1 Tim 4:13 clearly means to not neglect these things while Paul is away. Attend to them, keep them up, and obviously do so always.
24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took
Mary as his wife,
25but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus.
Roman Catholics argue that the Greek word "until" (v 25) can be used in one of two ways. The first way would be to imply an action is not going to take place until something happens. I might say "My son is not going to get his driver's license until he turns 16." In this case I am saying the action, getting a driver's license, will be delayed until my son turns 16. The implication is that after he turns 16 he will get his driver's license. Since the action is future and predicated on a condition, there is always a chance it won't happen. You could say, "the store doesn't open until 9 am." There is always a chance the store won't open at 9 am. Unlikely but if there was a power outage the store might have to delay opening. In this case "until" speaks to intent. The intent is to open the store at 9 am. However, "until" can be used in the past tense. "I did not graduate from college until I was 22 years old." I have already graduated from college. I am here stating a condition (being 22 years old) that qualifies my having graduated from college.
A second way in which "until" can be used is to say something like "She never had children until her death." This is just another way of saying she never had children. In this case, the action "having children" never took place because the condition was death which precludes all possibility of the action taking place. If instead I said, "she did not have children until she was 35", would imply she did have children after she turned 35. If I am saying it in the past tense, it would not make sense if she never had children. "Until death" is a terminating condition. "Until 35", assuming the person is still alive or died sometime after turning 35, is not.
They argue this to insist that v 25 does not teach that Mary and Joseph had relations after Jesus was born. They believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary so argue that this use of "until" does not indicate an end to Mary's virginity. They like to cite verses like 2 Samuel 6:23:
Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6:23, KJV)
I have seen Catholics quote this verse where "unto" is "until" but let's look at the New Catholic Bible (NCB) translation:
Saul’s daughter Michal had no children to the day of her death.
Here it is "to" not "until." Out of 56 English translations of the Bible, only 2 use the word "until." Most translated it "to the day of her death."
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To say she had no children "to the day of her death" shows a continuing action directed toward a point (in time in this case namely her death). We should remember that 2 Samuel 6:23 is being translated from Hebrew not Greek so comparing it to a verse like Matthew 1:25 is apples to oranges. We shall see why in a bit.
Let's look at the Greek word used in Matthew 1:25. Here, it is nearly always translated "till" or "until".
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When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. (Matthew 2:9)
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:39)
In these two verses, also written by Matthew, the word "until" is used of an action known to have been completed. We know from his account the star did stand still over Bethlehem. We also know the flood did take place. He was using the Greek for "until" to indicate an action that was accomplished after a condition was met. This is the same Greek word as the one used in Matthew 1:25.
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In Matthew 1:25, "until" is used in the equivalent of the Latin future perfect which as we can see above emphasizes an action that will take place at some point in the future. It does not mean the action
might happen but
will happen.
You cannot compare a sentence like "She did not have children until death" to "They did not have children until they got married." Both use the word "until" but in the first case the condition of death prevents the action "have children" from taking place. It terminates the possibility. "Until they got married" does not terminate the action. In fact, in this instance it is being used in the past tense as they have already gotten married.
Matthew's gospel was not written until years after these events had taken place. Matthew knew whether or not Mary and Joseph had other children besides Jesus. His use of "until" is not ambiguous. He is stating an action "kept her a virgin" was conditioned upon the condition "she gave birth to a son." Once that condition was met, the action will have ceased.
We should also note that in Hebrew, this same ambiguity does not exist. While 2 Samuel 6:23 uses the word "until" in English, the Hebrew word for "until" is not found in the Hebrew text. In the Septuagint, the Greek word for "until" is used as the English word "until" is used in the English translation (though only two English translations). This is used for our readability but does not mean the Hebrew word for "until" was used. In Greek, English, and Latin, the word "until" can be used in the past tense to indicate an action that took place after a condition was met.
Catholics are trying to imply ambiguity where none exists. The clear meaning of Matthew 1:25 is that Mary and Joseph refrained from relations before Jesus was born but had them after that. More explicit wording would have been used if the intent was to say they never had relations after Jesus was born. The truth is, the belief in Mary's perpetual virginity is a presupposition being applied to the text and is not a natural reading of the text.
