By Phillip Rolfes | Staff Writer
September 23, 2025
Is the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity in the Bible?
The ancient teaching that Mary remained a virgin before, during, and after giving birth to our Lord went largely uncontested for over 1500 years. Even Church reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin held to this teaching.
But is Mary’s perpetual virginity biblical?
As with Mary’s assumption, we can safely affirm that the dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity is biblical, even if it isn’t explicitly stated.
Let’s explore...
Old Testament Background
We often make the mistake of assuming that modern-day Judaism is identical to the Judaism of Jesus’ day.
No issue more clearly demonstrates this than the discipline of celibacy.
Modern-day rabbinic Judaism encourages young Jewish men to get married and raise children. This responsibility has been elevated nearly to the level of a religious duty.
With this contemporary background in mind, many assume that the discipline of celibacy was an invention of the Church in the Middle Ages. No ancient Israelite would have embraced such a discipline.
This idea, however, is anachronistic at best.
After all, two of Israel’s greatest prophets, Elijah and Elisha, were both celibates.
And, as Dr. John Bergsma points out in his book Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the most notable features of the Jewish Essene community of Jesus’ own day was the fact that they were predominantly celibate.
Dr. Jeff Morrow likewise points to the laws surrounding a woman's "vows of self-affliction" that we find in Numbers 30. Such vows typically involved abstaining from certain foods, drinks, and even marital relations.
According to Numbers 30:11-16, a woman’s husband had the authority to either confirm or annul his wife’s vows of self-affliction. Dr. Morrow argues that, since the marital act is the only form of self-affliction that would be mutually involving, this must be what Numbers 30 is talking about.
There is a precedent, therefore, for celibacy in the Old Testament and in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ own day. And there is even precedent for celibate marriages, as seen in Numbers 30.
With this background in mind, it is possible to affirm that Mary entered her marriage to Joseph after having made such a vow of self-affliction.
In fact, there are patristic sources, like the Protoevangelium of St. James (ca. 145 AD), that explicitly state this was the case.
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Gospel Evidence
Let’s look at just one piece of Gospel evidence that points to Mary’s perpetual virginity.
After having twice emphasized that Mary is a virgin (Lk 1:27), Luke then shifts his narrative to Gabriel’s announcement to Mary.
In fact, Luke 1:31-33 has Gabriel delivering seven startling announcements to Mary:
- “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.”
- “You shall call his name Jesus.”
- "He will be great.”
- “[He] will be called the Son of the Most High.”
- “[T]he Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.”
- “[H]e will reign over the house of Jacob for ever.”
- “[O]f his kingdom there will be no end.”
Of these seven announcements, the least shocking should be that Mary will conceive and bear a son.
She is, after all, betrothed to Joseph. They are in a legally binding relationship that can only end in either marriage or divorce. Given this reality, it only makes sense that, once married, Mary would conceive and potentially bear a son.
Why is it, then, that Mary only seems to take issue with what ought to be the least shocking of Gabriel’s announcements: “How will this be, since I do not know man?”
According to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, her question implies that she intends to maintain her virginity within her marriage to Joseph; otherwise, her response doesn’t make sense.
Witness of the Early Church
But isn’t Mary’s perpetual virginity just an invention of later Catholic thinking?
As it turns out, no.
Belief in Mary’s perpetual virginity was all but universal throughout the early Church period. It didn’t become a point of contention until the Antidicomarites—who enjoyed the support of several prominent Arian heretics—emerged from 200 AD to 400 AD.
It’s during this time that patristic sources defending Mary’s perpetual virginity proliferate. Here are just three from the three dominant Christian traditions of the time: Syriac, Greek, and Roman:
Ephrem the Syrian (373 AD)
Because there are those who dare to say that Mary cohabited with Joseph after she bore the Redeemer, we reply, "How would it have been possible for her who was the home of the indwelling of the Spirit, whom the divine power overshadowed, that she be joined by a mortal being, and gave birth filled with birthpangs, in the image of the primeval curse?" (Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron)
St. John Chrysostom (407 AD)
[W]hat it was necessary for you to learn of Him, this He Himself has said; that the Virgin was untouched by man until the birth; but that which both was seen to be a consequence of the former statement, and was acknowledged, this in its turn he leaves for you to perceive; namely, that not even after this, she having so become a mother, and having been counted worthy of a new sort of travail, and a child-bearing so strange, could that righteous man ever have endured to know her. For if he had known her, and had kept her in the place of a wife, how is it that our Lord John 19:27 commits her, as unprotected, and having no one, to His disciple, and commands him to take her to his own home?
(Homilies on Matthew, homily 5, paragraph 5)
St. Jerome (420 AD)
The Evangelist pointed out a circumstance which might have given rise to some scandal, namely, that Mary was not known by her husband until she was delivered, and he did so that we might be the more certain that she from whom Joseph refrained while there was room to doubt the import of the vision was not known after her delivery. (The Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, paragraph 7)
From this we can see that the dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity not only has biblical precedence but also enjoyed widespread acceptance among the early Church Fathers.
It wasn’t until relatively recently in the history of Christianity that some theologians and Scripture scholars began to cast doubt on this ancient teaching.
Sources:
Gospel of Luke course with Dr. Jeff Morrow
Jesus and the Dead Sea Scroll, Dr. John Bergsma
