The Perpetual Virginity of Mother Mary

²⁵ But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus.
-Matthew 1:25

There are some people who obviously think the above verse indicates that St. Joseph and Mother Mary had normal sexual relations after the birth of Jesus. This post is in defence of the Perpetual Virginity of Mother Mary.

Firstly, there is no proof that St Joseph and Mother Mary ever consummated their marriage. I know, the trouble is with the 'brothers of Jesus' mentioned in the Bible. One occurrence is at John 7:5, where it says

(⁵ Not even his brothers believed in him.)

http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/7-5.htm

If you look at the link above where you have the verse in Koine Greek, you will find that the Greek word used is adelphoi. Here it is written as ἀδελφοὶ. You will find the same Greek word at Matthew 12:46, the more famous verse of the two.

⁴⁶ Jesus was still talking to the people when his mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside, asking to speak with him. ⁴⁷ So one of the people there said to him, “Look, your mother and brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak with you.”
⁴⁸ Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother.”

http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/12-46.htm

You will also find the same Greek word in Acts 1:14
¹⁴ They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

http://biblehub.com/interlinear/acts/1-14.htm

But if you look at Matthew 4:18, the word used to describe Simon and Andrew is adelphous or ἀδελφούς, which is not quite the same. This is not a lone error on the part of Matthew, if you look at Matthew 1:2, where its says 'Judah and his brothers', the word used is again ἀδελφοὺς, not ἀδελφοὶ, the word used when referring to the brothers of Jesus.

¹⁸ Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers. They were Simon (his other name was Peter) and Andrew, his brother. They were putting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/4-18.htm

^2-6 From Abraham to King David, the following ancestors are listed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers; then Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.

http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/1-2.htm

Another meaning of the Greek word ἀδελφοὶ is kinsman, and so when it says brothers of Jesus, it is a reference to his relatives. Matthew used two different words to differentiate between the two, so they can't mean the same thing. It is one of the constraints of the English language. Did you know that there are two different word words for love in the Bible? One is ἀγαπᾷς or agape (unconditional love, like God's love for man) and the other is φιλῶ or philo (brotherly love). John 21:15-16 bears this out. But in the English translation, we have only love. Jesus asks 'Agapas me?' and Simon replies 'Philo se'. In English it is "(Simon son of John) do you love me?" and Peter's reply is "(Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that) I love you". See what I mean?

¹⁵ After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs.” ¹⁶ A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.”


But if you look at the original Greek text, there are two different words, as can be seen from the following links
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/21-15.htm
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/21-16.htm

⁵⁵ Isn't he the carpenter's son? Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? 
-Matthew 13:55
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/matthew/13-55.htm

Here also the word used is ἀδελφοὶ, not ἀδελφοὺς which was used to describe brothers as in Simon and Andrew, and  also Judah and his brothers.

In Luke 22:32, again we have ἀδελφούς, and not ἀδελφοὺς
³¹ “Simon, Simon! Listen! Satan has received permission to test all of you, to separate the good from the bad, as a farmer separates the wheat from the chaff. ³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back to me, you must strengthen your brothers.”
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/22-32.htm
Just in case you are wondering - Could James, Joseph, Simon and Judas be the cousins of Jesus? Well, if you look at Colossians 4:10
¹⁰ Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have already received instructions to welcome Mark if he comes your way.)
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/colossians/4-10.htm

The word used here is anepsios or ἀνεψιὸς. So does that signify anything? The brothers of Jesus were His kinsmen.

By the 4th century, the doctrine of perpetual virginity had been well attested. For example, references can be found in the 3rd century writings of Hippolytus of Rome, who called Mary "the tabernacle exempt from defilement and corruption," and the 4th century works of Athanasius, Epiphanius, Hilary, Didymus, Ambrose, Jerome, and Siricius continued the attestations to perpetual virginity  – a trend that gathered pace in the next century.

John Chrysostom (347–407) defended perpetual virginity on a number of grounds, one of which was Jesus' commands to his mother in Calvary: "Woman, behold your son!" and to his disciple "Behold, thy mother!" in John 19:26-27. Since the second century these two statements of Jesus from the cross had been the basis of reasonings that Mary had no other children and "from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home" because after the deaths of Joseph and Jesus there was no one else to look after Mary, and she had to be entrusted to the disciple.

Not only Catholics, even Protestants believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary.

Martin Luther believed that Mary did not have other children and did not have any marital relations with Joseph. The Latin text of the 1537 Smalcald Articles, written by Martin Luther, used the term "Ever Virgin" to refer to Mary. The perpetual virginity of Mary was Luther's lifelong belief, even after he rejected other Marian doctrines.

Huldrych Zwingli directly supported perpetual virginity and wrote: "I firmly believe that [Mary], ... forever remained a pure, intact Virgin." Luther and Zwingli's support of perpetual virginity was endorsed by Heinrich Bullinger and was included in the 1566 Second Helvetic Confession.

John Calvin "was less clear-cut than Luther on Mary's perpetual virginity but undoubtedly favored it". He cautioned against "impious speculation" on the topic.

The Anglican reformers of the 16th and 17th century supported perpetual virginity "on the basis of ancient Christian authority". In the 18th century, John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, also supported the doctrine and wrote that: "... born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought Him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin."

So what if the Mullaperiyar Dam collapses?

Now, its estimated that the Mullaperiyar Dam has a capacity of 443.23 million cubic meters. In other words, for the purposes of calculation, as we ll see later, thats 0.44323 cubic kilometers or 0.44323 km³

It is feared that the collapse of this dam would lead to four districts being submerged.

Lets take a look at the facts.

Ernakulam district covers an area of 3068 km²

Idukki has an area of 5105.22 km²

The total area of Kottayam is 2,208 km²

Pathanamthitta spans an area of 2642 km²

In total, we re looking at an area of 13,023.22 km²

Now, we know from high school that

Volume = length x breadth x height

or,

Volume = area of the base x height

Substituting the values, we have

0.44323 = 13023.22 x height

From this, we get

height = 3.40338257 × 10^-5 km
height = 3.40338257 × 10^-5 x 10³ m
height = 3.40338257 × 10^-2 m
or in simple terms,
height = 3.4 cm

Big deal. During the monsoon, it rains around twice this, 6-8 cm in Kochi. I think we can live with half that. Not that its going to collect and come to a standstill in Kochi. All that water is going to flow into the Arabian Sea anyway.

Mean sea levels increase by 3.4 cm, you say? If you consider the area of the Arabian Sea and the fact that its connected to the other oceans of the world, the rise is negligible. Not that there is going to be any actual rise in the sea levels. All rivers flow into the sea. Water from the Mullaperiyar dam is used for irrigation in Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Groundwater too flows into the ocean. So there is going to be no net increase or decrease in the total volume of seawater to warrant any increase in sea levels.

Thanks to Ms. Amy Bohac, Maine East High School

Is Your Hut On Fire Today?

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, and soon there was nothing left.

The worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger.

"God, how could you do this to me ?" he cried.

Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

"How did you know I was here ?" asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain, and suffering. Remember this the next time your "hut" seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.

You May Want To Consider Passing This On, because "You Never Know Who Feels Like Their Hut Is On Fire Today"

-Sourced from the Internet

Schumacher to Mercedes

Ending weeks of speculation, Mercedes GP, which bought out the Brawn GP team, have confirmed that seven time F1 World champion Michael Schumacher will be driving for them in the 2010 season. There is still a lot of talk about how difficult it might be for the 41-year old to readjust himself to the pace and compete against talented young drivers hungry for success half his age. Even his Mercedes GP teammate Nico Rosberg has openly stated that he would not be the No. 2 driver in the team. Let alone Rosberg, apart from the likes of talents like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, Schumacher also has to battle it out with former title rival Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, as well as defending champion Button and Mark Webber. If Button could do it, Webber could also. And Webber has proved that quite convincingly last season.

The field is tighter than ever, something that Schumacher has reportedly admitted. Assuming the Brackley-based outfit keeps up its winning ways, it could very well be a eight-car horse race to the Championship title. Ferrari will be all charged up after having a season which it would rather forget. Now that double F1 World Champion Alonso has signed up with Ferrari, they would go all out to win. Ferrari will have an added edge, knowing from previous experience how Ross Brawn runs a team, how Schumacher drives, and how they two combine together. Hopefully this can be used to their advantage. Button moving on to McLaren means that McLaren now has an all-English driver line-up with two recent F1 World Champions and they definitely will be determined to prove a point about how good the English are at racing, as always. Buoyed by their recent success and their new-found confidence in the fact that you do not necessarily need a Mercedes engine in the back to win races, this time Red Bull will be hoping to lay their hands on that Constructors' title which eluded them by the narrowest of margins last season. All Adrian Newey needs to do is to come up with a good chassis for the Renault engine again. Speaking of engines, we could very well see some good showing from the Cosworth-engined cars of Williams and Lotus. Perhaps even Manor, renamed Virgin Racing, will see some good results, maybe even Top 10 finishes in the points. As of now, all bets are off for the upcoming 2010 season. Maybe the opening race in Saakhir will provide us some revelations. Until then, we have no choice but to wait.

Manufacturers taking over existing teams have generally not met with success in the past-Honda, Toyota and BMW to name a few, two of them who exited the sport at the end of the last season. One hopes, for the sakes of both Michael Schumacher as well as Nico Rosberg, that Mercedes would prove to be an exception. For now, the world waits with bated breaths to watch the return of the King as well as the legendary Silver Arrows.

Return of the Silver Arrows

The beauty of the Three Pointed Star

I was just traveling along the highway when something caught my eye. It was a car, just like the millions of cars that use the State's highways, yet there was something different about this one. Instead of staggering movements that other car engines generate to propel their chassis forward, this one was smooth, slicing through the air like a hot knife through butter. It was like watching sheer poetry in motion. So smooth, so graceful. It was then that I stained my neck out the window to find out which car it was and saw the unmistakable grille and the all too familiar signature three-cornered star.

Image Copyright NextAutos.com

I also saw another Mercedes, decelerating ever so gracefully to a halt at the University signal.

The Mercedes isn't all about luxury or status, they have got a beautiful engine inside them too. I just realised that. Better late than never.

Linus Torvalds gives thumbs up to Windows 7

We Are The Champions

Brawn GP has finally done it. From being on the scrapheap at the beginning of the season, for sale as low as $1, Brawn GP has finally managed to become the first ever team to win the World Constructors Champion on debut. All credit goes to Ross Brawn and his team for reinventing a back-of-the-grid team like Honda F1 to a worthy championship winning team, all in a month or so, without the millions of dollars of research and technology to support them.

I'm sure that in the future many will be studying this as an example of how it doesn't take millions of dollars and bleeding-edge technology to be the best in F1. For now, it is sweet victory to be savoured at Brackley, and after all those months of worrying over whether they were going to have jobs to support their families and send their kids to school, the team thoroughly deserves it.