And knew her not till] Some have thought that the evangelist means to imply that after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary lived together as man and wife, and that children were born to them. This may have been the case, but the words of the evangelist here are not meant to imply it. They simply affirm in the strongest manner that Joseph had nothing whatever to do with the conception and birth of Jesus, and are not intended to give information as to what happened afterwards. For the probable relationship to our Lord of His 'brethren,' see on Matthew 12:50.

Her firstborn son] RV 'a son.' 'Firstborn' is interpolated from Luke 2:7, q.v.

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