Once again, more linguistic wordplay. The Koine Greek for 'brother' is
adelphos, plural
adelphoi. Although it can mean 'cousin', there are precise words for cousin, nephew and other close relatives in Koine Greek, so why were those not used? Insistence on the multifaceted use of adelphos simply gave the church fathers wiggle room to reinterpret select NT passages as meaning Jesus had no other blood siblings through Mary, but it fails to explain why, when the Greek was generally used in pretty clear and precise terms elsewhere, it would have failed to have been used that way in this particular instance.
Of course, when most of the general population couldn't read their own language, much less Aramic or Greek, it hardly mattered, did it? Making it quite easy to pull the wool over many eyes once again.
ἀδελφός, (οῦ, ὁ (from ἆ copulative and δελφύς, from the same womb; cf. ἀγάστωρ) (from Homer down);
a brother (whether born of the same two parents, or only of the same father or the same mother): Matthew 1:2; Matthew 4:18, and often. That 'the brethren of Jesus,' Matthew 12:46, 47 (but WH only in marginal reading); f; Mark 6:3 (in the last two passages also sisters); Luke 8:19; John 2:12; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; Galatians 1:19; 1 Corinthians 9:5, are neither sons of Joseph by a wife married before Mary (which is the account in the Apocryphal Gospels (cf. Thilo, Cod. Apocr. N. T. i. 362f)), nor cousins, the children of Alphaeus or Cleophas (i. e. Clopas) and Mary a sister of the mother of Jesus (the current opinion among the doctors of the church since Jerome and Augustine (cf. Lightfoot's Commentary on Galatians, diss. ii.)), according to that use of language by which ἀδελφός like the Hebrew אָח denotes any blood-relation or kinsman (Genesis 14:16; 1 Samuel 20:29; 2 Kings 10:13; 1 Chronicles 23:2, etc.), but own brothers, born after Jesus, is clear principally from Matthew 1:25 (only in R G); Luke 2:7 — where, had Mary borne no other children after Jesus, instead of υἱόν πρωτότοκον, the expression υἱόν μονογενῆ would have been used, as well as from Acts 1:14, cf. John 7:5, where the Lord's brethren are distinguished from the apostles. See further on this point under Ἰάκωβος, 3. (Cf. B. D. under the word ; Andrews, Life of our Lord, pp. 104-116; Bib. Sacr. for 1864, pp. 855-869; for 1869, pp. 745-758; Laurent, N. T. Studien, pp. 153-193; McClellan, note on Matthew 13:55 DID JESUS HAVE BROTHERS AND SISTERS?
In Mark 6:3 it was explicitly written, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
Response:
1. Count those names mentioned: James, Joseph, Judas, Simon, plus the sisters (the word ‘sister’ is in plural. Let us assume his sisters are two). If Mary had other children, that means she gave birth to at least seven children including Jesus. From the culture of the people at that time, this is not likely?
2. From that passage, Mary was ONLY referred to as the mother of Jesus. Others were referred to as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. So, we are the one implying that since they are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, it follows that they are biological children of Mary. This is a fallacy in logic because someone can still be my brother yet he is not the son of my mother.
3. Always carry in mind that the New Testament was originally written in Greek not English. If you study Greek, you will understand that just like our native languages, there is no word for cousin, nephew or niece. They were all used under the words ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. In translating to English, the translator does not ask if it is cousin or nephew.
4. Let us patiently study three passages in the bible so as to ascertain the true mother of those mentioned in Mark 6:3.
A. In Matthew 27: 56, the bible says:
“Among them were (1) Mary Magdalene, and (2) Mary the mother of James and Joseph and (3) the mother of the sons of Zebedee”
Three women were mentioned. Take note of woman number (2).
B. In Mark 15:40, the bible says again:
“There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were (1) Mary Magdalene, and (2) Mary the Mother of James the younger and Joses, and (3) Salome.”
Three women were also mentioned. Take note of woman number (2).
C. In John 19: 25, the bible says:
“Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were (1)his Mother, and(2) his Mother’s sister, (3)Mary the wife of Clopas, and (4) Mary Magdalene.
This time around, four women were mentioned. Obviously, the mother of Jesus was a new addition to the list.
Are you still in doubt about the fact that Mary the mother of Jesus was not the mother of those mentioned in Mark 6:3?
In case you are still not clear, answer these questions:
Why do you think that anytime Mary is mentioned in the bible, it is usually qualified as either “his mother” referring to Jesus, or “Jesus’ mother”?
If Mary had other children, why will Jesus in John 19: 26-27 hand over Mary his mother to John who was the biological son of Zebedee, and the bible said that she stayed in the home of John? Does that not say something to us, that:
1. Possibly, Joseph the husband of Mary, must have died long time ago, or else why was he not found anywhere during Jesus’ journey to Calvary? How come even at the wedding feast in Cana, no body heard of him being invited despite that the family of Jesus were all invited? Remember, the bible says, Joseph was a good man. How can he intentionally not be in Calvary or in Cana? If Joseph was still alive, does it make sense that Mary will leave her husband and stay with John?
2. Why will Mary stay with another person’s child if she has about six children apart from Jesus? Does it make sense that despite the fact that Jesus had six siblings, yet no one could take care of the Mother except John the son of Zebedee?
WHEN BROTHER MEANS SOMETHING ELSE
Jesus’ “Brothers” (adelphoi)) = Cousins or Kinsmen
Luke 1:36 – Elizabeth is Mary’s kinswoman. Some Bibles translate kinswoman as “cousin,” but this is an improper translation because in Hebrew and Aramaic, there is no word for “cousin.”
Luke 22:32 – Jesus tells Peter to strengthen his “brethren.” In this case, we clearly see Jesus using “brethren” to refer to the other apostles, not his biological brothers.
Acts 1:12-15 – the gathering of Jesus’ “brothers” amounts to about 120. That is a lot of “brothers.” Brother means kinsmen in Hebrew.
Acts 7:26; 11:1; 13:15,38; 15:3,23,32; 28:17,21 – these are some of many other examples where “brethren” does not mean blood relations.
Rom. 9:3 – Paul uses “brethren” and “kinsmen” interchangeably. “Brothers” of Jesus does not prove Mary had other children.
Gen. 11:26-28 – Lot is Abraham’s nephew (“anepsios”) / Gen. 13:8; 14:14,16 – Lot is still called Abraham’s brother (adelphos”) . This proves that, although a Greek word for cousin is “anepsios,” Scripture also uses “adelphos” to describe a cousin.
Gen. 29:15 – Laban calls Jacob is “brother” even though Jacob is his nephew. Again, this proves that brother means kinsmen or cousin.
Deut. 23:7; 1 Chron. 15:5-18; Jer. 34:9; Neh. 5:7 -“brethren” means kinsmen. Hebrew and Aramaic have no word for “cousin.”
2 Sam. 1:26; 1 Kings 9:13, 20:32 – here we see that “brethren” can even be one who is unrelated (no bloodline), such as a friend.
2 Kings 10:13-14 – King Ahaziah’s 42 “brethren” were really his kinsmen.
1 Chron. 23:21-22 – Eleazar’s daughters married their “brethren” who were really their cousins.
Neh. 4:14; 5:1,5,8,10,14 – these are more examples of “brothers” meaning “cousins” or “kinsmen.”
Tobit 5:11 – Tobit asks Azarias to identify himself and his people, but still calls him “brother.”
Amos 1: 9 – brotherhood can also mean an ally (where there is no bloodline).
WHO WAS RELATED TO WHOM ?
Mar 6:3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
Gospel passages clarify these relationships. James and Josesph were the sons of Mary of Clophas
Mar 15:40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
Judas was the brother of James (not either of the Apostles)
Luk 6:16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
James the Lesser was the son of Alphaeus
Luk 6:15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,
James the Greater and John were the sons of Zebedee with a mother other than our Blessed Mother Mary
Mat 20:20 Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
The Gospels are also very clear that Mary was a virgin at the time she conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 1:18-25, Lk 1:26-38). Remember when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary God’s plan, she responded, “How can this be, since I do not know man?”
COUSINS ?
1. In the Gospel of Matthew, James and John are identified as the sons of Zebedee.
Matthew 4:21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father .
2. Standing among the women near the cross with Jesus mother Mary wasthe mother of Zebedee’s children as identified by the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 27:56 Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.
3. Standing among the women near the cross with Jesus mother Mary wasSalome as identified by the Gospel of Mark.
Mark 15:40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, andSalome.
4. Salome was Jesus’ mother’s sister as the apostle John himself states, about his own mother. Mark’s Gospel account refers to her by name. John’s Gospel account refers to her by her relationship to Mary.
John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
From Matthew’s account we know that James and John were the sons of Zebedee. By comparing Matthew and Mark we discover that Salome was the name of the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John. From John we see that Salome was Mary’s sister.
Therefore, James and John were Jesus’ first cousins.
The evidence may seem clear, but scripture scholars and theologians have been debating these and other passages for nearly two millennia, arguing whether those brothers and sisters were in fact biological siblings, step-siblings, “half” siblings, or not even siblings at all, but cousins.
THE MEANING OF BROTHER
The first thing to understand is that the term brother (Gk. adelphos) has a broader meaning than uterine brothers. It can mean a biological brother, but it can also mean an extended relative, or even a spiritual brother.
Take Genesis 13:8 for example. Here the word brother is being used to describe the relationship between Abraham and Lot, who were not biological brothers but uncle and nephew:
“So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers” (Gen 13:8, NIV; see also 14:12).
Because of the Bible’s broad semantic range of “brother,” we can rest assured that although St. Paul writes, “[Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred…brothers at the same time” (1 Cor. 15:6), we need not infer from this verse that Mary gave birth to more than 500 children!
After the birth of our Lord, although the Gospels do not give us many details of His childhood, no mention is made of Mary and Joseph ever having other children. Never does it refer to the “sons of Mary” or “a son of Mary,” but only the son of Mary.
This point is again corroborated at the crucifixion scene: Before He dies, our Lord says to Mary, “Woman, there is your son,” and then to St. John, who is definitely not a blood brother, “There is your mother.”
JEWISH LAWS
According to Jewish law, the oldest son had the responsibility of caring for the widowed mother, and that responsibility would pass to the next oldest if anything happened to the first-born son. By this time, St. Joseph has died. Since Jesus, the first born, had no “blood brother,” He entrusted Mary to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple. Interestingly, the Orthodox Churches solve this problem over brothers and sisters by speculating that St. Joseph was a widower who had other children before he married Mary. These brothers and sisters would really then be half-brothers and half-sisters. Perhaps this notion is why St. Joseph sometimes appears elderly in paintings. Actually, this whole confusion is not new.
CHURCH HISTORY
About 380, Helvidius suggested that the “brethren” were the children born of Mary and Joseph after Jesus. St. Jerome declared this as a “novel, wicked, and daring affront to the faith of the whole world.” In his On the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Mary, St. Jerome used both Scripture and the fathers, like Saints Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr to refute Helvidius.
This was the first recorded argument was between St. Jerome and another fourth-century theologian, Helvidius, who had written that after the virgin birth of Jesus, Mary had other children with her husband, Joseph. St. Jerome disagreed, indicating that by the fourth century at least some of the church community believed that Mary had stayed a virgin for the rest of her life. These children of Mary, Jerome said, were from Mary of Clopas, Jesus’ aunt and his mother’s sister, making them cousins. He claimed that the Greek word adelphios could refer to cousins, not just biological siblings.Later, the First Lateran Council (649) definitively declared that Mary was “ever virgin and immaculate.”
And in the next century, Pope St. Leo I delivered a sermon in which he said:
“The origin is different but the nature alike: not by intercourse with man but by the power of God was it brought about: for a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bore, and a Virgin she remained.”
Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis and a contemporary of Jerome and Helvidius, threw another possibility into the hat. He argued that the siblings weren’t cousins, but Joseph’s children from a previous marriage, making them the step-siblings of Jesus. Joseph isn’t mentioned outside of the birth of Jesus, causing some to believe that he was much older than Mary and died before Jesus’ public ministry. It is conjecture, but some apocryphal works, such as the Protoevangelium of James, the Gospel of Peter, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, all seem to indicate a tradition of belief that Jesus’ brothers and sisters were the children of Joseph.
THE MAGISTERIUM
There is yet another reason, though, why we should believe that Mary did not bear other children. That is the consensus of the early Church.
Remember that Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, who would guide his Church and preserve her from error. Without that promise of Christ, his followers and their descendants could veer farther and farther from Truth, losing their way altogether through false teachings and misguided prophecies. However, we do have Christ’s promise that he would be with us always, until the end of time. With the protection of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and of the Holy Spirit, we can rest assured that the Church will preserve the Gospel message with fidelity.
From the earliest days following the Resurrection, the Church has believed that Mary was a perpetual virgin, and that Jesus had no biological brothers or sisters.
A non-canonical but highly respected work from around A.D. 150, the Protoevangelium of James, speaks of Mary as a consecrated virgin since her youth. The Protoevangelium explains that St. Joseph was an elderly widower with children, who was chosen to be Mary’s spouse for the purposes of guarding and protecting her, while respecting her vow of virginity.
That viewpoint – that Joseph had children by a previous marriage, who became step-siblings to Jesus – was shared in the fourth century by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis. It is also believed by many in the Orthodox Church today.
Athanasius of Alexandria, in his Four Discourses Against the Arians, wrote in A.D. 360:
“Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to his essence deny also that he took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin.”
THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Today, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (501) reconfirms the same point:
“Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: “The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she cooperates with a mother’s love.”
THE FOUNDERS OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION AGREE
Even the three fathers of the Reformation — Martin Luther, Hulrych Zwingli and John Calvin all maintained belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary.
From Martin Luther: “Christ…was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him…’brothers’ really means ‘cousins’ here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.” (Sermons on John, chapters 1-4, 1537-39)
From Zwingli — “To deny that Mary remained ‘inviolata‘ before, during and after the birth of her Son, was to doubt the omnipotence of God…and it was right and profitable to repeat the angelic greeting — ‘Hail Mary’…God esteemed Mary above all creatures, including the saints and angels — it was her purity, innocence and invincible faith that mankind must follow.
‘Fidei expositio,‘ the last pamphlet from his pen…There is a special insistence upon the perpetual virginity of Mary.”
From John Calvin — “He says that she [Mary of Cleophas] was the sister of the mother of Jesus, and, in saying so, he adopts the phraseology of the Hebrew language, which includes cousins, and other relatives, under the term ‘brothers.’”
CONCLUSION
These three general arguments continue to be defended and disputed by scholars today, whose positions depend mostly on their particular traditions and how they interpret early church theology. The New Testament writers didn’t leave a clear picture of what first-century Christians thought about Mary’s virginity after the birth of Jesus, if they left any details at all. All we can say for sure is that Jesus’ family tree looks just as complicated as those of many modern families.
thesplendorofthechurch.com/2020/09/20/did-jesus-have-brothers-and-sisters/