You are partially right.  The Apostles were probably married, but Jesus was
probably not.  I refer you to "Celibate Jesus" on another page of this forum.  Mary
and Joseph were really married, but they never had sexual intercourse.  This is not
because the Catholic Church disapproves of sexual relations.  You must remember
that the Catholic Church, unlike Protestantism, teaches that matrimony is so holy
that it is one of seven sacraments.

Whether a Christian believes what the Bible teaches or not, he or she can still ask
the honest question, “Did any of the biblical writers believe that Mary gave birth to
other children besides Jesus?”  The phrases, “children of Mary,” or “mother of the
Lord’s brothers,” or “sons of Joseph,” are never found.  No one disputes that the
Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus.  It is more than fair to ask for an
adequate explanation of the meaning of these terms.  You and I must always keep
in mind, though, that we are really seeking the meaning of the ancient Greek words
behind our modern English translations.  

The Greek words used in the New Testament for “brother” and “sister” sometimes
bear a broader meaning than our English counterparts.  These Greek words CAN
mean “a near relative” who does NOT physically share the same parent, or
parents.  Even though Greek has a word for “nephew,” the ancient Greek
translators of the Hebrew of Genesis did not use it in the case of Lot.  He was the
nephew of Abraham (Genesis 11:27-31), but he was called his “brother” in the
original Hebrew of Genesis13:8 and 14:14-16, and also in the Greek translation
(LXX).  The Greek of the four Gospels, like the Greek of some other documents of
the same era, was influenced by the Semitic cultures in which they were written.  
They often carried over idioms into the Greek that were at home in Hebrew or
Aramaic.  Calling a “near relative” a “brother” or “sister” seems to have been such
an idiom.  In Semitic languages, because of structure, it was much easier to refer to
a cousin as a “brother” than to use awkward constructions like “son-of-the-sister-of-
his-mother.”

Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestants (cf. Luther, Calvin) believe that
Mary gave birth to Jesus only.  Most Protestants, on the other hand, believe that
Joseph and Mary had sexual intercourse resulting in other children.  Conservative
Protestants of this type, because they believe the biblical teaching of Jesus’ virginal
conception, like to talk about Jesus’ half-brothers and half-sisters.  But liberal
Protestants tend to believe that the humanity of Jesus was as much a product of
Joseph and Mary’s sexual intercourse as the births of their other children were.  
When they talk about Jesus’ half-brothers and half-sisters, they may very well
mean children of Joseph that were not also children of Mary.

Evangelicals and Catholics claim to believe whatever the Bible teaches.  They often
disagree on what it really means.  Both groups try to take notice of everything in the
Bible, and both groups believe that their teachings are consistent with everything in
the Bible.  For both, also, biblical writers never contradicted each other in their
teachings.  Liberals (Catholics as well as Protestants), on the other hand, are quite
unwilling to so easily assume that the many biblical writers never contradicted each
other’s teachings.  

Evangelicals believe everything God wants His people to believe should be
conclusively established from statements in the Bible alone, while Catholics and
Eastern Orthodox believe that only some of what God wants us to believe can be
confirmed in this way.  Method often determines outcome.  If one assumes that all
Christian beliefs must be built inductively from the content of statements in the
Bible alone, then one can honestly reach different conclusions on some debated
issues from someone who assumes that tradition can reliably serve to clarify the
meanings of some otherwise unclear biblical statements.  

Catholic tradition reliably clarified the Bible’s references to the brothers and sisters
of Jesus.  Jesus was the only child of Mary.  This would be true even if Joseph had
had children by a previous marriage.  In this case, the virginally-conceived Jesus
could have had some older legal brothers and sisters on His foster father’s side.  
This would also be true if Mary and Joseph both remained virgins all their lives. (In
Mark 6:3, Jesus is “THE son of Mary,” and in John 6:42, He is “THE son of
Joseph.”)  In this case, the “brothers” and “sisters” would have been cousins, and
there were many of them.  (Note the “all” in Matthew 13:56.)  While everything
taught in the Scriptures plausibly fits the traditional conclusion that Jesus was the
only child of Mary, one cannot absolutely prove the truth of this Catholic /
Orthodox dogma by using only the statements of the Bible as God’s Word.  

Since everything in the Bible plausibly fits this Catholic and Orthodox conclusion,
the opposite position (Jesus was NOT the only child of Mary) cannot boast a claim
to being conclusively established from the statements of the Bible alone.  John 19:
26-27 is hard to explain.  Why would Jesus give His mother into the care of
someone outside the family if Mary had had other children?  John was the natural
son of Zebedee and Salome.  It would have been unjust for Jesus to go over His
siblings’ heads and give away their own mother to John, especially since He knew
that at least some of those who are called his brothers and sisters would soon
become believers.  He would appear in His Resurrection Body to James (1
Corinthians 15:7), and His brothers would very soon be praying in the upper room,
immediately after His Ascension (Acts 1:14).  James, “the brother of the Lord,”
would someday be leading the church in Jerusalem (Acts 21:18).  He and his
brother Jude would go on to become authors of two separate books in the New
Testament, James and Jude.  Why did Jesus give away His mother Mary?  It seems
more than likely that she was a widow and He was her only Child, Who was about
to die upon the Cross.  This is found in John’s Gospel.  All four Gospels, including
John’s, mention Jesus’ “brothers.”

The “brothers of Jesus” appear to be older than He.  They criticize and advise Him
in a patronizing way that is unknown in Eastern dealings with one’s eldest brother
(John 7:2-5, Mark 3:21, 31-35).  Also, in Jewish culture during the first century, a
woman with one child might venture from Galilee to Jerusalem at Passover time,
but a woman with many children would hardly do so, and the Law did not require
this.  It seems that only Joseph and Mary anxiously searched for Jesus when He
was lost in Jerusalem at Passover when He was twelve years old.  It is possible for
two parents to lose track of their mature Son in a caravan, but it seems very
unlikely that several siblings would also lose track of Him.

Matthew asserts that Joseph and Mary did not have sex “until” Jesus was born
(Matthew 1:25).  This does not necessarily mean that they had sex after His birth.  
In 2 Samuel 6:23 David's wife Michal had no son “until the day of her death."  Of
course, she did not have one after that day, either!  Jesus was Mary’s “first-born”
Child (Luke 2:7), but there were no others.  In a first-century Jewish cemetery
archeologists have found a grave inscription which reports that the deceased died
giving birth to her “first-born” (yes, the same Greek word).  Even before Gabriel
told Mary that her conception would be a miracle, Mary told the angel that it would
be impossible for her to become pregnant, yet she was soon to be married, and her
conception was predicted for the future (Luke 1:27-34)!  This can only mean that
she heard God’s call to remain a virgin all her life, and had already consented!  
THE END.

QUESTION:  No offence intended, Father, but Catholics seem hung-up on sex.  
You saddle your priests with the burden of celibacy, even though Jesus and the
Apostles were probably married.  You take the fun out of sex by telling married
Catholic couples what they cannot do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.  You
exalt sexual abstinence.  You take it to a dogmatic level with Mary, even though
anyone who reads the Bible can rather easily see that Mary had other children
after Jesus.  What's the big deal if Mary and Joseph had sex?  They were married
after all.  The proof of their sexual relations is found in the Bible.  Are the
brothers and sisters of Jesus the children of Mary and Joseph, or aren't
they?                                            Answered by Rev. Paul L. Rothermel
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The Mother of God IS Ever Virgin
Answers In-Depth to Questions about Christianity