When we call Mary “ever-virgin,” we’re saying she remained a virgin before, during, and after giving birth to Jesus. That’s what the Greek word aeiparthenos means, always a virgin, perpetually a virgin, throughout her entire life.
This isn’t some medieval invention. It’s what Christians believed from the beginning and what the Orthodox Church still confesses today.
Three Moments
The teaching has three parts. First, Mary conceived Jesus virginally, by the Holy Spirit, not through relations with Joseph or any man. That’s the virgin birth everyone knows about from the Christmas story. Second, she gave birth as a virgin, Christ’s birth didn’t violate her physical integrity. The ancient Fathers used different images for this: light passing through glass, a door remaining shut. They were trying to say something happened that doesn’t fit normal biology because this wasn’t a normal birth. God became man.
Third, and this is where people from Baptist or Bible church backgrounds often pause, Mary had no other children after Jesus. She and Joseph didn’t have a normal married life with more kids. She remained a virgin until her death.
But What About Jesus’ Brothers?
Right, the Gospels mention Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Mark 6:3 names them: James, Joses, Judas, and Simon. Matthew lists sisters too. If you grew up reading the Bible on your own, you’d naturally assume these were Mary’s other kids.
But “brother” in Hebrew and Aramaic covers a wider range than our English word. It can mean a biological brother, sure. It can also mean a cousin, a stepbrother, or a close kinsman. When Lot is called Abraham’s “brother” in Genesis, he’s actually his nephew. The language is flexible.
The early Church understood these “brothers” as either Joseph’s children from a previous marriage (Joseph was likely older, perhaps a widower) or as Jesus’ cousins. There’s another Mary mentioned in the Gospels, Mary of Clopas, and some of these “brothers” may have been her sons. James, the most prominent “brother of the Lord,” is elsewhere identified as the son of Alphaeus.
You don’t have to take my word for it. Athanasius taught this in Alexandria in the 300s. So did Epiphanius, Jerome, and Ambrose. It wasn’t controversial. It was just what Christians believed.
Why Does This Matter?
Here’s the thing: this isn’t really about Mary. It’s about who Jesus is.
The virgin birth points to the Incarnation. Jesus isn’t the product of human generation. He’s the eternal Son of God taking flesh. His conception is a new creation, the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary like the Spirit hovered over the waters in Genesis. If Jesus had been conceived the usual way, we’d be talking about a very special human being, maybe even a prophet. We wouldn’t be talking about God become man.
Mary’s perpetual virginity extends that same logic. The Church saw her womb as a holy of holies, the place where heaven and earth met. Just as no one else entered the inner sanctuary of the Temple, no one else came from Mary’s womb. She was set apart entirely for this one unique purpose: to be the Mother of God.
That title, Theotokos, is tied up with ever-virgin. If Mary is truly the Mother of God, not just the mother of Jesus’ human nature, but the mother of the Person who is God, then everything about her role in the Incarnation takes on cosmic significance. The Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 explicitly called her “ever-virgin.” It wasn’t inventing something new. It was stating clearly what the Church had always believed.
How We Got Here
You won’t find the word “ever-virgin” in your Bible. You also won’t find the word “Trinity.” We believe both because the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, came to understand what Scripture reveals. The Apostles knew Mary. The generation after them knew people who knew her. And from the earliest centuries, you find Christian writers assuming she remained a virgin.
By the time you get to the great Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries, it’s everywhere. Not as a novelty, but as received tradition. When someone like Helvidius in the 380s argued that Mary had other children, Jerome wrote a whole treatise against him. Not because Jerome was inventing a new doctrine, but because Helvidius was contradicting what everyone already believed.
Talking to Your Baptist Cousin
If you’re from around here, you’ve probably got family at First Baptist or Abundant Life who think all this Mary stuff is weird. I get it. It sounds weird if you’ve been taught that Catholics and Orthodox “worship Mary” and that the Bible alone is enough.
Here’s what I’d say: We don’t worship her. Worship belongs to God alone. But we honor her as the Mother of God, and we believe the Church’s understanding of Scripture, not just our private interpretation. When the whole Church, across centuries and continents, reads “brothers of Jesus” and understands them as extended family, that matters. They were closer to the culture, closer to the language, closer to the events than we are.
And honestly? If you believe Jesus is God, the virgin birth shouldn’t be the hard part. If God can become man, he can be born of a virgin who remains a virgin. The Incarnation breaks all the normal rules. That’s the point.
We call her ever-virgin because that’s what the Church has always called her. Come to a service sometime and you’ll hear it in the hymns, in the litanies, in the prayers. “Ever-virgin Theotokos, rejoice!” It’s not a footnote. It’s woven into how we worship, because it’s woven into who Jesus is.
