medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
John Wickstrom wrote:
> But that statement suggests that because there is no support, the perpetual
> virginity of Mary is unlikely. Whereas it could be equally said (and with
> the opposite bias suggested ) there is no NT evidence AGAINST the doctrine
> of Mary's perpetual virginity. So Mr. Cane's formulation: "the text is not
> conclusive" seems the most accurate and neutral.
in response to V.K. Inman:
> Quoting Hal Cain <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>>My point is, then, that the text isn't conclusive. There's a long
>>literature on this, some scholarly, much controversial.
>>
>>V. K. Inman replied: Exactly my point, there is NO New Testament support
> FOR perpetual virginity.
Quite; "the text isn't conclusive" applies equally in both directions
(though my personal view is that eos/donec/until don't mean "then and
afterwards" but "up till that time"). I have to think that the writer
(and the editor(s), supposing that other people worked over Matthew's
text before it solidified into the version that has come down to us as
canonical) wasn't concerned either way.
I also have to think that what Jerome and later scholars, preachers and
commentators say about the text and what they believe it means isn't
primary evidence of the writer's meaning (though it is evidence for
their own beliefs, of course -- and also for what they tell us about
texts that have disappeared since then). But I'm not discounting the
value of careful reading as a way of shedding light on the environment
in which a text was created -- far from it.
In the context of the study of medieval religion, surely one of the
really interesting things is how people's beliefs were ostensibly built
on texts that don't actually say what they're thought to say -- and that
consideration applies in other contexts than the medieval, of course.
Hal Cain
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