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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Matthew can be absolutely crystal clear when he (whoever he actually was)
wants to be. Could it be, in this instance, that he is being intentionally
coy and ambiguous? Reading between the lines, might he be expressing the
view that what went on, in private, between two consenting adults, whom he
says, as a matter of fact, were married to each other, is firstly, none of
our business and secondly, not very relevant to the more important story he
wants to tell?

I mean, let's be serious, even if he wanted to be absolutely crystal clear
on the point, how would anyone ever come to be certain about such things
without having been in the room watching? Considering the dubious
historicity of the entire event (I almost wrote 'affair'), to whom does it
really matter but the faithful for whom reasoned scholarly discourse can
never trump the authority of their sacred scripture?

Just a thought. Several actually.

Richard J Legault

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 10:54 AM, Jaye Procure <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> And I see Richard already covered what I said about "until"! Apologies.
>
> Jaye
> On 2015-03-20 10:51 AM, "Jaye Procure" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> You also have to watch the scriptural use of the word "until".  It
>> doesn't necessarily imply that the situation changed afterward.  In the
>> Hebrew scripture, a woman (and brainfog is preventing me from recalling
>> who) was said to have had no children until she died.  She certainly didn't
>> have them after she died.
>>
>> Even in modern context we sometimes can say something like "Farewell,
>> until we meet again" which is not to imply that the good wishes end when we
>> next meet.
>>
>> Jaye
>> On 2015-03-20 9:04 AM, "Robert Kirby" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>>
>>> >----- Original Message -----
>>> >From: "Gordon Plumb" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> >To: [log in to unmask]
>>> >Sent: Friday, March 20, 2015 4:51:42 AM
>>> >Subject: Re: [M-R] St Joseph, husband of the BVM
>>> >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>>> culture
>>> >The gospel of Matthew tells us that Joseph, following the angelic dream
>>> " took
>>> >her as his wife, but he had no marital relations  with her until she
>>> had born a
>>> >son." The presumption must be that, at least in the understanding of
>>> the author of Matthew,  they thereafter had a normal sexual relationship
>>> (and presumably children?).
>>>
>>> I'm not entirely sure that follows, does it?  If I say that my father
>>> and I quarreled on my thirteenth birthday, and that we spoke no more until
>>> I moved out of his house, does it follow that thereafter we had a normal
>>> family relationship? Or is the implication that, having not spoken when we
>>> were together, we certainly didn't speak when we were apart? I don't know.
>>> Robert Kirby
>>>
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