Biblical Profile: Was Mary a Second Wife?

In a hugely popular second-century gospel prequel known as the Protevangelium of James, a 12-year-old Mary is given in marriage to an elderly widower named Joseph. The work’s overriding concern to establish Mary’s perpetual virginity leads it to claim that the “brothers and sisters” of Jesus—mentioned several times in Paul’s letters and the Gospels—are children of Joseph from an earlier marriage, an interpretation that has been widely accepted in Catholic and Orthodox churches ever since. Modern critical scholars find little in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke to justify the idea of Mary’s perpetual virginity. Even in some Catholic […]