Thoughts on Mary, Mother of Jesus A few nights ago my wife and I were watching a special of PBS about the great houses of worship in America. One of them was a Catholic parish with a large dome that depicted the Assumption of Mary, and the person talking about the painting said that it gives a perfect representation of the scene, right out of the Bible (Emphasis mine). I'd like to know which Bible they were reading, because I've read the Bible a lot, and I haven't found the verse that deals with the Assumtion of Mary in the canonical texts. I think I have seen a mention of it in the so-called "heretical" texts, along with the birth of Mary and the Immaculate Conception, which is also not in the Bible.
Then we saw a cable version of Dogma, which isn't as funny on cable, but it puts forth the argument that Mary had other children after Jesus. This is not acceptable to Catholic Dogma, apparently. One argument for Jesus having siblings through Mary and Joseph is found in Mark 6:3

Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us

(I'm using the King James Version, which is not my standard translation.) Now the Christian Church has also written stories in the "heretical" books that Joseph was an old man, a widower, with other children before he was assigned to take Mary for a wife, therefore (so the theory goes) the brothers and sisters mentioned in Mark 6:3 are his older step siblings, who for some reason were not included in the nativity scenes or the flight into Egypt. Basically, it's a lot of baggage added to the stories to protect Mary as a "perpetual virgin."
Another bit of proof that Mary was not a virgin all her life is found in Luke 2:7 (thanks to Charles Schultz, most people have heard this one)

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him...

and for even more proof (Matthew 1:25):

And [Joseph] knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus

Of course "knew her" meant "intercourse" in the KJV, and other translations make this clearer. In short, Joseph and Mary consummated their marriage (as was proper for the time) and Jesus is her firstborn son. We read about some new translations of the Bible in today's Oregonian and there are samples of John 3:16 from each translation. Each one uses the phrase "one and only Son", which isn't in the more traditional translations, and we're trying to figure out why Jesus has to be Mary's only son and God's only Son.  ¶ 9:33 AM