Did Mary have other children?

Question

Since it appears that Jesus had brothers and sisters, did Mary have other children? If not, how many wives did Joseph have?

Matthew 12:46-47 NIV

46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

Matthew 13:56 NIV

56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

Answer 1

As noted above by Igantius Theophorus, there exist some early Christian documents that attempt to deal with the conflict between the presence of Jesus' siblings and the perpetual virginity of Mary—Joseph as a widower seems to have been a favorite. So, for example, the Flight to Egypt as depicted artistically often includes Jesus' brother James leading the donkey—since he was putatively from an earlier marriage. That said, there is nothing in the biblical text that demands that Mary remained a virgin, was immaculately conceived, or assumed into heaven.

Of course, such doctrines are matters of faith and perfectly fine to hold to, but no serious biblical scholar would argue for the historical reliability of such documents—whatever the reality may have been.

Answer 2

There is one ancient source which lists Joseph as a widower and that the "brothers of the Lord" were only half(??? step???) brothers of Christ. It does not appear to be a listing of the number of wives that Joseph had, simply that he had had at least one (and thus "widower").

There are those, however, who would say that Joseph was similarly celibate and that the words, "brother" and "sister" are better understood as "kinsman" and "kinswoman."

Answer 3

There is no source in the bible (or anywhere else that I know of) which states how many other wives Joseph had. There are many a scripture which talk about Jesus's 'brothers. (Mt 12:46, Mk 3:31, Lk 8:19, Mk 6:3) which is troublesome, but the notes in my bible read thus:

In semitic usage the terms 'brother' and 'sister' are applied not only to children of the same parents, but to nephews, nieces, cousins, half-brothers and half sisters; cf Gn 14:16;29:15.

While one cannot suppose that the meaning of a greek word should be sought in the first place from semitic usage, the Septuagint often translates the hebrew 'āh by the Greek word adelphos, "brother," as in the cited passages, a fact that may argue for the similar breadth of meaning in some new testament passages. For instance, there is no doubt that in [mark 6:17] , "brother' is used of Philip, who was actually the half-brother of Herod Antipas. On the other hand, mark may have understood the terms Literally; see also Mt 3:31-32, 12:46, 13:55-56, Lk 8:19; Jn 7:3, 5 The question of meaning here would not have arisen but for the faith of the church in Mary's perpetual virginity.

That passage is taken from a note on the text of Mk 6:21 (NAB)

Other then biblical commentary, I know that since life didn't last very long 2000 years ago, it was very possible for Joseph to have had a wife or two before Mary --its entirely plausible that they simply died before the beginning of our Gospels, and the children of these women end up living in the same House or community as Jesus.

This way, we can reconcile the text of 'brothers' with the Perpetual Virginity of Mary (which not every christian acknowledges...)

Also, I am pretty sure I read somewhere that Augustine held an opinion similar to the above. Just saying...