sentence is nothing short of word witchery.

#2
You quoted a Coptic gospel for evidence??? Are you Coptic or Catholic?

#3
Is not even something I believe as it's obvious he's referring to spiritual brothers.

To believe this is one thing, but to require one to believe it for salvation is heresy. Paul warned us that any teaching about salvation that went against the Gospel message he preached was to be rejected.

For one to be saved, we must believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God who came and died for our sins and accept him as his Lord and Savior. But now the doctrine of salvation has changed with the added requirements:

Must believe Mary was born without sin in order to be saved
Must believe Mary was ever virgin in order to be saved
Must believe Mary died without sin in order to be saved
Must believe Mary was assumed into heaven in order to be saved

Add all the other dogmas one is required to believe outside the Gospel in order to receive salvation and you have the greatest false religion man has ever seen.

Much like the "religious rulers" presiding over God's old testament church in Jesus day, they also added to the scriptures with their own doctrines and traditions that made God's word null and void. What did Jesus say to them and do? He called them devils and snakes and tore down their lies with the word of Truth proceeding out of his mouth.

The same needs to be done today where the pure plan of salvation is made null and void with false doctrine, revelation, and tradition.

[Powell]

I’d like to offer a short rebuttal.
To your first point, Heos (g2193) doesn’t have a uniform connotation of Eternity. Heos is used much the same way “until” is in English. See the other uses of it in Matthew 1.
The church reformers believed many things that were unbiblical. Such as limited atonement, or Luther’s beliefs about Jews.
To your second point, the word Adelphos (G80) can mean more than brother, but again, look at the other usages all through the Bible. 9/10 times it means brother so without any reason in the text to suspect it means step brother, it’s unreasonable to assume that reading. Additionally, the Protoevangellium of James has never been accepted as scripture, was rejected by Origen, Jerome, Innocent I, and condemned in the Gelasian Decree. Additionally, both the early church and modern scholars agree that the earliest it could have been written is 150 AD, meaning James couldn’t have been the author.
I’ll while heartedly agree about Romans 8:29. That’s a bad proof text. That said, I’ve never heard it used to prove Jesus had brothers.
And to your third point, it doesn’t seem unreasonable, if God wants to Mary to be a virgin through her whole life He doesn’t need any of our permission. However in the Bible there’s no reason to suspect she was. While it’s true many Christians thought the years have thought Mary to be pictured in the Old Testament, none of them hold up under scrutiny. While it’s true Moses’ face shone after seeing God, Mary is never described as being blindingly radiant. The argument of “God used the womb for Jesus, it wouldn’t be right to use it for normal childbirth” sounds compelling, but that’s not how theology is established. True theology MUST come from clear teaching. If you’re going to appeal to typology, it has to be shown in the New Testament. We can look at Adam as a forerunner of Jesus because the New Testament tells us he was. We can look at Jesus as the Passover Lamb because the New Testament tells us He was. There are no NT types of Mary established anywhere. But to look at the East Gate type you mentioned, is Mary the Temple, or is she the Ark? And if her womb is the east gate, why does Jesus enter it, not exit through it?
In closing, you can believe in the True Incarnation of Jesus the Lord and also believe that Mary being a virgin throughout her life is not found in the Bible.

[eternalview]

Very well done, and well said! I was raised Catholic, was agnostic for a few years, had an encounter with Jesus in 1981, then was attached to primarily non-denominational churches since. It seems I am now being drawn to the Catholic/Orthodox realm, inclined more toward Orthodox. Your videos are excellent, and very helpful...

[susansuewwilliams]

Glad to you are back!!
Love All your series. I too am a convert from Lutheranism.

[alexandria]

Thank you, and I agree as a Protestant (so far) that there is absolutely no reason to reject the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos.

[gregnorthway]

Numbers 30....read it. Explains how a Virgin who consecrated herself to God never has sex in a marriage. Biblical support for the vow the Virgin Mary took at a very young age that she would remain a virgin.

[Pasto]

Informative, truthful and easy enough to consume by a person shaped by smartphone culture like myself. Awesome work! ☦️

[gaah]

I've never thought that, for one to believe in the perpetual virginity, would be in sake of keeping Christ's glory. To think of her womb as something sacred, not because she is some kind of god, or queen of heavens (don't know if Orthodox also have that view of Mary as queen), or even imply from that we should seek for her intercession (now I know my Orthodox brothers will not agree here 😄), but because our God dwelled in there. Even though I still feel weird in reading the plain texts of Jesus' brothers, and not thinking of Mary's sons, this gave me a lot to think. And also made me understand better this ancient belief of the church Fathers. Thank you.

[aaronmoore]

Great video! I think one reason why modern Evangelicalism rejects the perpetual virginity of Mary is because it seems too "Catholic", and there's so much bad blood between Protestants and Catholics due to 500+ years of conflict. I am a former Evangelical, and now Roman Catholic Christian. I pray together with St. Pope Jon Paul II that some day soon the church will "breathe again with both lungs", East and West; and I think that former Protestants (like us) who found their way by God's grace into a historic See can play a big part in the healing that needs to take place.

[orthodoxempire]

Wonderful Video. I love the Mother of God