Did The Virgin Mary Have Other Children?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #499, p. 126, "The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the church to confess Mary's real and perpetual virginity, even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man...."  Acording to the the inspired Word of God, the Bible, Mary's virginity was not perpetual; she did have other children.

There are literally dozens of New Testament Scriptures concerning Jesus that say it is written of him, much of which is written in the Psalms. Jesus said, "All things that are written in the law, the prophets and in the Psalms, concerning me, must be fulfilled". (Luke 24:44). When Jesus drove the moneychangers out of thetemple, "his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up" (John 2:15-17.

The very scriptures that came to the disciples' minds also speak of Jesus's siblings, Mary's other children (Psalm 69:8-9). Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. (Psalm 69:7-9).

According to Abingdon's Strong's Hebrew Concordance, the words brethren and children in Psalm 69:8, are translated from two entirely different Hebrew words, thus indicating two entirely different types of rlationships. The Hebrew word for brethren (*ach-#251), in Psalm 69:8, is the same word Cain used in Genesis 4:9 in reference to his sibling Able, saying, "Am I my brother's keeper? The Hebrew word for children (ben-#1121) is the same word that is used in Genesis 3:16, when God told Eve: "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children".

When the Apostle Paul quoted Psalm 69:9 in his epistle to the Romans, and then said, "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning", he was not oblivious to the fact that Psalm 69:8-9 is prophetic of Jesus and Mary and of Mary's other children. The subject matter of both passages is the same. He was talking about "reproach". He was admonishing his readers to be of the same mind as Christ and to follow his example of not pleasing self but others (Romans 15:1-5). Compare the following:

Romans 15:3-4 - "For even Christ pleased not himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning."

Psalm 69:7-9 - "Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eatem me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me."

When the Apostle Paul said, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction", he was talking about the Old Testament (2 Timothy 3:16). Paul taught "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come" (Acts 26:22, and he "believed all things that are written therein" (Acts 24:14). If the doctrine of Perpetual Virginity had in fact been taught in the early church, Paul most certainly would have made it perfectly clear to his readers when he quoted Psalm 69:8, that the context of the verse he quoted only seems to contradict the doctrind of Perpetual Virginity.

Since all scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and correction, and is totally silent on the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity, the doctrine has to have been born out of the living tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, which is not, in its entirety, inspired of God. The Living Tradidion of the Church should be adhered to in that it may afford us a better understanding of the early church, but only insofar as that it does not contradict the divinely inspired Word of God.