Mary's Virginity

Early Christians are a wonderful example of the unity for which Christ prayed at the Last Supper:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . And all who believed were together and had all things in common (Acts 2:42-44).

Their unity grew from reading the Old Testament and receiving the teachings of those in authority. It was expressed in their fellowship—“those who believed were of one heart and soul” (v. 32)—and in the breaking of the bread, fulfilling Christ’s Last Supper command: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

Mary was a component of this unity: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14).

The earliest teaching about Mary is that she was a virgin before, during, and after Christ’s birth (CCC 499), which—for early Christians—confirmed Christ’s divinity (CCC 496). Vehemently opposing these teachings, unconverted Jews saw Christ as an ordinary man—not God—conceived through a physical sexual union and uterine birth.

Though questioning the teaching, Evangelical Scot McKnight notes that

with very few exceptions, all Christians from the second or third century onward believed that Mary was perpetually virginal. That is . . . “ever-virgin.” . . . This surprises many of us. What may surprise us even more is that three of the most significant Protestant leaders—Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley—who in their own way were also very critical of what Catholics believed about Mary, each believed in Mary’s perpetual virginity.

Early Christians attest to Mary’s virginity, describing how Mary conceived Jesus virginally—that is, without male seed or marital intercourse. Non-canonical Christian “scriptures” also refer to Mary miraculously giving birth without pain or shedding blood:

Some said, “The Virgin Mary has given birth before she was married two months.” And many said, “She has not given birth; the midwife has not gone up to her, and we heard no cries of pain.”

So the Virgin became a mother with great mercies. And she labored and bore the Son, but without pain, because it did not occur without purpose. And she did not seek a midwife.

Mary’s virginity and Christ’s virginal birth mean that Christ is truly divine because God is truly his father. That is why Ignatius of Antioch (d. 110) defended Mary’s virginity: “In regard to our Lord . . . he is truly of the family of David according to the flesh, and God’s Son by the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin.”[vi]

Mary’s virginity is categorical, since Jesus is both true God and true man—i.e., “truly born of a virgin.” Clement of Alexandria (d. 215) also witnesses to Mary’s ongoing virginity:

But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account of the birth of her child, as having been in the childlike state, although she was not. For some say that, after she brought forth, she was found, when examined, to be a virgin.

Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, [that she] gave birth to the truth and continued virgin, in the concealment of the mysteries of the truth. “And she brought forth, and yet brought not forth,” says Scripture; as having conceived of herself, and not from intercourse. Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics; but the heresies, not having learned them, dismissed them as not having conceived.

Gnostics denied Mary’s virginity because it witnessed to Christ’s divinity. Tertullian (d. 250) was one of the few Christians who doubted Mary’s virginity. A lawyer with a keen mind, this convert produced one of the earliest systematic approaches to theology, yet he could not fathom how Mary could give birth without shedding blood or how to deal with Jesus’ brothers. Tertullian’s doubts seem linked to his Montanist heresy and did little to influence Christians on the intimate link between Mary’s virginity and the mystery of the Incarnation.

Athanasius (d. 373) called her the “Ever-Virgin Mary,” countering those who denied the union of the Word’s divine and human natures. Peter Chrysologus (d. 450) more explicitly delineated the theological distinction of Mary’s virginity (before, during, and after Christ’s birth), saying, “She conceives as a virgin, she gives birth as a virgin, and she remains a virgin.” Augustine concurs (see CCC 510). The ecumenical council of Constantinople (553) bestowed the title “Ever-Virgin” upon Mary.

Ambrose (d. 397)—the bishop of Milan who had to counter his Arian predecessor, Auxentius—considered the belief in Mary’s virginity before, during, and after Christ’s birth as universal. He used “this common belief” to support another belief, that our Lord transformed bread and wine into his flesh and blood at the Last Supper:

Did the birth of the Lord Jesus from Mary come about in the course of nature? . . . It is clear then that the conception by the Virgin was above and beyond the course of nature. And this body that we make present [in the Eucharist] is the body born of the Virgin. Why do you expect to find in this case that nature takes its ordinary course in regard to the body of Christ when the Lord Jesus himself was born of the Virgin in a manner above and beyond the order of nature?

He could make this bold analogy because the belief in Mary’s virginity was so universal. Now it is our task here to investigate the scriptural evidence for these early intuitions.

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