John
Calvin (1509-1564)
On the
perpetual virginity of Mary
Calvin
Routinely brushes aside the difficulties sometimes raised from "first born" and the “brothers of the Lord."
(O'Carroll, M., 1983, Theotokos, Glazier,
Inc.: Wilmington, DE, p. 94.)
[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from
it was, that Mary
remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth,
and that afterwards she
had other children by her husband . . . No just and
well-grounded inference
can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took
place after the birth
of Christ. He is called 'first-born'; but it is for the
sole purpose of informing
us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place
afterwards the historian
does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep
up the argument,
except from an extreme fondness for disputation.
(Calvin's
Commentaries, tr. William Pringle,
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55)
.
1509-1564