The doctrine of Marys perpetual virginity is reasonable based on scripture and historical evidence.

Before I begin to offer scripture and historical evidence to.support my claims, I think it's best if I explain the premise I'll be using to interpret scripture. I NEVER SAID YOU STOLE MONEY To better illustrate this, I am going to share something I heard Catholic apologist, Patrick Madrid say once: Let's say you are at a garage sale and you come across a 100 year old book. It looks interesting, so you buy it. You take it home and begin to read it, but find it difficult to understand. Now let's say that the author has passed away, but you still have access to his son, who was in the room when the book was written? All things being equal, wouldn't you trust him over someone born 80 years later who didn't know anyone even remotely connected to the author? Especially when trying to interpret the following phrase: I never said you stole money. Now, at first glance, this may seem easy to understand, but there may be more than one way to I interpret it. What if the person who wrote that meant I never said you stole money... He said it. Or... I never SAID you stole money... But I sure thought it. Or... I never said YOU stole money... I said she stole it. Or... I never said you STOLE money... I said you borrowed it. Or... I never said you stole MONEY. You stole a car. Now take that verse, multiply it by 10,000, and you have the Bible. You have dozens of different books, written by different authors, for different audiences, for different reasons, in different languages, at different times. So you tell me whose interpretations you can count on to be most authentic? Those who knew the authors personally, or someone doing their best, 2,000 years later? Development of doctrine. Now of course, over time, we can understand better some of the implications of a particular teaching. This is something all Christians recognize. The doctrine of the Trinity didn't become crystallized until some 300 years after the death of Christ. The key to determining the difference between development versus departure is this... Is the teaching in line with what the original Christians believed? No one expects an elderly man to look like his baby picture. He's much taller and has gray or white hair. You expect to see this. What you don't expect is to see a third eye, or a foot growing from his hip. Development versus departure. Biblical Support for Mary's Perpetual Virginity: "Consider: You are at a bridal shower for a friend and somebody remarks to the bride, "You are going to have such adorable kids!" Everybody laughs, but the bride gapes in astonishment and says, "How shall this be?" At that point, you would begin to notice something unusual about your friend. Because, for a woman who is betrothed to be married, there are only a limited number of explanations for such a reaction. Either nobody has ever explained the birds and the bees to her, and she genuinely has no idea how babies are made and what she"s about to sign on for with her husband-to-be " or she has every intention of remaining a virgin after marriage. The astonishing thing about Mary is that she"s astonished. For she, too, is a woman betrothed. She knows about the birds and the bees. Yet she reacts with amazement at the news that she, a woman betrothed, will bear a son. Notice that the angel does not say, "You are pregnant." He says, "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son" (Lk 1:31,emphasis added). This is a promise that has been made to other women in Jewish history such as Sarah, Hannah, and the Shunammite woman (cf. Gen 18; 1 Sam 1; and 2 Kgs 4). All of them understand the promise to mean, "You and your husband will conceive a child." So why should the same promise astonish Mary, a young woman who also plans to marry " unless she had already decided to remain a virgin throughout her life?"[1] "Another passage used to support the doctrine of perpetual virginity is of the sayings of Jesus on the cross, i.e. the pair of commands first to his mother "Woman, behold your son!" and then to his disciple "Behold, thy mother!" in John 19:26-27.[54][55][101] The Gospel of John then states that "from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home". Since the time of the Church Fathers this statement has been used to reason that after the death of Jesus there was no one else in the immediate family to look after Mary, and she had to be entrusted to the disciple given that she had no other children." [2] HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF MARY'S PERPETUAL VIRGINITY The first document I offer is one that's called the Protoevangelium of James. It's not a book of the Bible, but it does offer some insight as to how Mary and Joseph's marriage should be understood. According to this, Joseph was an older widower who was put in charge of being Mary's guardian.: "And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of priests, saying, "Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?" And they said to the high priest, "You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in and pray concerning her, and whatever the Lord shall manifest to you, that also will we do." . . . [A]nd he prayed concerning her, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him saying, "Zechariah! Zechariah! Go out and assemble the widowers of the people and let them bring each his rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . . And the priest said to Joseph, "You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord." [3] I now turn it over to my opponent. Good luck! Sources: 1.https://www.catholicculture.org... 2. http://en.m.wikipedia.org... 3 http://www.catholic.com...