And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
And knew her not until she had brought forth her first-born son. х ton (G3588) proototokon (G4416). Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles, on certainly ancient, but, as we think, insufficient authority, exclude ton (G3588) proototokon (G4416) from the text here, though inserting it in Luke 2:7, where it is undisputed. Here they read simply huiou (G5207) - 'until she had brought forth a son.']
And he called his name JESUS. The word "until" does not necessarily imply that they lived on a different footing afterward (as will be evident from the use of the same word in 1 Samuel 15:35; 2 Samuel 6:23; Matthew 12:20); nor does the word "first-born" decide the much disputed question, whether Mary had any children to Joseph after the birth of Christ; because, as Lightfoot says, 'The law, in speaking of the first-born, regarded not whether any were born after or no, but only that none were born before.' (See the notes at Matthew 13:55-56.)
Remarks:
(1) Was faith ever more tested than the Virgin's faith, when for no fault of hers, but in consequence of an act of God Himself, her conjugal relation to Joseph was allowed to be all but snapped asunder by a legal divorce? Yet how glorious was the reward with which her constancy and patience were at length crowned! And is not this one of the great laws of God's procedure toward his believing people? Abraham was allowed to do all but sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:1-24); the last year of the predicted Babylonian captivity had arrived ere any signs of deliverance appeared (Daniel 9:1-2); the massacre of all the Jews in Persia had all but taken place (Esther 7:1-10; Esther 8:1-17); Peter, under Herod Agrippa, was all but brought forth for execution (Acts 12:1-25); Paul was all but assassinated by a band of Jewish enemies (Acts 23:1-35); Luther all but fell a sacrifice to the machinations of his enemies
(1521); and so in cases innumerable since-of all which it may be said, as in the song of Moses "The Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that theirs power is gone" (Deut shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that theirs power is gone" (Deuteronomy 32:36).
(2) What divine wisdom was there in the arrangement by which our Lord was born of a betrothed virgin, thus effectually providing against the reproach of illegitimacy, and securing for His Infancy an honourable protection! "This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working" (Isaiah 28:29).