List of common misconceptions
The doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is not supported by canonical scripture, first appearing c.145 AD in the Gospel of James written several decades after the canonical ones. The Gospel of Matthew (1:24) implies that Mary and Joseph did indeed consummate a marriage after Jesus's birth, both Matthew (13:55) and the Gospel of Mark (6:3) indicate that Jesus had among his family four brothers (Joses, James, Jude and Simon) and an unspecified number of sisters. The Gospel of John makes reference to an unidentified number of Jesus's "brothers" associated with Mary and separate from his disciples. Nevertheless, the doctrine was held as truth by virtually all Christian authorities until the twentieth century, and remains a central tenet of the Roman Catholic Church.