“…Mary, ever virgin…”
A Brief Exposition
of
the Biblical Doctrine
of the Virginity of Mary,
Mother of God
Luther preached of the miraculous birth of our Lord: “…we must
abide by the Gospel, that He was born of the Virgin Mary… It is
well known what is meant by giving birth. Mary’s experience was
not different from that of other women, so that the birth of Christ
was a real natural birth, Mary being His natural mother and He
being her natural son. Therefore her body performed its functions
of giving birth, which naturally belonged to it, except that she
brought forth without sin, without shame, without pain and without
injury, just as she had conceived without sin. The curse of Eve did
not come on her…” (First Christmas Day sermon of the Church
Postil).
This Biblical teaching is also clearly expressed in the Lutheran
Confessions. Formula of Concord, Article VIII.24 reads:
“…Mary, the most blessed Virgin, bore not a mere man, but, as the
angel Gabriel testifies, such a man as is truly the Son of the most
high God, who showed His divine majesty even in His mother’s
womb, inasmuch as He was born of a virgin, with her virginity
inviolate (…quod de virgine, inviolate ipsius virginitate…).
Therefore she is truly the mother of God, and nevertheless
remained a virgin (Dei genitrix, est et tamen virgo mansit).”
So to the question of Mary’s virginity, Lutherans answer that at the
conception of, at the birth of, and after the birth of Jesus Christ
God’s Son, Mary was and remained a virgin.
A more complete discussion of the virginity of Mary is appropriate
here. The virginity of Mary before the birth, at the birth, and after
the birth of the Christ is an article of faith, which is to say that it is
a doctrine necessary for salvation. Isaiah prophesies that the
“virgin (hm'l.[;h') will be with child” (7:14, quoted in Matthew
1:23). St. Matthew writes that the Christ child was conceived by
the Holy Spirit (1:18, 20). St. Luke identifies Mary as a virgin
(παρθένος) twice in the same sentence (1:27). Of the three Chief
Symbols of the orthodox Christian faith, both the Apostles’ Creed
and Nicene Creed identify Mary as a virgin.
So the Biblical doctrine of the virginity of Mary includes Mary’s
virginity being miraculously preserved during the act of giving
birth to the Son of God. The Formula of Concord is clear here.
Mary bore Jesus: “…with her virginity inviolate… and
nevertheless remained a virgin.” (Solid Declaration VIII.24).
The word sempervirgine (“ever virgin”) in the Lutheran
Confessions (Smalkald Articles Part I.4) adds to the question at
hand. The Latin version of the Smalkald Articles clearly
understands Mary as continuing in her virginity. This has been
understood by many to include the teaching that after the birth of
the Christ, Mary bore no other children. This teaching is clearly
present early in the church, both east and west. As early as the end
of the second century A. D., this teaching is attributed to
important church fathers like Irenaeus (d. 200) and Clement of
Alexandria (d. 215). Athanasius (d. 373), after whom our Creed is
named, used the Greek word ἀιεπάρθενος, “ever virgin” to
describe Mary.
The assertion that Mary gave birth to no other children is difficult
to support exegetically, however. The clear passages of Holy
Scripture from which doctrine is drawn (sedes doctrinae) make no
such assertion. Indeed, several times in the New Testament
brothers and sisters of Jesus are identified as such (Matthew 12:46,
Mark 6:3, Luke 8:19).
This is frequently explained by asserting that where “brothers” and
“sisters” are identified, they are not natural-born brothers or sisters
of Jesus. They are counted as children of Joseph by another
mother, or cousins of Jesus, but not “uterine” sons and daughters
of Mary. Indeed, Scripture frequently uses the word “son” to mean
distant descendant, and “brother” to mean close friend or relative.
For instance, in Matthew 1 Jesus is Son of David, son of Abraham.
This use of the word “son” stresses the clear fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy. To this point, Theological Dictionary of the
New Testament (Kittle) demonstrates that ἀδελφός (“brother”) is
used 30 times in Acts and 130 times in Paul to mean “spiritual
brother”, rather than “physical brother” (I.144-5). We frequently
refer to our fellow members of Zion as our “brothers” and
“sisters”. Exegetically, the words “son” and “brother” still carry
their proper literal sense, but they are used in ways that highlight
close or direct relationships. Examples of this abound in the
Scriptures, as we read, for example, in Mark 10:29-30.
Further, while the Smalkald Articles (Part I.4) uses sempervirgine
in the Latin, it should be noted that the Latin was not written by
Martin Luther, nor was it presented at Smalkald. The German,
which reads simply Jungfrau (virgin, not sempervirgine), was
written by Luther in 1537, was presented at Smalkald, and was
then revised in 1538 to the form included in the 1580 Book of
Concord. The Latin version was translated five years later by
Selneccer (1543, see Bente’s Historical Introductions to the Book
of Concord, pg. 60).
In summary, the doctrine of the virginity of Mary at the birth of
Christ is an article of faith, and must be confessed. The virginity
of Mary after giving birth to the Christ is clearly confessed in the
Formula of Concord, and so by Lutherans. The perpetual virginity
of Mary, understood as Mary never giving birth to any other
children after the birth of the Christ, is an ancient assertion in the
church, and is to be allowed in orthodox Christian teaching, but
cannot be made an article of faith. Neither Scripture, nor the
catholic Creeds, nor our Confessions make it such.
Any Pastor ordained in the Lutheran church must be willing to
confess the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, for it is
contained in the Book of Concord of 1580. In the Smalkald
Articles, the Latin reads et ex Maria, pura, sancta, sempervirgine
(always virgin) nasceretur (Part I.4). The Lutheran confession,
therefore, can be rightly “Mary, ever Virgin…”.
Fr. Mark P. Braden
Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church
The Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 2012 A. D.