[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III





Therefore the Virgin Mary was called 'wife' not because she lost her virginity, God forbid, for the Holy Bible testifies that Joseph did not know her. But she was so called because the common Jewish expression for the pledged to be married was 'wife' and the expression for the unmarried girl was ‘woman’. A clear proof of this is that immediately after her creation, Eve was called ‘woman’ ; before the sin, the dismissal out of Paradise and the begetting of children.