I was having a discussion with my associate pastor at church, and he was saying that
Mary was not married. I don't think that's what the early church thought.
I thought they considered her married as part of the traditional Jewish marriage ceremony.
Yeah, Jamie you are correct in thinking that Mary was indeed really married, right?
She was technically married to Joseph when the angel appeared to her,
to announce that God was inviting her to be the mother of the messiah.
Where the confusion, often the source of the confusion
often arises when some english translations will say that Mary was engaged to Joseph,
but the greek word there is betrothed. It means to be betrothed and such betrothal
meant real marriage. It wasn't just an engagement, it was the real marriage and as we know
for Jewish marriages there was the period where they would be married, there was the ratification
of the marriage through the profession of the vows where they become really married, and then there
was an interim period where the husband would go off to prepare a place for his bride, come
back and get his bride, and they would consummate. That which was real, namely their marriage bond.
So it's that period where they're married, that interim period where they're really married,
but have not yet consummated the marriage that seems to be the point at which the angel Gabriel
comes to Mary, and invites her to be the mother of the messiah, at the Annunciation. There in
Luke chapter one now, Jamie, the evidence that such a betrothal was a real marriage
is found, for example, in Matthew's account of how Joseph sought to divorce Mary quietly, right? Now
think about this Jamie, why would Joseph seek to divorce Mary, if they were not legally married,
right? A divorce would not be necessary if they were not really married, married in a real way.
So that's one piece of evidence that we could appeal to, but also too,
Matthew goes on to talk about Joseph as Mary's husband, in Matthew chapter 1 verse 19. So in
Matthew 1:18 that's when Matthew says, when his mother Mary had been betrothed, that's the same
Greek word that Luke uses, in Luke chapter 1 verse 27 before they came together she was
found to be with child of the holy spirit, okay? Then in verse 19, right after that, Matthew refers
to Joseph as Mary's husband. The Greek word their anar which can be translated as husband,
then in verse 20, Matthew quotes the angel, "do not fear to take Mary your wife." So,
given that Joseph seeks to divorce Mary and that Matthew refers to Mary as Joseph's wife, and calls
Joseph Mary's husband, we have clear evidence that Mary was not engaged to Joseph, in our sense of
the term engaged, but she was betrothed in the sense that they were legally married. Caller:
Well and see, that's what I told him and so, then he told me, because he's from africa, and he said,
well there's two schools of thought, and he said and he gets tired of people trying to play God,
and... Karlo: Okay, well... Caller: He's saying that they were also and he said I
wanted to have the people in church understand that she was not a prostitute, and it's like,
well I understand what you're trying to get across, but I said the fact is is the early
church does consider her married, and he disagreed with me and.... Karlo: Well there's always
different schools of thought, on every issue. The question is, which of those schools has the
best evidence to support its claims, and the bible gives evidence to support the claim that Mary was
legally married and she conceives Jesus within her womb, but not by any cooperation of some man,
her husband nor some other man, but the holy spirit. So this is a miraculous event that's
taking place and it in no way undermines the legal marriage that she had with Joseph.