Matthew and the Virginity of Mary

Q: As an article of faith we are taught and believe that Mary the Mother of God was "ever virgin." In speaking of St. Joseph, St. Matthew's Gospel (1:25) says: "and he had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son...." Does this not infer that after Jesus' birth Mary and Joseph lived as husband and wife? How does one explain this to nonbelievers?

A: Any number of commentaries will throw light on verses 18-25 of the first chapter of Matthew.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that the original text of Matthew was written in Greek and the author came from a Semitic background. Any English translation merely attempts to convey what the author meant in the original language.

Analyzing 1:25 in The Gospel According to Matthew (Sheed & Ward), Alexander Jones writes, "Matthew makes this statement of the period which directly concerns him, his purpose being to safeguard the virginal nature of the conception and birth of Jesus. Of the period following the birth he says nothing. His sentence would best be paraphrased: She brought forth a son without having relations with Joseph. The Semitic turn of phrase, 'not...until,' while denying the action for the period preceding the verb borne, implies nothing for the period which follows it: c.f. Genesis 8:7, 1 Timothy 4:13, etc."

Raymond E. Brown, S.S., says much the same thing in The Birth of the Messiah (Doubleday).

Brown notes that to understand this passage we must look at the verse in its immediate context and the context of the whole Gospel. Matthew's immediate concern is to stress Mary's virginity before the child's birth and the fulfillment of the Isaian prophecy. And he says, in English when something is negated until a particular time, occurrence after that time is usually assumed.

But in Greek and Semitic, he instructs us, "such a negation often has no implication at all about what happened after the limit of the 'until' was reached."