Jesus was part of an earthly family

JESUS WAS PART OF AN EARTHLY FAMILY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Mark 6:3 3Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's
son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and
Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they
took offense at him.
Did Jesus have brothers sisters?
The Bible tells us that Jesus had four brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and
Judas (Matthew 13:55). The Bible also tells us that Jesus had sisters, but they
are not named or numbered (Matthew 13:56). In John 7:1-10, His brothers go
on to the festival while Jesus stays behind.
Question:"Did Jesus have brothers and sisters (siblings)?"
Answer: Jesus’brothers are mentioned in severalBible verses. Matthew
12:46, Luke 8:19, and Mark 3:31 saythat Jesus’mother and brothers came to
see Him. The Bible tells us that Jesus had four brothers: James, Joseph,
Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). The Bible also tells us that Jesus had
sisters, but they are not named or numbered (Matthew 13:56). In John 7:1-10,
His brothers go on to the festival while Jesus stays behind. In Acts 1:14, His
brothers and mother are described as praying with the disciples. Galatians

1:19 mentions that James was Jesus’brother. The most natural conclusionof
these passages is to interpret that Jesus had actual blood half-siblings.
Some Roman Catholics claim that these “brothers” were actuallyJesus’
cousins. However, in eachinstance, the specific Greek wordfor “brother” is
used. While the word canrefer to other relatives, its normal and literal
meaning is a physical brother. There was a Greek word for “cousin,” and it
was not used. Further, if they were Jesus’cousins, whywould they so often be
describedas being with Mary, Jesus’mother? There is nothing in the context
of His mother and brothers coming to see Him that even hints that they were
anyone other than His literal, blood-related, half-brothers.
A secondRoman Catholic argument is that Jesus’brothers and sisters were
the children of Josephfrom a previous marriage. An entire theory of Joseph's
being significantly older than Mary, having been previously married, having
multiple children, and then being widowedbefore marrying Mary is invented
without any biblical basis. The problem with this is that the Bible does not
even hint that Josephwas married or had children before he married Mary. If
Josephhad at leastsix children before he married Mary, why are they not
mentioned in Josephand Mary’s trip to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7) or their trip
to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15)or their trip back to Nazareth (Matthew 2:20-23)?
There is no biblical reasonto believe that these siblings are anything other
than the actualchildren of Josephand Mary. Those who oppose the idea that
Jesus had half-brothers and half-sisters do so, not from a reading of
Scripture, but from a preconceivedconceptofthe perpetual virginity of Mary,
which is itself clearlyunbiblical: “But he (Joseph) had no union with her
(Mary) until she gave birth to a son. And he gave Him the name Jesus”
(Matthew 1:25). Jesus had half-siblings, half-brothers and half-sisters, who
were the children of Josephand Mary. That is the clearand unambiguous
teaching of God’s Word.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-siblings.html
Did Jesus have brothers and sisters (siblings)?
The New Testamentteaches Jesus hadbrothers and sisters. Matthew 12:46
states, "While he [Jesus]was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother
and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him." Luke 8:19 adds,
"Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reachhim
because ofthe crowd." Mark 3:31 offers a similar parallel account.
Specifically, Jesus was saidto have four brothers: "Is not this the carpenter's
son? Is not his mother calledMary? And are not his brothers James and
Josephand Simon and Judas?" (Matthew 13:55). This James was the author
of the book of James in the New Testament. First Corinthians 15:7 mentions
that the resurrectedJesus appearedto this same James. This James was also
mentioned in Galatians 1:19 as "James the Lord's brother." Judas (also
known as Jude) was the author of the book of Jude in the New Testament.
John 7:1-10 further mentions that Jesus'brothers attended the Jewishfestival
while Jesus stayedbehind. Therefore all four Gospelwriters specifically
mentioned Jesus having brothers. In addition, the first century Jewish
historian Josephus mentioned James the brother of Jesus, offering early
extra-biblical support for this historicalfact.
In addition to four brothers specificallymentioned in the New Testament,
Jesus is also noted as having more than one sister: "And are not all his sisters
with us?" (Matthew 13:56). Though unnamed, the plural form of sisters
indicated more than one sister. The context is clearlyspeaking of sisters who
were the children of Mary and Joseph.

Becausemodern Roman Catholic teachings acceptthe belief of the perpetual
virginity of Mary, Catholic teachings typically deny that Mary ever had
sexualrelations and therefore did not have other children. Instead, the
passagesrelatedto Jesus having brothers and sisters are reinterpreted as
references to other relatives, usually cousins of Jesus. While the Greek term
for "brothers" could possibly refer to other relatives, the context of the
passagesmentioned above from the New Testamentmake it very clearthat
literal brothers and sisters of Jesus were in view. Another alternative
sometimes presentedis that these brothers and sisters were siblings from a
previous marriage of Joseph. However, there is no evidence to support this
claim.
Biblically, it is evident that Jesus was born of Mary when she was a virgin,
meaning she had not had intimate relations before the birth of Jesus.
However, nothing in Scripture teaches againstMaryand Josephhaving other
children togetherafter Jesus, something the New Testamentteaches as having
occurred. Two of these brothers, James and Jude, were early leaders in the
church and played an important role in Christianity's early development.
These half-brothers of Jesus (calledhalf-brothers since they were not virgin
born as Jesus was)offereda rich addition to the heritage of the early
Christian faith that have benefited believers throughout history; they continue
to impact Christians today through their writings.
https://www.compellingtruth.org/Jesus-brothers-sisters.html
Brothers of Jesus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Part of a series on
JewishChristianity
Figures
JesusJohnthe BaptistSimon PeterTwelveApostlesJames, brotherof
JesusSimeonof JerusalemJudePaul
Ancient groups
EbionitesElcesaitesNazarenes
Pejoratives
JudaizersLegalists
Recentgroups
Hebrew Christian movementMessianic JudaismHebrew Roots
Adversity
Split of Christianity and JudaismPaul and JudaismMarcionismChristiananti-
semitismConstantine
Writings
Gospelof MatthewEpistle ofJamesClementineDidacheLiturgyof St
JamesBookofElchasaiJewish–ChristiangospelsGospelofthe EbionitesGospel
of the HebrewsGospelofthe Nazarenes
Issues

Aramaic of JesusYeshua (name)Councilof JerusalemExpounding of the
LawSabbathQuartodecimanismNoahide laws
vte
The New Testamentdescribes James,Joseph(Joses), Judas (Jude), and Simon
as brothers of Jesus (Greek:ἀδελφοὶ, romanized: adelphoi, lit. 'brothers').[1]
Also mentioned, but not named, are sisters of Jesus. Some scholars argue that
these brothers, especiallyJames,[a]held positions of specialhonor in the early
Christian church.
Catholic, Assyrian, EasternOrthodox and Oriental Orthodox believe in the
perpetual virginity of Mary, as did the Protestantleaders Martin Luther,
Huldrych Zwingli, John Wesleyand their respective movements;John Calvin
believed that it was possible that Mary remained a virgin, but believed that
the scriptural evidence was inconclusive.[3]Those who hold this belief reject
the claim that Jesus had biologicalsiblings and maintain that these brothers
and sisters receivedthis designationbecause oftheir close associationwith the
nuclear family of Jesus, as eitherchildren of Josephfrom a previous
marriage, or as nephews of either Mary or Joseph.[4]
The literal translation of the words "brother" and "sister" is an objective
problem because there are few quotations and because the words have various
meanings in the family of Semitic languages.[5]
In the 3rd century, biologicalrelatives with a connectionto the nuclear family
of Jesus, without explicit reference to brothers or sisters, were calledthe
desposyni,[6]from the Greek δεσπόσυνοι, plural of δεσπόσυνος, meaning "of
or belonging to the masteror lord".[7]The term was used by Sextus Julius
Africanus, a writer of the early 3rd century.
Contents
1
Jesus'brothers and sisters

2
As church leaders
3
Degree ofconsanguinity betweenJesus and his brothers
3.1
Etymology
3.2
Relationshipof Jesus'brothers to Mary
4
Family trees and pedigrees
5
Rejectionof Jesus
6
Absence of Jesus'brothers
7
Notes
8
References
9
Bibliography
10
Further reading
11

External links
Jesus'brothers and sisters[edit]
The Gospelof Mark (6:3) and the Gospelof Matthew (13:55-56)mention
James, Joseph/Joses,Judas/Jude and Simon as brothers of Jesus, the sonof
Mary. The same verses also mention unnamed sisters of Jesus. Mark (3:31-32)
tells about Jesus'mother and brothers looking for Jesus. A verse in the Epistle
to the Galatians (1:19) mentions seeing James, "the Lord's brother", and none
other of the apostles exceptPeter, whenPaul went to Jerusalemafterhis
conversion. The "brothers of the Lord" are also mentioned, alongside (but
separate from) Cephas and the apostles in 1 Corinthians (9:5), in which it is
mentioned that they had wives. Some scholars claim that Jesus'relatives may
have held positions of authority in the Jerusalemarea until Trajan excluded
Jews from the new city that he built on its ruins.[8]
That the brothers were children of both Mary and Josephwas held by some in
the early centuries. The 3rd-century Antidicomarianites ("opponents of
Mary") maintained that, when Josephbecame Mary's husband, he was a
widowerwith six children, and that he had normal marital relations with
Mary, but they later held that Jesus was not born of these relations.[9]
Bonosus was a bishop who in the late 4th century held that Mary had other
children after Jesus, forwhich the other bishops of his province condemned
him.[10] Jovinian, and various Arian teachers suchas Photinus held a similar
view. When Helvidius proposed it, againin the late 4th century, Jerome,
representing the generalopinion of the Church, maintained that Mary
remained always a virgin; he held that those who were calledthe brothers and
sisters of Jesus were actuallychildren of Mary's sister, another Mary, whom
he consideredthe wife of Clopas.[4][11]The terms "brothers" and "sisters"
as used in this context are open to different interpretations,[12]and have been
argued to refer to children of Josephby a previous marriage (the view of
Epiphanius of Salamis[13]), Mary's sister's children (the view of Jerome), or
children of Clopas, who according to Hegesippus was Joseph's brother,[14]
and of a woman who was not a sisterof Mary, the mother of Jesus (a modern
proposal).[4]

As church leaders[edit]
Robert W. Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, says that according to the
Gospelof Mark Jesus'mother and brothers were at first skepticalof Jesus'
ministry but later became part of the Christian movement.[15]James, "the
Lord's brother", presided over the Jerusalemchurch after the apostles
dispersedand other kinsmen probably exercisedsome leadershipamong the
Christians in the area until the emperor Hadrian built Aelia Capitolina on the
ruins of Jerusalemand banished all Jews from there (c. 135), afterwhich
point the JerusalemChristians were entirely of Gentile origin.[8]
Traditionally it is believed the JerusalemChristians waitedout the Jewish–
Roman wars (66–135)in Pella in the Decapolis. The JerusalemSanhedrin
relocatedto Jamnia sometime c. 70.
According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, when Peterthe
Apostle left Jerusalem, it was James who became leaderof the church in
Jerusalemand was held in high regard by the JewishChristians.[16]
Hegesippus reports that he was executedby the Sanhedrin in 62.[16]
Sextus Julius Africanus's reference to "desposyni" (blood relatives of Jesus
related to his nuclear family) is preserved in Eusebius of Caesarea's
EcclesiasticalHistory:[6][17]
For the relatives of our Lord according to the flesh, whether with the desire of
boasting or simply wishing to state the fact, in either case truly, have handed
down the following account... But as there had been kept in the archives up to
that time the genealogies ofthe Hebrews as wellas of those who tracedtheir
lineage back to proselytes, suchas Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the
Moabitess, andto those who were mingled with the Israelites and came out of
Egypt with them, Herod [the Great], inasmuch as the lineage of the Israelites
contributed nothing to his advantage, and since he was goadedwith the
consciousnessofhis own ignoble extraction, burned all the genealogical
records, thinking that he might appear of noble origin if no one else were able,
from the public registers, to trace back his lineage to the patriarchs or
proselytes and to those mingled with them, who were called Georae.A few of
the careful, however, having obtained private records of their own, either by

remembering the names or by getting them in some other wayfrom the
registers, pride themselves on preserving the memory of their noble
extraction. Among these are those already mentioned, calledDesposyni, on
accountof their connectionwith the family of the Saviour. Coming from
Nazara and Cochaba, villages ofJudea, into other parts of the world, they
drew the aforesaidgenealogyfrom memory and from the book of daily
records as faithfully as possible. Whether then the case standthus or not no
one could find a clearerexplanation, according to my own opinion and that of
every candid person. And let this suffice us, for, although we canurge no
testimony in its support, we have nothing better or truer to offer. In any case
the Gospelstates the truth." And at the end of the same epistle he adds these
words: "Matthan, who was descendedfrom Solomon, begatJacob. And when
Matthan was dead, Melchi, who was descendedfrom Nathan begatEli by the
same woman. Eli and Jacobwere thus uterine brothers. Eli having died
childless, Jacobraisedup seedto him, begetting Joseph, his own sonby
nature, but by law the sonof Eli. Thus Josephwas the sonof both.
— Eusebius of Caesarea,Historia Ecclesiae,1:7:11, 1:7:13–14
Eusebius has also preservedan extractfrom a work by Hegesippus (c.110–
c.180), who wrote five books (now lost exceptfor some quotations by
Eusebius) of Commentaries on the Acts of the Church. The extractrefers to
the period from the reign of Domitian (81–96)to that of Trajan(98–117),and
includes the statementthat two Desposynibrought before Domitian later
became leaders of the churches:[18]
There still survived of the kindred of the Lord the grandsons ofJudas, who
according to the flesh was calledhis brother. These were informed against, as
belonging to the family of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitian
Caesar:for that emperor dreaded the advent of Christ, as Herod had done.
So he askedthem whether they were of the family of David; and they
confessedthey were. Next he askedthem what property they had, or how
much money they possessed. Theyboth replied that they had only 9000
denaria betweenthem, eachof them owning half that sum; but even this they
said they did not possessin cash, but as the estimated value of some land,

consisting of thirty-nine plethra only, out of which they had to pay the dues,
and that they supported themselves by their own labour. And then they began
to hold out their hands, exhibiting, as proof of their manual labour, the
roughness of their skin, and the corns raisedon their hands by constantwork.
Being then askedconcerning Christ and His kingdom, what was its nature,
and when and where it was to appear, they returned answerthat it was not of
this world, nor of the earth, but belonging to the sphere of heaven and angels,
and would make its appearance atthe end of time, when He shall come in
glory, and judge living and dead, and render to every one according to the
course of his life.
Thereupon Domitian passedno condemnation upon them, but treatedthem
with contempt, as too mean for notice, and let them go free. At the same time
he issued a command, and put a stop to the persecutionagainstthe Church.
When they were releasedthey became leaders of the churches, as was natural
in the case ofthose who were at once martyrs and of the kindred of the Lord.
And, after the establishment of peace to the Church, their lives were
prolonged to the reign of Trajan.
— Eusebius of Caesarea,Historia Ecclesiae,3:20
Degree ofconsanguinity betweenJesus and his brothers[edit]
The New Testamentnames James the Just, Joses, Simon, and Jude as the
brothers (Greek adelphoi) of Jesus (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55, John 7:3, Acts
1:13, 1 Corinthians 9:5)[4].
Etymology[edit]
The etymologyof the Greek for "brother" (adelphos)is "ofthe same womb",
a-delphys,[19]although in New Testamentusage, the Christian and Jewish
meaning of "brothers" is wider, and is applied even to members of the same
religious community.[20] In the Bible, the Greek words adelphos and adelphe
were not restrictedto their literal meaning of a full brother or sisternor were
their plurals.[21]

There are severalviews from an early date over whether the Greek term
adelphos, applied in these accounts to people described as adelphoi of Jesus,
means that they were full brothers, half brothers, stepbrothers, or cousins.
Helvidius, quoting Tertullian in support of his view, claims that the adelphoi
were children of Mary and Josephborn after Jesus;[4][22]yet Jerome replied
that Tertullian did "not belong to the Church", and he argues that the
adelphoi were Jesus's cousins.[23]Some scholars[who?][4]considerHelvidius'
view as the most natural inference from the New Testament.[4]In support to
this it is occasionallynotedthat James (JacobIakobos)as oldestofthe
brothers takes the name of Joseph's father (also James, Iakobosin the
Solomonic genealogyofJesus in Matthew), when in Bible times the grandson
occasionallygets the name of the grandfather.[24]
The term adelphos (brother in general)is distinct from anepsios (cousin,
nephew, niece).[25][26]Second-centuryChristian writer Hegesippus
distinguishes betweenthose who were anepsioiof Jesus and his adelphoi.[27]
HoweverJesus and his disciples'native language was Aramaic (as in Matthew
27:46;Mark 5:41),[28]which could not distinguish betweena blood brother
or sisterand a cousin.[29]Aramaic, like Biblical Hebrew, does not contain a
word for "cousin".[30]
In Aramaic and Hebrew, which were inclined to use circumlocutions to point
out blood relationships, calling some people "brothers of Jesus" wouldnot
have always implied the same biologicalmother.[21]Scholars and theologians,
who assertthis view, point out that Jesus was called"the son of Mary" rather
than "a son of Mary" in his hometown(Mark 6:3).[31]
Relationshipof Jesus'brothers to Mary[edit]
By the 3rd century, the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary had
become well established;important early Christian theologians suchas
Hippolytus (170–235), Eusebius (260/265–339/340)and Epiphanius (c.
310/320–403)defendedit. The early church had not acceptedthatMary had
any children apart from Jesus.[4]Eusebius and Epiphanius held that these
men were Joseph's sons from (an unrecorded) former marriage.[4][13]
Epiphanius adds that Josephbecame the father of James and his three

brothers (Joses, Simeon, Judah)and two sisters (a Salome and a Mary or a
Salome and an Anna)[32] with James being the elder sibling. James and his
siblings were not children of Mary but were Joseph's children from a previous
marriage. Joseph's first wife died; many years later, at the age of eighty, "he
took Mary (mother of Jesus)". According to Epiphanius the Scriptures call
them "brothers of the Lord" to confound their opponents.[33][34]Origen
(184–254)also wrote that"according to the Gospelof Peterthe brethren of
Jesus were sons ofJosephby a former wife, whom he married before
Mary".[35]
The apocryphal History of Josephthe Carpenter, written in the 5th century
and framed as a biography of Josephdictatedby Jesus, describeshow Joseph
had with his first wife four sons and two daughters. His sons'names were
Judas, Justus, James, and Simon, and the names of the two daughters were
Assia and Lydia. Years after his first wife died, he took Mary.[36]Therefore,
the brothers of Jesus would be the children of Josephby his first wife.
The Protoevangeliumof James explicitly claims that Josephwas a widower,
with children, at the time that Mary is entrusted to his care.[37]
The Catholic Encyclopedia, citing the texts containedin the apocryphal
writings, writes that:
When forty years of age, Josephmarried a woman calledMelcha or Escha by
some, Salome by others; they lived forty-nine years togetherand had six
children, two daughters and four sons, the youngestof whom was James (the
Less, "the Lord's brother"). A year after his wife's death, as the priests
announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a
respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age.
Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalemamong the
candidates;a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph, and two
years later the Annunciation took place.[38]
Jerome (c. 347–420), anotherimportant early theologian, also held the
perpetual virginity doctrine, but argued that these adelphoi were sons of
Mary's sister, whom Jerome identified as Mary of Cleopas.[4][39]The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church mentions that a modern scholar, whom it

does not identify, has proposedthat these men were the sons of Clopas
(Joseph's brother according to Hegesippus)and of Mary, the wife of Cleopas
(not necessarilyreferring to Jesus'mother's sister).[4]
According to the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of
the Lord of the Apostolic FatherPapias of Hierapolis, who lived circa 70–163
AD, "Mary the wife of Cleophas orAlphaeus" would be the mother of James
the Just, Simon, Judas (identified as Jude the Apostle), and Joseph(Joses).
Papias identifies this "Mary" as the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus, andthus
as the maternal aunt of Jesus.[40]The Anglican theologianJ.B. Lightfoot
dismissedPapias'evidence as spurious.[41][42]
The Gospelof Pseudo-Matthew,whichwas probably written in the seventh
century, states that the brothers of Jesus were his cousins.[43]
Roman Catholic and EasternChristianity maintained the doctrine of Early
Christianity that Mary was a perpetual virgin;[35] early Protestantleaders,
including the ReformerMartin Luther,[44] and Reformed theologian
Huldrych Zwingli,[45] also held this view, as did John Wesley, one of the
founders of Methodism.[46]Eine Christliche Lehrtafel (A Christian
Catechism), issuedby Anabaptist leader Balthasar Hubmaier, teaches the
perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary too.[47]RomanCatholics, following
Jerome, conclude that the adelphoi were Jesus'cousins, while Eastern
Orthodox, following Eusebius and Epiphanius, argue that they were Joseph's
children by his (unrecorded) first wife. But the Catholic Church only defined
a doctrine that they are not biologicalchildren of Mary;[48] their exact status,
either as cousins or stepbrothers (children of Joseph), is not defined as a
doctrine. Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists concur with this view.[49][50]
Other Christian denominations, such as Baptists,[51]view the adelphoi as
Jesus'half-brothers or do not specify,[49]since the accounts in the Gospels do
not speak ofMary's relationship to them but only to Jesus.[52][53]Certain
critical scholars ofthe Jesus Seminar saythat the doctrine of perpetual
virginity has obscuredrecognitionthat Jesus had full brothers and sisters.[54]
In the Hebrew Book ofGenesis, allthe other sons of Jacobare repeatedly
calledbrothers of Joseph, althoughthey were children of different

mothers.[55]Similarly, Abram (of Terah) calledhis nephew Lot a
brother.[56] Also, the SecondBook ofSamuel describes Tamaras a sister
both of Amnon and of Absalom,[57]two of David's sons by different
mothers.[58]
Family trees and pedigrees[edit]
Explanations of the true relationship of the "brothers" of Jesus within his
immediate nuclear family fall primarily into severalcategories. The first,
called"the most natural inference from the New Testament" by the Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church, is that the brothers of Jesus may have
been sons of the Virgin Mary and Joseph, born after Christ:[4][59]
CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE
Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?
For centuries theologians have debated whether or not Jesus had any siblings.
But what does scripture say about his complicatedfamily tree?
By MeghanMurphy-Gill | Print | Share
Article Your Faith
The only child often gets a bad rap. Stereotypedas entitled and self-
important, people who grow up without siblings aren’t always lookedupon
favorably—especiallyby those of us with at leasta sibling or two. Jesus may
have actedlike an only child at times in the gospels,but all of the four
evangelists make some mention of his brothers and sisters.
In Mark, a crowd asks ofJesus, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary
and brother of James and Joses andJudas and Simon, and are his sisters here
with us?” (6:3). In Luke, when Jesus is told by a crowdgatheredto hear him
speak, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see

you,” Jesus famouslyrejects them: “My mother and my brothers are those
who hear the word of God and do it” (8:19-21). And John writes that after
Jesus performed his first miracles in Cana, “he went down to Capernaum
with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few
days” (2:12).
The evidence may seemclear, but scripture scholars andtheologians have
been debating these and other passagesfornearly two millennia, arguing
whether those brothers and sisters were in fact biologicalsiblings, step-
siblings, “half” siblings, or not even siblings at all, but cousins.
The first recordedargument was betweenSt. Jerome and another fourth-
century theologian, Helvidius, who had written that after the virgin birth of
Jesus, Maryhad other children with her husband, Joseph. St. Jerome
disagreed, indicating that by the fourth century at leastsome of the church
community believed that Mary had stayeda 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 biologicalsiblings.
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. Josephisn’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, suchas
the Protoevangeliumof James, the Gospelof Peter, and the Infancy Gospelof
Thomas, all seemto indicate a tradition of belief that Jesus’brothers and
sisters were the children of Joseph.
These three generalarguments 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 Testamentwriters
didn’t leave a clearpicture 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 sayfor sure is that Jesus’family tree looks just as complicatedas those of
many modern families.
This article appeared in the December2013 issue ofU.S. Catholic (Vol. 78,
No. 12, page 46).
Have a question you'd like to getanswered? Ask us at editors@uscatholic.org!
Image: Flickrphoto cc by Nicole O'NeilPhotography
Glad you Asked
MeghanMurphy-Gill is a writer living in Chicago. Readmore from her at
meghanmurphygill.com.
What Happened to Jesus''Brothers'?
The post-Gospellives of the disciples.
Stephen Miller
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Current Issue
November 2019
Subscribe
ReadThis Issue

Meetthe Minnie ChurchThe Cautionary Tale of Jerry FalwellJr.The Latest
Multisite Campus: Prison
Subscribe to Christianity Todayand get instant accessto past issues of
Christian History!
Free Newsletters
Get the best from CT editors, delivered straight to your inbox!
More Newsletters
A
ccording to the Gospels, Jesus had several"brothers and sisters" (see"Mary"
for possible meanings), but James and Jude are the only ones mentioned
elsewhere in the New Testament—James as a leaderof the early church in
Jerusalem, and Jude in the short letter bearing his name. Originally, Jesus'
family was skepticalof his ministry: "Evenhis brothers did not believe in
him," says John's Gospel. Apparently the Resurrection changedtheir minds,
because they joined Mary and the disciples in the Upper Room to wait for the
Holy Spirit.
James, probably the oldestof Jesus'brothers, made the decisionat the
JerusalemCouncil that Gentile Christians did not have to obey ancient Jewish
laws. He may have lived an ascetic life and was reported to have spent so
much time in prayer that his knees "were like those of a camel." Jewish
historian Josephus reported that Jewishleaders stonedJames to death.
Eusebius said he was thrown from the top of the temple and beaten to death
with a club. It is unclear whether this James or another wrote the epistle
bearing his name.
Jude's letter of warning about impostors who had infiltrated the church
suggeststhat he, too, became a respectedchurch leaderand perhaps a
traveling missionary who saw such problems firsthand.

The other disciples
After the Gospels, the New Testamentrarely mentions the disciples. For
further details, we have only legends—some dubious.
Peter's brother, Andrew, reportedly preachedin Asia Minor, Thrace, and
Greece before being crucified on (according to a tenth-century account)an X-
shaped cross. He was regardedas the founder of the church in
Constantinople.
Sorting out the Jesus Family: Mother, Fathers, Brothers and Sisters
Family of Jesus December19, 2015
That Jesus had four brothers and at leasttwo sisters is a “given” in Mark, our
earliestgospelrecord. He names the brothers rather matter-of-factly: James,
Joses,Judas, and Simon. Mark mentions but does name the sisters, but early
Christian tradition says there were two—a Mary and a Salome (Mark 6:3).[i]
Matthew, who followedMark as his source, includes the same list, though he
spells “Joses,”a nickname akin to the English “Josy,” inits full form
“Joseph.”He also lists Simon before Judas (Matt 13:55). Luke, in contrast,
drops the list of names entirely. He is an unabashed advocate ofthe apostle
Paul and inaugurates a long process ofmarginalizing the brothers of Jesus to
the obscurity that we find them today. More often than not, when I teachor
lecture about the brothers of Jesus, and the important position of James, the
eldest, whom Jesus left in charge of his followers, a hand shoots up in the
room. The comment is always the same: “I never knew that Jesus evenhad
any brothers.”
There are a number of factors behind this gap in our knowledge ofearly
Christianity. The later Christian dogma that Mary was a perpetual virgin,

that she never had children other than Jesus and never had sexualrelations
with any man, lies at the heart of the issue. No one in the early church even
imagined such an idea, since the family of Jesus playedsuch a visible and
pivotal role in his life and that of his early followers. It all has to do with Mary
being totally removed from her 1stcentury Jewishculture and context in the
interest of an emerging view of the time that human sexuality was degraded
and unholy at worst, and a necessaryevil to somehow be struggled againstat
best. The material world, and thus anything to do with the body, was seenas
lowerand of less value than the heavenly spiritual world. Scholars referto
this view, quite common in Greco-Romanculture, as ascetic dualism. Humans
were trapped in two worlds—the material and the spiritual, with two modes
of being—that of the body and the spirit (dualism). Those who denied the
body and lived a celibate life, placing emphasis on the higher spiritual things
“above,” were viewedas holy and free from the taint of the lowermaterial
world (asceticism). Generallythis outlook has not found a comfortable home
within Judaism because ofthe emphasis in the Bible upon the goodness of
God’s material creation(Genesis 1). But there are exceptions. Philo, the 1st
century BC Jewishphilosopher, honors Plato, the greatadvocate of ascetic
dualism, next to Moses himself. Philo’s influence, not to mention Plato’s, was
enormous on both Jewishand Christian thinkers. The apostle Paul, as we will
see, built his theologyaround an essentiallydualistic view of the cosmos in
which the earthly was denigratedin favor of the heavenly. He advocated
celibacyas a higher spiritual way, though he did not absolutelyforbid sex.
According to Paul marriage was an antidote for the spiritually weak who
might be tempted towardsexual immorality.[ii] It is easyto see how these
tendencies to equate the spiritual life with the non-sexual life were transferred
to Mary and her family.
Once one insists that “the blessedVirgin Mary” was “ever-virgin,” with no
sexualexperience whatsoever, then the brothers and sisters have to be
explained away. I say this with no disrespectfor those who hold such views of
Mary. Yet it is important to understand when, how, and why these ideas
developed. Goodhistory never needs to be the enemy of devoted faith. The
conflict arises whenlater forms of ascetic piety and assumptions about
“holiness” are imposedon a culture for dogmatic or political reasons.Whatis

lost is the historical reality of who Mary truly was as a Jewishmarried woman
of her time. What we lose is Mary herself! The teaching of the “perpetual
virginity” is simply not found in the New Testamentand it is not part of the
earliestChristian creeds. The first official mention of the idea does not come
until 374 AD from a Christian theologiannamed Epiphanius.[iii] Mostof our
early Christian writings before the later 4th century AD take for granted that
the brothers and sisters of Jesus were the natural born children of Josephand
Mary.[iv]
By the late 4th century AD the Church begin to handle the problem of Mary’s
sexuallife with two alternative explanations. One is that “brothers” does not
mean literally brothers—born of the same mother—but is a generalterm
referring to “cousins.” This became the standard explanation in the West
advocatedby Roman Catholics.[v]In the East, the Greek speaking Christians
favored an different view—the brothers were sons of Joseph, but by a
previous marriage, and thus had no blood-ties to Jesus orhis mother.[vi]
Clearly the problem with the Easternview for Westerntheologians was their
emerging tendency, born of asceticism, to make Josepha life-long virgin as
well. That waythe Holy Family, Jesus included of course, couldbe fully and
properly “holy.” Over the centuries it became more and more difficult for
Christians, particularly in the West, to imagine Mary or Josephas sexual
human beings, or for that matter even living a “bodily” life at all. Once they
become “Saints” in heaven, emphasizing such a potentially degrading
“earthly” past became problematic.
If we restore Mary’s Jewishname—Miriam or Maria, the most common
Jewishfemale name of the day—and put her back in her 1stcentury Jewish
village of Nazareth, as a normally married Jewishwoman, these theologically
motivated concerns seemto vanish. We are free to recover a believable history
much more fascinating and rich than any theologicaldogma. The texts of our
New Testamentrecords begin to come alive for us. As one of my university
professors usedto sayabout historicalinvestigation: “Whenyou get closerto
the truth, everything begins to fit.”
So who were the brothers and sisters ofJesus? The most obvious answeris
that they were children of Mary and Josephborn subsequently in the

marriage. Mary became pregnant while engaged, fatherunknown; Joseph
married her anyway, adopted Jesus as his own; and the couple assumeda
normal married life, producing four sons and two daughters. Such might well
be the case, but there is a problem here that we must not overlook. Once
again, it has to do with understanding the lostJewishcultural and religious
context of the times.
There is goodreasonto suppose that Josephdied early, whether because he
was substantially older than Mary or for some other unknown cause. After
the birth stories he seems to disappear.[vii] Jesus is called“sonof Joseph” or
referred to as “the carpenter’s son” a few times, but Josephhimself never
appears in any narratives and nothing further is related about him. Jesus
moved “his mother and brothers” to Capernaum at one point—no mention of
Joseph(John 2:12). His “mother and brothers” came seeking him in one
story—again, no mention of Joseph(Mark 3:31). Even at the crucifixion of
Jesus Maryis mentioned, and possibly one of his sisters, but Josephis again
strangelyabsent. After Jesus’deathhis followers were gatheredin Jerusalem
and “Mary, the mother of Jesus with his brothers” were part of the group—
but no Joseph(Acts 1:14). The silence seems to indicate that something has
happened to Joseph.
If Josephdied early and Jesus and his brothers and sisters grew up
“fatherless”this surely would have had an important psychologicaland
sociologicalimpact on the family. But if Josephdied childless there are
further consequences fortraditional theologicaldogmas about Mary.
According to the Torah, or Law of Moses, the oldestsurviving unmarried
brother was obligatedto marry his deceasedbrother’s widow and bear a child
in his name so that his dead brother’s “name” or lineage would not perish.
This is calleda “Levirate marriage” or yibbum in Hebrew, and it is required
in the Torah(Deut 25:5-10).[viii] It is one of the commandments of God given
to Israel, and pious Jews took it seriously. It comes up in a discussionin the
Gospels where Jesus is askedabouta contrived case in which a woman is
widowedseventimes and eachtime successivelymarries a brother of her first
husband (Mark 12:19-22).

Suddenly the issue of who was the father of Jesus takes ona new dimension. If
Josephwas not Jesus’father, and Josephdied without children, was Mary the
widow required to marry Joseph’s brother? And do we know anything about
Joseph’s brother? Amazingly we do. Though seldomrecognizedhe is
mentioned in the New Testament.
We want to follow the evidence whereverit might lead, but the implications
that Mary was the mother of seven children through three different men does
sound outrageous today. But what if such a practice was not only normal but
not only required but required and honorable within the Jewishculture of the
time? Such was certainly the case. To honor a man who died without an heir
and thus assure his posterity was one of the most sacredand holy things a
family could do. Remember the four women Matthew mentions in his
genealogy?Two ofthe four, Tamar and Ruth, were widows involved in
Levirate marriages. Perhaps Matthew knows more than he is explicitly telling
us. It would be a mistake to judge any evidence concerning Mary and the
fathers of her children by our theologicalandcultural standards. What we
must do is look at the evidence—in this case a set of complex, but revealing,
textual clues within the New Testamentitself. It is as if, without intending to
do so, the gospelwriters have left a trail of evidence that we can reassemble
bit by bit after nearly 2000 years.
All four of our gospels note that women from Galilee who followedJesus were
present at his crucifixion and attended to his burial. Mark lists the names of
three of these women:
1. Mary Magdalene
2. Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses
3. Salome (Mark 15:40)
Matthew, who used Mark as his source, has the same list with slight changes:
1. Mary Magdalene
2. Mary the mother of James and Joseph

3. The mother of the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 27:56)
Mary Magdalene was the well-knowncompanion of Jesus aboutwhom we will
say much in subsequent chapters. Salome, mentioned only by Mark is very
possibly Jesus’sister, or perhaps, according to Matthew the mother of the two
fisherman James and John, who were part of the Twelve (Luke 5:10). In
Luke’s accounthe drops the names and simply says that “women” were
present just as he did earlierwith the names of the brothers of Jesus (Luke
23:49, 55). As we will see, Luke is not keento emphasize the family of Jesus.
Note that we have two women named Mary who were present. Later, at the
burial of Jesus Matthew tells us again that Mary Magdalene was there, as well
as “the other Mary” (Matt 27:61). When the women returned to the tomb
early Sunday morning to find it empty Matthew againtell us they were “Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary” (Matt 28:1). So the obvious question is this—
Just who is this mysterious one called“the other Mary?
Mark identifies her specificallytwo more times—once atthe burial as “Mary
the mother of Joses,”andthen at the empty tomb as “Mary the mother of
James” (Mark 15:47;16:1). He also notes againthat Salome was present.
So we know this secondMary was the mother of a “James and Joses.”But is
there any way to identify her further? We do know “anotherMary” who has
two sons named “James and Joses”—none otherthan Mary the mother of
Jesus. These are the very names, even including the nickname “Joses”(that
Matthew consistentlyedits) of her first two sons born after Jesus (Mark 6:3).
Is it possible or even probable that this mysterious “other Mary” is Mary the
mother of Jesus? It surely should not surprise us that Jesus’ownmother
would be witness to his death, and participate in the Jewishfamily burial
practices. And if so why does Mark not openly identify her as such?
Beyond this primary recordof Mark, largely followedwith some editing by
Luke and Matthew, we do have one other independent witness as to the
identity of these women—namely the gospelof John. Notice carefullyhis list
of the three women at the cross:
1. Jesus’mother Mary

2. His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clophas
3. Mary Magdalene (John19:25)
Notice, we still have three women, but Salome has dropped out and all three
are now named Mary! No matter how common the name Mary was at the
time surely three Marys should give us pause. Something seems to be going on
here. John knows something that either he, or those who later edited his
gospel, chose to veil.
The inclusion of Mary Magdalene does notsurprise us, as she is in all the lists.
But John tells us explicitly that Mary mother of Jesus was present. That
would allow us to safely identify Mark’s “Mary the mother of James and
Joses”as Jesus’mother Mary. But then who is the “new” third Mary—the
wife of Clophas? And who is Clophas? She is identified as the “sister” ofMary
mother of Jesus—butwhat is the likelihoodthat two sisters in the same family
would have the same name?
Let’s begin with Clophas as we do know something about him. As I will
explain in detail later, when Jesus died he left his brother James in charge of
his followers. Jameswas murdered in 62 AD and our earliestrecords tell us
that an agedman known as “Simon son of Clophas” succeededhim. We are
further told that this Clophas was the brother of Joseph, the husband of
Mary.[ix] If such were the case it is entirely possible that our mysterious
Mary, wife of Clophas, mother of “James andJoses,” was a sister-in-law of
Mary, married to her husband Joseph’s brother. That is the solution the
church has settled on over the centuries. But notice, if such were the case,
what we have is more than a bit strange:
Mary m. Joseph Mary m. Clophas, brother
| |
James-Joses-Simon James-Joses-Simon
Is it really likely that two sisters, both named Mary had three sons with the
same names born in the same order: James, Joses,and Simon?

What seems more plausible is that Mark’s “Marymother of James and Joses”
was the same Mary as the mother of Jesus and that the gospelof John (or its
later editors) has createda third Mary, wife of Clophas, who in fact was the
same woman—in order to disguise the fact that Jesus’mother Mary, after the
death of Joseph, married his brother Clophas. A decrypted versionof John
would read
“Standing by the cross ofJesus were his mother Mary wife of Clophas and
Mary Magdalene.”
This would agree perfectly with Mark and not create the absurdity of sisters-
in-law of the same name having identically named children, including the
nickname “Joses,”in the same order of birth. According to this reconstruction
our three women at the cross most likely were:
Mary Magdalene
Mary the widow of Josephwho married Clophas, Joseph’s brother
Salome, either the sister of Jesus orthe mother of the sons of Zebedee
There is one additional point about Clophas that supports this interpretation.
His name comes from the Hebrew root chalaph and means to “change” orto
“replace.”It is where we get the English term “caliphate,” referring to a
dynastic successionofrulers. So this is likely not his given name, but a type of
“nickname.” He is the one who replacedhis brother Joseph, who died
childless. Clophas is mentioned elsewhereby the Greek form of the same
name—Alphaeus. His firstborn son was regularly known as “James sonof
Alphaeus” or “James the younger” to distinguish him from James sonof
Zebedee the fisherman, brother of the apostle John.[x]
Given this information rather different but historicallyconsistentpicture
begins to emerge. Jesus wasborn of an unknown father, but was not the son of
Joseph. Josephdied without children, so according to Jewishlaw “Clophas”
or “Alphaeus” became his “replacer,”and married his widow Mary, mother
of Jesus. His firstborn son, James, the brother who succeedsJesus, legally
becomes knownas the “sonof Joseph” afterhis deceasedbrotherin order to

carry on his name. This would mean that Jesus had four half-brothers and at
leasttwo half-sisters, all born of his mother Mary but from a different father.
This is one plausible reconstructionof the evidence. There are things we can
never know with certainty. Clophas is mentioned only once in the entire New
Testament(John 19:25).[xi] If he and his brother Joseph were much older
than Mary it is likely that neither was alive when Jesus was an adult. This is
further indicated in the gospelof John when Jesus the eldestson in the family,
just before his death, handed his mother over to the care of a mysterious
“beloveddisciple” that John prefers not to name (John 19:26). I will show
evidence later that this personis most likely James, his brother, the next eldest
in the family. But whoeverit was, Jesus’giving his mother into the care of
another indicates she was a widow. We have to remember that the gospels are
primarily theologicalaccounts of the Jesus story written a generationor more
after his death. When it comes to Jesus’family there is much they do not spell
out, and there are things they appear to deliberately suppress. We have seen
that Mark preserves material that is edited or removed by Matthew and
Luke. John knows more than he is willing to say explicitly. The reasons for
these tendencies will become cleareras we trace our story through to the end.
It is truly a tangled tale of political intrigue and religious powerplays with
stakes destinedto shape the future of the world’s largestreligion.
What we cansay with some degree of certainty is the following. Josephwas
not the father of Jesus, andMary’s pregnancy by an unnamed man was
“illegitimate” by societalnorms. Jesus had four half-brothers and two half-
sisters, all children of Mary but from a different father—whetherJosephor
his brother Clophas. Jesus by age thirty functions as head of the household
and forges a vital role for his brothers, who succeedhim in establishing a
Messianic Dynastydestined to change the world.
[i] Epiphanius, Panarion78.8-9 and compare Gospelof Phillip 59:6-11 with
Protoevangeliumof James19-20.
[ii] See his instruction in 1 Corinthians 7.
[iii] The idea of Mary’s “perpetual virginity” was affirmed at the 2nd Council
of Constantinople in 553 AD and the Lateran Council in 649 AD. Although it

is a firmly establishedpart of Catholic dogma it has nonetheless neverbeen
the subjectof an infallible declarationby the Roman Catholic church.
[iv] This is calledthe Helvidian view named after Helvidius, a 4th century
Christian writer whom Jerome seeks to refute. Eusebius, the early 4th century
church historian regularly quotes early sources and refers himself to the
brothers of Jesus “afterthe flesh,” surely understanding them as children of
Mary and Joseph(see Eusebius, Church History 2. 23;3. 19.
[v] This is calledthe Hieronymian view in honor of Jerome, the 5th century
Christian theologianwho was its champion.
[vi] This is calledthe Epiphanian view in honor of Epiphanius, a 4th century
Christian bishop. It occurs as early as the 2nd century text we know as the
Protoevangeliumof James.
[vii] Luke has one story, when Jesus was 12 years old and was left behind
after a Passoverfeastatthe Temple. This accountdoes mention his father and
his mother but most historians question its historicalvalidity. It appears to be
modeled closelyon typical stories ofthe time about a precocious child
amazing the wise men of his society(see Luke 1:41-51, compare Josephus, Life
7-8). Other than that one story Josephis completely absent.
[viii] The term “Levirate” comes from the Latin levir (“husband’s brother”).
Jewishauthorities differ as to whether or not the Torahhas in mind a
deceasedbrother who is childless or one who specificallylacks a male heir
(JewishEncyclopedia, s.v. “Levirate Marriage”). The practicalapplication of
this law within Judaism at various points in history is long and complex
(Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. “Levirate Marriage and Halizah”).
[ix] This is from the 2nd century writer Hegesippus who preserves for us some
of the most valuable early traditions about the Jesus family (Eusebius, Church
History 3. 11).
[x] See Mark 3:18 and 15:27.
[xi] There is a Cleopas mentioned in Luke 24:18 but he does not appear to be
the same personand the names in Greek are different.

https://jamestabor.com/sorting-out-the-jesus-family-mother-fathers-brothers-
and-sisters/
JOHN 2:12 12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother
and His brothers and His disciples;and they did not stay there many days.
Who went to Capernaum with Jesus, His disciples and Mary?
Jesus’“brothers” (John 2:12).
Jesus had brothers?
Yes, and sisters too.
How many brothers and sisters did Jesus have?
Jesus had four brothers and at leasttwo sisters:“55 Is this not the son of the
tektonos? Is not His mother calledMary? 56 And His brothers James and
Joses andSimon and Judas and His sisters, are they not all with us? Where
then did this Man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:55-56)
Could “brothers” refer to those who believed in Jesus?
John 7 mentions that Jesus’brother did not believe in Him, so those who
believed in Jesus were “His disciples,” alreadymentioned in John 2:12.
Could “brothers” refer to Jesus’more distant relatives?
αδελφοὶ (adelphoi), the Greek wordtranslated “brothers” above sometimes
can be used to refer to more distant relatives - “brethren” in the wider sense -
but such usage doesn'tfit the narrow nuclear family contextabove: the
sequence of“father, mother, brothers and sisters” fits, while “father, mother,
relatives and sisters” doesn’t.
Could Jesus’“brothers” be His half brothers from Joseph’s marriage(s)prior
to his marriage to Mary?

Since Josephwasn’tJesus’biologicalfather, all of Jesus'brothers and sisters
mentioned above were His biologicalhalf brothers and half sisters. But there
is no evidence to suggestthatJosephhad been married before he married
Mary. Indeed, if Josephhad any children from any previous marriage(s), they
would have accompaniedJosephand Mary to Bethlehem of Judea to register
for the census ordered by Augustus Caesar.
What does this mean for Mary’s allegedvirginity throughout her life?
It is a myth concoctedby people who want to deify her and try to twist the
meaning the “brothers” in Matthew 13:55-56. But there is another passagein
Matthew that they cannot getaround: “Then Joseph, being arousedfrom
sleep, did as the angelof the Lord commanded him and took to him his
wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And
he called His name Jesus”(Matthew 1:24-25). The expression, to “know” is
used in the Bible to indicate sexual intercourse, as is evident from the context
of the passageabove. Saying that Josephdid not have sex with Mary “until”
she had brought forth her firstborn son means that Josephdid have sexwith
her thereafter.
What is “tektonos” inMatthew 13:55 above?
τεκτονος (tektonos)is the original Greek word and means “builder.”
Does that mean “carpenter”?
It doesn't. While builders built with woodin northern Europe, where the
Bible was first translatedinto English, builders in Israelat the time of Jesus
built with rocks. Theydid occasionallywork with woodto make doors and
other fixtures, but most of their time was spent quarrying and building with
rocks. The people quoted in Matthew 13:55 above are not calling Jesus the son
of a carpenter but the son of a builder who built with rocks
James, brother of Jesus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
"James the Just" redirects here. For the King of Aragon, see James II of
Aragon.
James
Neobyzantine iconof James
Apostle[1] and Martyr, Adelphotheos
Born
Unknown
Died
69 AD[n 1] or 62 AD[2][n 2]
Jerusalem
Venerated in
All Christian denominations
Canonized
Pre-congregation
Feast
May 3 (Catholic), May 1 (Anglican), October23 (Lutheran), (Episcopal
Church (USA)), (EasternOrthodox), December26 (EasternOrthodox)

Attributes
Red Martyr, Fuller's club; man holding a book
Controversy
There is disagreementaboutthe exactrelationship to Jesus. Also, James is
sometimes identified with James, sonof Alphaeus and James the Less.
James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord (Latin: Iacomus
from Hebrew: ‫בקעי‬ Ya'akovand Greek:Ἰάκωβος Iákōbos,canalso be
Anglicized as "Jacob"), was the brother of Jesus, according to the New
Testament. He was an early leader of the JerusalemChurch of the Apostolic
Age, to which Paul was also affiliated. He died in martyrdom in 62 or 69 AD.
Catholics and EasternOrthodox, as wellas some Anglicans and Lutherans,
teachthat James, along with others named in the New Testamentas
"brothers"[note 1] of Jesus, were notthe biologicalchildren of Mary, but
were possibly cousins of Jesus[4]orhalf-brothers from a previous marriage of
Joseph(as related in the Gospelof James).[5][note2]
Roman tradition holds that this James is to be identified with James, sonof
Alphaeus, and James the Less.[9]It is agreedby most that he should not be
confusedwith James, son of Zebedee.[1]
Contents
1
Epithet
2
Leader of the JerusalemChurch
2.1
The JerusalemChurch
2.2

Leader
2.3
Modern interpretation
3
Sources
3.1
New Testament
3.1.1
Pauline epistles
3.1.2
Acts of the Apostles
3.1.3
Gospels
3.2
Church Fathers
3.3
Early Christian apocrypha
4
Relationshipto Jesus, Maryand Joseph
4.1
Younger half-brother, son of Mary and Joseph
4.2
Older stepbrother, son of Josephby an earlier marriage

4.3
Cousin, son of a sisterof Mary
4.4
Younger half-brother, son of Mary and a secondhusband
5
Identification with James, sonof Alpheus, and with James the Less
5.1
Possible identity with James, sonof Alphaeus
5.2
Possible identity with James the Less
5.3
Other relationships
6
Death
7
Epistle of James
8
Feastday
9
The ossuarycontroversy
10
See also
11

Notes
12
References
13
Bibliography
14
External links
Epithet[edit]
Eusebius records that Clement of Alexandria related, "This James, whomthe
people of old called the Just because ofhis outstanding virtue, was the first, as
the recordtells us, to be electedto the episcopalthrone of the Jerusalem
church."[10][11][12]Otherepithets are "James the brother of the Lord,
surnamed the Just,"[13]and "James the Righteous".
He is sometimes referredto in EasternChristianity as "James Adelphotheos"
(Greek:Ἰάκωβος ὁ Ἀδελφόθεος), James the Brother of God. The oldest
surviving Christian liturgy, the Liturgy of St James, uses this epithet.[14]
Leader of the JerusalemChurch[edit]
The JerusalemChurch[edit]
See also:Early centers of Christianity § Jerusalem
The JerusalemChurch was an early Christian community locatedin
Jerusalem, of which James and Peterwere leaders. Paul was affiliated with
this community, and took his centralkerygma, as described in 1 Corinthians
15, from this community.
According to Eusebius, the Jerusalemchurch escapedto Pella during the siege
of Jerusalemby the future Emperor Titus in 70 and afterwards returned,
having a further series of Jewishbishops until the Bar Kokhba revolt in 130.

Following the seconddestruction of Jerusalemand the rebuilding of the city
as Aelia Capitolina, subsequent bishops were Greeks.[15]
Leader[edit]
James the Just, sixteenth century Russianicon.
James the Just was "from an early date, with Peter, a leaderof the Church at
Jerusalemand from the time when Peterleft Jerusalemafter Herod Agrippa's
attempt to kill him, James appears as the principal authority who presided at
the Councilof Jerusalem."[16]
The Pauline epistles and the later chapters of the Acts of the Apostles portray
James as an important figure in the Christian community of Jerusalem. When
Paul arrives in Jerusalemto deliver the money he raisedfor the faithful there,
it is to James that he speaks, andit is James who insists that Paul ritually
cleanse himselfat Herod's Temple to prove his faith and deny rumors of
teaching rebellion againstthe Torah(Acts 21:18ff).[note 3]
Paul describes James as being one of the persons to whom the risen Christ
showedhimself,[note 4] and in Galatians 2:9, Paul lists James with Cephas
(better knownas Peter)and John the Apostle as the three "pillars" of the
Church.[17]
Paul describes these Pillars as the ones who will minister to the "circumcised"
(in generalJews and JewishProselytes)in Jerusalem, while Paul and his
fellows will minister to the "uncircumcised" (in generalGentiles)
(2:12),[18][note 5] after a debate in response to concerns ofthe Christians of
Antioch. The Antioch community was concernedover whether Gentile
Christians need be circumcisedto be saved, and sent Paul and Barnabas to
conferwith the Jerusalemchurch. James played a prominent role in the
formulation of the council's decision. James was the lastnamed figure to
speak, afterPeter, Paul, and Barnabas;he delivered what he calledhis
"decision" (Acts 15:13-21 NRSV)– the original sense is closerto

"opinion".[19]He supported them all in being againstthe requirement (Peter
had cited his earlier revelationfrom God regarding Gentiles)and suggested
prohibitions about eating blood as wellas meat sacrificedto idols and
fornication. This became the ruling of the Council, agreedupon by all the
apostles and elders and sent to the other churches by letter.
Modern interpretation[edit]
The Encyclopædia Britannica relates that "James the Lord's brother was a
Christian apostle, according to St. Paul, although not one of the original
Twelve Apostles."[1]According to Schaff, James seems to have takenthe
place of James the son of Zebedee, after his martyrdom, around 44 AD.[14]
Modern historians of the early Christian churches tend to place James in the
tradition of JewishChristianity; whereas Paulemphasized faith over
observance ofMosaic Law, James is thought to have espousedthe opposite
position.[clarificationneeded][note 6]
According to Schaff, James was the localhead of the oldestchurch and the
leaderof the most conservative portion of JewishChristianity.[14]Scholar
James D. G. Dunn has proposedthat Peterwas the "bridge-man" (i.e. the
pontifex maximus) betweenthe two other "prominent leading figures":Paul
and James the Just.[20]
Sources[edit]
Apart from a handful of references inthe synoptic Gospels, the main sources
for the life of James the Just are the Pauline epistles, the Acts of the Apostles,
and Eusebius and Jerome, who also quote the early Christian chronicler
Hegesippus and Epiphanius.[21] There is no mention of James in the Gospel
of John and the early portions of the Acts of the Apostles. The Synoptics
mention his name, but no further information.
In the extant lists of Pseudo-Hippolytus of Rome,[22]Dorotheus ofTyre, the
Chronicon Paschale, andDimitry of Rostov, he is the first of the Seventy
Apostles though some sources, suchas the Catholic Encyclopedia,[23]state
that "these lists are unfortunately worthless".

New Testament[edit]
The New Testamentmentions severalpeople named James. The Pauline
epistles, from about the sixth decade of the 1stcentury, have two passages
mentioning a James. The Acts of the Apostles, written sometime between60
and 150 AD,[24]also describes the period before the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 AD. It has three mentions of a James. The Gospels, with disputed
datings ranging from about 50 to as late as 130 AD, describe the period of
Jesus'ministry, around 30-33 AD. It mentions at leasttwo different people
named James. The author of the Epistle of Jude notes that he is a brother of
James in that epistle's opening paragraph.
Pauline epistles[edit]
Paul mentions meeting James "the Lord's brother" (τὸν ἀδελφὸντοῦ κυρίου)
and later calls him one of the pillars (στύλοι)in the Epistle to the
Galatians[25]Galatians1:18-2:10:
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalemto visit Cephas and remained
with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles exceptJames the
Lord's brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) Then I
went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ...Thenafter fourteen years I went
up again to Jerusalemwith Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. ...Yet
because offalse brothers secretlybrought in—who slipped in to spy out our
freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into
slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that
the truth of the gospelmight be preservedfor you. And from those who
seemedto be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God
shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemedinfluential added nothing to
me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel
to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospelto the
circumcised(for he who workedthrough Peterfor his apostolic ministry to
the circumcisedworkedalso through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when
James and Cephas and John, who seemedto be pillars, perceivedthe grace
that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and

me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they
askedus to remember the poor, the very thing I was eagerto do.[26]
A "James" is mentioned in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1
Corinthians 15:7, as one to whom Jesus appearedafter his resurrection:
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received:that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 and that he was buried; and that he hath been raisedon the third day
according to the scriptures;
5 and that he appearedto Cephas;then to the twelve;
6 then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, ofwhom the
greaterpart remain until now, but some are fallen asleep;
7 then he appeared to James;then to all the apostles;
8 and lastof all, as to the [child] untimely born, he appearedto me also.[27]
In the preceding verse, the same Greek word "adelphos" (brother) is used,
but not in a blood-relationsense:
Then he appearedto more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of
whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. (1 Corinthians 15:6)
Acts of the Apostles[edit]
There is a James mentioned in Acts, which the Catholic Encyclopedia
identifies with James, the brother of Jesus:"but he [Peter], beckoning unto
them with the hand to hold their peace, declaredunto them how the Lord had
brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go show these things unto James,
and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place. (Acts
12:17)
When Peter, having miraculously escapedfrom prison, must flee Jerusalem
due to Herod Agrippa's persecution, he asks that James be informed (Acts
12:17).

James is also an authority in the early church at the Councilof Jerusalem
(James is quoting Amos 9:11–12):
And after they had held their peace, Jamesanswered, saying, Menand
brethren, hearkenunto me: Simeonhath declared how God at the first did
visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree
the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will
build againthe tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build
againthe ruins thereof, and I will setit up: That the residue of men might
seek afterthe Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith
the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from
the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not
them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write
unto them, that they abstainfrom pollutions of idols, and from fornication,
and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses ofold time hath in
every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogueseverysabbath
day. (Acts 15:13–21)
After this, there is only one more mention of James in Acts, meeting with Paul
shortly before Paul's arrest:"And when we were come to Jerusalem, the
brethren receivedus gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto
James;and all the elders were present. (Acts 21:17–18)
Gospels[edit]
The Synoptic Gospels, similarly to the Epistle to the Galatians, recognize a
core group of three disciples (Peter, John and James)having the same names
as those given by Paul. In the list of the disciples found in the Gospels, two
disciples whose names are James, the son of Alphaeus and James, sonof
Zebedee are mentioned in the list of the twelve disciples:(Matthew 10:1–4)
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over
unclean spirits, to castthem out, and to heal every disease andevery affliction.
The names of the twelve apostles are these:first, Simon, who is called Peter,
and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Philip and Bartholomew;Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector;James the

son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;Simon the Cananaean, andJudas Iscariot,
who betrayed him.
The Gospelof Mark and the Gospelof Matthew also mention a James as
Jesus'brother: "Is not this the carpenter, the sonof 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.":[9] The GospelofJohn never mentions
anyone calledJames, but mentions Jesus'unnamed "brothers" as being
present with Mary when Jesus attended the wedding at Cana (John 2:12), and
later that his brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5).
Church Fathers[edit]
FragmentX of Papias (writing in the secondcentury) refers to "James the
bishop and apostle".[28]
Hegesippus (2nd century), in the fifth book of his Commentaries, mentions
that James was made a bishop of Jerusalembut he does not mention by
whom: "After the apostles, Jamesthe brother of the Lord surnamed the Just
was made head of the Church at Jerusalem."[13]
Hegesippus (c.110–c.180), wrote five books (now lostexcept for some
quotations by Eusebius) of Commentaries on the Acts of the Church. In
describing James's asceticlifestyle, Eusebius's EcclesiasticalHistory (Book II,
23) quotes Hegesippus'accountof James from the fifth book of Commentaries
on the Acts of the Church:
James, the Lord's brother, succeedsto the government of the Church, in
conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from
the days of the Lord down to the presenttime. For many bore the name of
James;but this one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or
other intoxicating liquor, nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head;
he did not anoint himself with oil, nor make use of the bath. He alone was
permitted to enter the holy place: for he did not wearany woollengarment,
but fine linen only. He alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he
used to be found kneeling on his knees, begging forgivenessforthe people-so
that the skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reasonof his

constantly bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for
the people.[29][30]
Clement of Alexandria (late 2nd century) wrote in the sixth book of his
Hypotyposes that James the Just was chosenas a bishop of Jerusalemby
Peter, James (the Greater)and John:
"Forthey say that Peter and James and John after the ascensionofour
Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose
James the Just bishop of Jerusalem."[31][32][note7]
Clement, in the seventhbook of the same work, relates also the following
concerning him:
"The Lord after his resurrectionimparted knowledge (gnōsin)to James the
Just and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles,
and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one."[35]
According to Eusebius (3rd/4th century) James was named a bishop of
Jerusalemby the apostles:"James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the
episcopalseatatJerusalemhad been entrusted by the apostles".[36]Jerome
wrote the same:"James...afterour Lord's passion... ordainedby the apostles
bishop of Jerusalem..."and that James "ruled the church of Jerusalemthirty
years".[37]
Epiphanius (4th century), bishop of Salamis, wrote in his work The Panarion
(AD 374-375)that "James, the brother of the Lord died in virginity at the age
of ninety-six".[38]
According to Jerome (4th century), James, the Lord’s brother, was an apostle,
too; Jerome quotes Scriptures as a proof in his work "The Perpetual Virginity
of BlessedMary", writing the following:
Notice, moreover, that the Lord's brother is an apostle, since Paulsays «Then
after three years I went up to Jerusalemto visit Cephas, and tarried with him
fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's
brother.» (Galatians 1:18-19)And in the same Epistle «And when they

perceivedthe grace that was given unto me, James and Cephas and John, who
were reputed to be pillars,» (Galatians 2:9)[39]:F.15
Early Christian apocrypha[edit]
This sectionneeds additional citations for verification. Please helpimprove
this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourcedmaterial may be
challengedand removed.
Find sources:"James, brotherof Jesus" – news · newspapers · books · scholar
· JSTOR (July 2015)(Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Some apocryphal gospels testifyto the reverence Jewishfollowers ofJesus had
for James. The Gospelofthe Hebrews confirms the accountof Paul in 1
Corinthians regarding the risen Jesus'appearance to James.[37]Jerome (5th
century) quotes the non-canonicalGospelof the Hebrews:
'Now the Lord, after he had given his grave clothes to the servant of the priest,
appearedto James, forJames had sworn that he would not eat bread from
that hour in which he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him risen
from the dead.' And a little further on the Lord says, 'bring a table and
bread.' And immediately it is added, 'He took bread and blessedand broke
and gave it to James the Just and said to him, "My brother, eatyour bread,
for the Son of Man is risen from the dead."'And so he ruled the church of
Jerusalemthirty years, that is, until the seventh year of Nero.[31][note 8]
The non-canonicalGospelofThomas confirms that Jesus, afterhis
resurrection, names James as a leader of his disciples:
The disciples said to Jesus, 'We know that you will depart from us. Who will
be our leader?'Jesus saidto them, 'Where you are, you are to go to James the
Just, for whose sake heavenand earth came into existence'.[41][42][43]
The Gospelof Thomas[note 9]confirms the accountof Paul in 1 Corinthians
regarding the risen Jesus'appearance to James. The Gospelof Thomas relates
that the disciples askedJesus, afterhis resurrectionand before his Ascension,
"We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus

said to them, "No matter where you come [from] it is to James the Justthat
you shall go, for whose sake heavenand earth have come to exist."[44]
Epiphanius (Panarion 29.4)describes Jamesas a Nazirite.[45]
The pseudepigraphicalFirst Apocalypse of James associated with James's
name mentions many details, some of which may reflectearly traditions: he is
said to have authority over the twelve apostles and the early church; claims
that James and Jesus are not biologicalbrothers; this work also adds,
somewhatpuzzlingly, that James left Jerusalemand fled to Pella, Jordan
before the Roman siege ofthat city in 70. (Ben Witherington suggests whatis
meant by this was that James's bones were takenby the early Christians who
had fled from Jerusalem).[citationneeded]
The pseudepigraphicalSecondApocalypse of James names James's father
Theudas rather than Joseph, who is presentedas the biologicalfather of
James by the mid 2nd century Protevangeliumof James.[46]
The Apocryphon of James, the sole copy of which was found in the Nag
Hammadi library and which may have been written in Egypt in the 3rd
century,[47] recounts a post-resurrectionappearance ofthe risen Christ to
James and Peterthat James is said to have recordedin Hebrew. In the
dialogue, Peterspeaks twice (3:12;9:1) but misunderstands Jesus. Only James
is addressedby name (6:20), and James is the more dominant of the
two.[citationneeded]
The apocryphal Gospelof Philip seems to list a Mary as a sisterof Jesus
without specifying whether she is the daughter of Mary and Josephor the
daughter of Josephby a previous marriage.
The Gospelof James (or "Infancy Gospelof James"), a work of the 2nd
century, also presents itselfas written by James[48] – so that his authorship
would lend authority.
In a 4th-century letter pseudographicallyascribedto the 1st century Clement
of Rome,[49]James was calledthe "bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem,
the Holy Church of the Hebrews, and all the Churches everywhere".[50]
Relationshipto Jesus, Maryand Joseph[edit]

Jesus'brothers – James as wellas Jude, Simon and Joses – are named in
Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 and mentioned elsewhere. James'sname always
appears first in lists, which suggestshe was the eldestamong them.[51]In
JewishAntiquities (20.9.1), Josephus describes Jamesas "the brother of Jesus
who is calledChrist".
Interpretation of the phrase "brother of the Lord" and similar phrases is
divided betweenthose who believe that Mary had additional children after
Jesus and those (Catholics, EasternOrthodox, and some Protestants, suchas
many Anglicans and Lutherans) who hold the perpetual virginity of Mary.
The only Catholic doctrine which has been defined regarding the "brothers of
the Lord" is that they are not biologicalchildren of Mary;[4] thus, Catholics
do not considerthem as siblings of Jesus.
Nearcontemporary sources[which?]insistthat James was a "perpetual
virgin" from the womb, a term which according to RobertEisenman was later
convertedto his mother, Mary.[52]
Some writers, such as R.V. Tasker[53]andD. Hill,[54] saythe Matthew 1:25
statementthat Joseph"knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn
son" to mean that Josephand Mary did have normal marital relations after
Jesus'birth, and that James, Joses, Jude, and Simon, were the natural sons of
Mary and Josephand, thus, full brothers of Jesus. Others, suchas K. Beyer,
point out that Greek ἕως οὗ (until) after a negative "oftenhas no implication
at all about what happened after the limit of the 'until' was reached".[55]
Raymond E. Brown also argues that "the immediate contextfavors a lack of
future implication here, for Matthew is concernedonly with stressing Mary's
virginity before the child's birth".[55]
Younger half-brother, son of Mary and Joseph[edit]
The Gospels ofMatthew and Luke say that Jesus was miraculouslyconceived
and born of his mother Mary while she was still a virgin (Matthew 1:18–23,
Luke 1:30–37)and that Mary and Joseph"did not consummate their
marriage until she gave birth" to Jesus (Matthew 1:25); and Jesus is referred
to as the "first-born son" of Mary (Luke 2:7). So James and the other
"brothers" of Jesus are consideredby many to be Jesus's youngerhalf-

brothers, born of Mary and Joseph. In addition, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus's
brothers or siblings are often describedtogether, without reference to any
other relatives (Matthew 12:46–49, Mark 3:31–34, 6:3, Luke 8:19–21, John
2:12, Acts 1:14), and Jesus's brothers are described without allusion to others
(John 7:2–5, 1 Corinthians 9:5). For example, Matthew 13:55–56says, "Isn't
this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his
brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude? Aren't all his sisters with us?" and
John 7:5 says, "Evenhis own brothers did not believe in him."
Helvidius (c. 380)seems to be the first theologianto look back and say that
Mary had children other than Jesus.[56]Jerome asserts in his tract The
PerpetualVirginity of BlessedMary, as an answerto Helvidius, that the term
first-born was used to refer to any offspring that openedthe womb, rather
than definitely implying other children.[39] Luke's reporting of the visit of
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to the Temple of Jerusalemwhen Jesus was 12 years
old makes no reference to any of Jesus'half-brothers.
The modern scholarRobertEisenman, however, is of the belief that Luke, as
a close followerofPauline Gentile Christianity, soughtto minimise the
importance of Jesus'family by whatever means possible, editing James and
Jesus'brothers out of the Gospelrecord.[52]Karl Keating argues that Mary
and Josephrushed without hesitation straightback to Jerusalem, whenthey
realized Jesus was lost, which they would surely have thought twice about
doing if there were other children (Jesus'siblings) to look after.[56]
Older stepbrother, son of Josephby an earlier marriage[edit]
The Protevangeliumof James (a 2nd century apocryphal gospelalso calledthe
Gospelof James or the Infancy Gospelof James), says that Mary was
betrothed to Josephand that he already had children. In this case, Jameswas
one of Joseph's children from his previous marriage and, therefore, Jesus'
stepbrother.
The bishop of Salamis, Epiphanius, wrote too in his work The Panarion(AD
374-375)that "...James(brother of Jesus)was Joseph's sonby Joseph's first
wife, not by Mary..."[57]He adds that Josephbecame the father of James and
his three brothers (Joses,Simeon, Judah) and two sisters (a Salome and a

Mary[58]or a Salome and an Anna[59]) with James being the elder sibling.
James and his siblings were not children of Mary but were Joseph's children
from a previous marriage. After Joseph's first wife died, many years later
when he was eighty, "he took Mary (mother of Jesus)".According to
Epiphanius the Scriptures call them "brothers of the Lord" to confound their
opponents.[60][61]
One argument supporting this view is that it would have been againstJewish
custom for Jesus to give his mother to the care of John (who is not at all
suspectedto be a blood relative of Jesus)if Mary had other living sons. This is
because the eldest sonwould take responsibility for his mother after the death
of her husband; any other sons of Mary should have taken on this
responsibility if they existed, therefore arguing againsta direct natural
brother relationship.[56][62]
Also, Aramaic and Hebrew tended to use circumlocutions to point out blood
relationships; it is assertedthat just calling some people "brothers of Jesus"
would not have necessarilyimplied the same mother.[63] Rather, something
like "sons ofthe mother of Jesus" wouldhave been used to indicate a common
mother. Scholars and theologians who assertthis point out that Jesus was
called"the son of Mary" rather than "a sonof Mary" in his hometown (Mark
6:3).[9]
Cousin, son of a sisterof Mary[edit]
James, along with the others named "brothers" of Jesus, are saidby others to
have been Jesus'cousins. This is justified by the fact that cousins were also
called"brothers" and "sisters" inJesus'native language, Aramaic, which,
like Biblical Hebrew, does not contain a word for cousin.[64]Furthermore,
the Greek words adelphos and adelphe were not restrictedto the meaning of a
literal brother or sisterin the Bible, nor were their plurals.[63]
Eusebius of Caesarea(c. 275 – 339)reports the tradition that James the Just
was the son of Joseph's brother Clopas and therefore was of the "brothers"
(which he interprets as "cousin")ofJesus describedin the New Testament.

This is echoedby Jerome (c. 342 – 419)in De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious
Men) – James is said to be the sonof another Mary, wife of Clopas and the
"sister" ofMary, the mother of Jesus – in the following manner:
James, who is calledthe brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just, the sonof
Josephby another wife, as some think, but, as appears to me, the son of Mary,
sisterof the mother of our Lord of whom John makes mention in his
book...[37]
Jerome refers to the scene ofthe crucifixion in John 19:25, where three
women named Mary – Mary, the mother of Jesus, Maryof Clopas, and Mary
Magdalene – are said to be witnesses.Johnalso mentions the "sister" ofthe
mother of Jesus, oftenidentified with Mary of Clopas due to grammar. Mary
"of Clopas" is often interpreted as Mary, "wife of Clopas". Maryof Nazareth
and Mary of Clopas also need not be literally sisters, in light of the usage of
the saidwords in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.[9]
Mary of Clopas is suggestedto be the same as "Mary, the mother of James the
younger and Joses","Marythe mother of James and Joseph" and the "other
Mary" in Jesus'crucifixion and post-resurrectionaccounts in the Synoptic
Gospels. Proponents ofthis identification argue that the writers of the
Synoptics would have calledthis Mary, simply, "the mother of Jesus" if she
was indeed meant to be the mother of Jesus, giventhe importance of her son's
crucifixion and resurrection:they also note that the mother of James and
Joses is called"Maria", whereasthe mother of Jesus is "Mariam" or
"Marias" in Greek. These proponents find it unlikely that Mary would be
referred to by her natural children other than Jesus at such a significanttime
(James happens to be the brother of one Joses, as spelledin Mark, or Joseph,
as in Matthew).[63][65]
Jerome's opinion suggestsan identification of James the Just with the Apostle
James, sonof Alphaeus; Clopas and Alphaeus are thought to be different
Greek renderings of the same Aramaic name Khalphai.[63] Despite this, some
biblical scholars tend to distinguish them; this is also not Catholic dogma,
though a traditional teaching.

Since this Clopas is, according to Eusebius, Josephof Nazareth's brother (see
above) and this Mary is said to be Mary of Nazareth's sister, James could be
related to Jesus by blood and law.[9]
Younger half-brother, son of Mary and a secondhusband[edit]
A variant on this is presented by James Tabor,[51]who argues that after the
early and childless death of Joseph, Marymarried Clopas, whom he accepts
as a younger brother of Joseph, according to the Levirate law. According to
this view, Clopas fathered James and the later siblings, but not Jesus.
John Dominic Crossansuggestedthat James was probably Jesus'older
brother.[66]
Identification with James, sonof Alpheus, and with James the Less[edit]
A Mary is also mentioned as the mother of James, the younger and of Joseph
in the Gospelof Mark:
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary
Magdalene, Marythe mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and
Salome. (Mark 15:40)
On the other hand, another Mary is mentioned as the mother of a James and
of a Josephin the Gospelof Matthew and in the Gospelof Mark:
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Marythe mother of James,
and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus'body. (Mark
16:1)
Among them were Mary Magdalene, Marythe mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother of Zebedee's sons. (Matthew 27:56).
Catholic interpretation generallyholds that James, the younger is the same
James mentioned in Mark 16:1 and Matthew 27:56 and it is to be identified
with James, the sonof Alphaeus and James, the brother of Jesus.[9]
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he is not, however, identified with
James the Great,[9]although this is disputed by some.[52]
Possible identity with James, sonof Alphaeus[edit]

See also:§ Relationshipto Jesus
Jerome believed that the "brothers" of the Lord were Jesus'cousins, thus
amplifying the doctrine of perpetual virginity. Jerome concludedthat James
"the brother of the Lord", (Galatians 1:19) is therefore James, sonof
Alphaeus, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, andthe sonof Mary
Cleophas.[9]
In two small but potentially important works of Hippolytus, On the Twelve
Apostles of Christ and On the Seventy Apostles of Christ, he relates the
following:
And James the son of Alphaeus, when preaching in Jerusalemwas stonedto
death by the Jews, and was buried there beside the temple.[67]
James, the brother of Jesus, was also stonedto death by the Jews.[68][69]
These two works of Hippolytus are often neglectedbecause the manuscripts
were lost during most of the church age and then found in Greece in the 19th
century. As most scholars considerthem spurious, they are often ascribedto
Pseudo-Hippolytus. The two are included in an appendix to the works of
Hippolytus in the voluminous collectionofEarly Church Fathers.[70]
According to the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of
the Lord of the Apostolic FatherPapias of Hierapolis, who lived c. 70–163AD,
Cleophas and Alphaeus are the same person, and Mary the wife of Cleophas
or Alphaeus would be the mother of James the brother of Jesus, and of Simon
and Judas (Thaddeus), and of one Joseph.
(1) Mary the mother of the Lord; (2) Mary the wife of Cleophas orAlphaeus,
who was the mother of James the bishop and apostle, and of Simon and
Thaddeus, and of one Joseph;(3) Mary Salome, wife of Zebedee, mother of
John the evangelistand James;(4) Mary Magdalene. These fourare found in
the Gospel...(FragmentX)[28]
Thus James, the brother of the Lord would be the son of Alphaeus, who is the
husband of Mary the wife of Cleophas or Mary the wife of Alphaeus. The
identification of James as the son of Alpheus was perpetuated into the 13th

century in the hagiographythe GoldenLegend of Jacobus de
Varagine.[71][72]
Possible identity with James the Less[edit]
Jerome also concludedthat James "the brother of the Lord" is the same as
James the Less. To explain this, Jerome first tells that James the Less must be
identified with James, the son of Alphaeus, and reports in his work The
PerpetualVirginity of BlessedMarythe following:
Do you intend the comparatively unknown James the Less, who is called in
Scripture the son of Mary, not howeverof Mary the mother of our Lord, to be
an apostle, or not? If he is an apostle, he must be the sonof Alphæus and a
believer in Jesus
The only conclusionis that the Mary, who is describedas the mother of James
the Less was the wife of Alphæus and sisterof Mary the Lord's mother, the
one who is calledby John the Evangelist"Maryof Clopas"[39]:F.15
After saying that James the Less is the same as James, the son of Mary of
Cleophas, wife of Alphaeus and sisterof Mary the Lord's mother, Jerome
describes in his work De Viris Illustribus that James "the brother of the
Lord" is the same as James, the son of Alpaheus and Mary of Cleophas:
James, who is calledthe brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just, the sonof
Josephby another wife, as some think, but, as appears to me, the son of Mary
sisterof the mother our Lord Mary of Cleophas of whom John makes mention
in his book (John 19:25)[37]
Thus, Jerome concludes that James, the sonof Alphaeus, James the Less, and
James, brother of the Lord, are one and the same person.
Other relationships[edit]
Also, Jesus and James couldbe relatedin some other way, not strictly
"cousins", following the non-literal application of the term adelphos and the
Aramaic term for brother.[63]According to the apocryphal First Apocalypse
of James, James is not the earthly brother of Jesus, but a spiritual brother[73]

who according to the Gnostics "receivedsecretknowledgefrom Jesus prior to
the Passion".[74]
Death[edit]
According to Josephus James was stonedto death by Ananus ben Ananus.[75]
Clement of Alexandria relates that "James was thrownfrom the pinnacle of
the temple, and was beatento death with a club".[68]
Hegesippus cites that "the Scribes and Pharisees placedJames upon the
pinnacle of the temple, and threw down the just man, and they began to stone
him, for he was not killed by the fall. And one of them, who was a fuller, took
the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the
head".[68]
Martyrdom of James the Just in Menologionof BasilII, a manuscript dating
from late tenth or early eleventh century.
According to a passagefound in existing manuscripts of Josephus'Antiquities
of the Jews, (xx.9)"the brother of Jesus, who was calledChrist, whose name
was James" methis death after the death of the procurator Porcius Festus but
before Lucceius Albinus had assumed office (Antiquities 20,9) – which has
been dated to 62.[76]The High PriestHanan ben Hanan (Anani Ananus in
Latin) took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a
Sanhedrin (although the correcttranslationof the Greek synhedrion kriton is
"a council of judges"), who condemned James "onthe charge of breaking the
law", then had him executedby stoning.[75]Josephus reports that Hanan's
act was widely viewedas little more than judicial murder and offended a
number of "those who were consideredthe most fair-minded people in the
City, and strict in their observance ofthe Law", who went so far as to arrange
a meeting with Albinus as he entered the province in order to petition him
successfullyabout the matter. In response, King Agrippa II replacedAnanus
with Jesus sonof Damneus.[77]

The Church FatherOrigen, who consultedthe works ofJosephus in around
248, relatedan accountof the death of James, anaccountwhich gave it as a
cause ofthe Roman siege ofJerusalem, something not found in our current
manuscripts of Josephus.[78][79]
Eusebius wrote that "the more sensible even of the Jews were ofthe opinion
that this (James'death) was the cause of the siege of Jerusalem, which
happened to them immediately after his martyrdom for no other reasonthan
their daring actagainsthim. Josephus, at least, has not hesitatedto testify this
in his writings, where he says, «These things happened to the Jews to avenge
James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus, that is called the Christ. For the
Jews slew him, although he was a most just man.»"[68]
Eusebius, while quoting Josephus'account, also records otherwise lost
passagesfrom Hegesippus (see links below) and Clement of Alexandria
(Historia Ecclesiae, 2.23). Hegesippus'accountvaries somewhatfrom what
Josephus reports and may be an attempt to reconcile the various accounts by
combining them. According to Hegesippus, the scribes and Pharisees came to
James for help in putting down Christian beliefs. The recordsays:
They came, therefore, in a body to James, and said: "We entreat thee, restrain
the people:for they have gone astrayin their opinions about Jesus, as if he
were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for the
day of the passover, concerning Jesus.Forwe all listen to thy persuasion;
since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just, and
showestpartiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade the people not to
entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus:for all the people, and we also,
listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon the summit of the temple,
that from that elevatedspot thou mayestbe clearlyseen, and thy words may
be plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend the passover, all the
tribes have congregatedhither, and some of the Gentiles also."[80][81][82]
To the scribes'and Pharisees'dismay, James boldly testified that "Christ
himself sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the GreatPower, and shall come
on the clouds of heaven". The scribes and pharisees then said to themselves,

"We have not done well in procuring this testimony to Jesus. Butlet us go up
and throw him down, that they may be afraid, and not believe him."
Accordingly, the scribes and Pharisees
... threw down the just man... [and] beganto stone him: for he was not killed
by the fall; but he turned, and kneeleddown, and said: "I beseechthee, Lord
God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
And, while they were there, stoning him to death, one of the priests, the sons
of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the
prophet, beganto cry aloud, saying: "Cease,whatdo ye? The just man is
praying for us." But one among them, one of the fullers, took the staff with
which he was accustomedto wring out the garments he dyed, and hurled it at
the head of the just man.
And so he suffered martyrdom; and they buried him on the spot, and the
pillar erectedto his memory still remains, close by the temple. This man was a
true witness to both Jews and Greeks thatJesus is the Christ. And shortly
after VespasianbesiegedJudaea,taking them captive.
— Fragments from the Acts of the Church; Concerning the Martyrdom of
James, the Brother of the Lord, from Book 5.[80]
Vespasian's siegeand capture of Jerusalemdelayedthe selectionofSimeon of
Jerusalemto succeedJames.
According to Philip Schaff in 1904, this accountby "Hegesippus has been
cited over and over againby historians as assigning the date of the martyrdom
to 69," though he challengedthe assumption that Hegesippus gives anything
to denote such a date.[83]Josephus does notmention in his writings how
James was buried.[84]
Epistle of James[edit]
Main article: Epistle of James § Authorship
James is a principal author of the Apostolic Decree ofActs 15. The Epistle of
James has been traditionally attributed to James the Just since 253,[85][86]

but, according to Dan McCartney, it is now common for scholars to disagree
on its authorship.[87]
Feastday[edit]
In the Catholic Church, the feastday of Philip the Apostle, along with that of
James the Lesser(Catholics identify him with James the Just as the same
person), was traditionally observedon 1 May, the anniversary of the church
dedicatedto them in Rome (now called the Church of the Twelve Apostles).
Then this combined feasttransferred to May 3 in the current ordinary
calendar.
In the EasternOrthodox Church, James is commemorated as "Apostle James
the Just, brother of Our Lord", and as such, multiple days are assignedto his
feasts. His feastdays are on October23, December26 and the next Sunday of
the Nativity along with King David and Saint Josephand January 4 among
the SeventyApostles.
In the EpiscopalChurch of the United States ofAmerica and Lutheran
Church, James, brother of Jesus and martyr is commemoratedon October23.
The ossuarycontroversy[edit]
Main article: James Ossuary
In the November 2002 issue ofBiblical ArchaeologyReview, André Lemaire
of the Sorbonne University in Paris published the report that an ossuary
bearing the inscription "Ya'aqov bar Yosef achui d'Yeshua" ("James sonof
Josephbrother of Jesus")hadbeen identified belonging to a collector, Oded
Golan. The ossuarywas exhibited at the RoyalOntario Museum in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, late that year; but on June 18, 2003, the Israeli Antiquities
Authority published a report concluding, basedon an analysis of the patina,
that the inscription is a modern forgery. Specifically, it appeared that the
inscription had been added recently and made to look old by addition of a
chalk solution. However, The DiscoveryChannel's 2004 documentaryJames,
Brother of Jesus shows the examination of the inscription's patina by the
RoyalOntario Museum, using longwave ultraviolet light, and they concluded

there was "nothing suspicious" about the engraving, and Golan has put out a
34-page documentdefending the authenticity as well.[88]
On December29, 2004, Golanwas indicted in an Israelicourt along with three
other men – Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who teaches atHaifa
University; collectorShlomo Cohen; and antiquities dealer Faizal-Amaleh.
They were accusedofbeing part of a forgeryring that had been operating for
more than 20 years. Golan denied the charges againsthim. According to the
BBC, "whenthe police took Oded Golan into custody and searchedhis
apartment they discovereda workshopwith a range of tools, materials, and
half finished 'antiquities'. This was evidence for a fraud of a scale far greater
than they had suspected."[89]However, on March14, 2012, Golanwas
declarednot guilty of all charges offorgery, though with the judge saying this
acquittal "does not mean that the inscription on the ossuaryis authentic or
that it was written 2,000 years ago" and"it was not proven in any waythat
the words 'the brother of Jesus'necessarilyrefer to the 'Jesus'who appears in
Christian writings."[90][91]
Jesus'Unbelieving Brothers
Article by Jon Bloom
Staff writer, desiringGod.org
Do you, like me, have family members who do not believe in Jesus? If so, we
are in goodcompany. So did Jesus. And I think this is meant to give us hope.
According to the Apostle John, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John
7:5). That’s incredible. Those who had lived with Jesus for 30 years really did
not know him. Not one of Jesus’brothers is mentioned as a disciple during his

Jesus was part of an earthly family

Jesus was part of an earthly family

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (19)

Similar to Jesus was part of an earthly family

Similar to Jesus was part of an earthly family (11)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was part of an earthly family