Posted on 07/22/2004 11:27:00 AM PDT by dangus
I've read various apologetics concerning the assertion that Jesus had brothers.
One Protestant argument is that the word, "first-born" implies that there were others born later. That's simply false, and not worthy of serious consideration. We see the word "first-born" used for only children throughout history; it signifies status as a preferred heir.
The Protestant argument I want to address is that the bible specifically mentions that Jesus had brothers (Mark 6:3: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?")
The Catholic counter-argument is that these are Jesus' cousins. Hebrew culture does not distinguish between brothers and cousins, and even lacks a word for "cousin." Greek does have a word for cousin, but often uses the word "adelphi," the word used in the bible, to refer to cousins.
Protestants are unswayed by this, pointing out that it's odd to use the word to mean male cousins and female cousins separately in the same context. But would it be wierd for a Jew, thinking in Hebrew, to do so? The Greeks have always treated the Bible as if it were written in perfect classical Greek, but isn't it likely that a Greek-speaking Jewish culture would "over-translate" certain words? I remember reading in "Confessions," that in sinful younger years, St. Augustine had contempt for the gospels because they were filled with what he considered poor grammar. It would be such a help for the Catholic argument if it could be asserted that Jesus did, in fact, have cousins with those names.
John 19:25 lists the women at the cross of Jesus as "his [Jesus'] mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the [wife] of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene."
In other words, you have three "Marys:" Jesus' mother (who I'll call BVM, for "the Blessed Virgin Mary," Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. The King James bible actually gets it right with the punctuation: John always puts the word "and" (trans. of "kai") between each item in a list. So, we know that "his mother's sister, Mary the [wife] of Cleophas" is actually one person.
This seems strange. How could a woman named Mary have a sister named Mary? That simply wasn't done! Well, in ancient times, there was no concept of an "in-law." Mary of Cleophas was apparently BVM's sister-in-law.
From the books of Luke, Matthew and Mark, we find that there is again another "Mary" at the resurrection. This Mary is defined as the "mother of James the lesser and of Joses." (Mt 27:56)
James the less also has a brother named Jude, according to Luke 6:16: "and Judas, [the brother] of James." We can't be mixing up Jameses either, because Luke 6:14 pairs the other James up with John. We know the other James is the brother of John. For instance, Matthew 4:21 refers to, "...James [the son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father."
So, we have James, Joses and Judas who are sons of a woman named Mary who is not the mother of Jesus. And we know that we have at the same time a sister-in-law of the mother of Jesus who is also named Mary. But don't we know that James, Joses and Judas are sons of Alphaeus? How could they be sons of Mary, the wife of Cleophas?
Here's where the business of translation gets tricky. The King James bible calls James, "the [son] of Alphaeus." Why the brackets? Because the word, "son" does not appear in the original text. James is simply James of Alphaeus. Judas is simply Judas of James. Mary is simply Mary of Cleophas.
[Actually, that's Mary of "Clopas," in fact. The "e" and the "h" are inventions of the King James Bible. The authors of the King James bible sometimes changed names to distinguish between two people of the same name. For example, Judas the saint became known as Jude, while Judas Iscariot remained Judas. Why change "Clopas" into "Cleophas?" One of the disciples on the road to Emmaus was named Clopas, and there's no reason to doubt he's Mary's husband.]
While we know Clopas is a person, there is a city called Alphaeus in Northern Palestine. It seems odd for Jesus to have in-laws from that far North, but it seems stranger still for a Jew to be given the Greek name of a city. So, the two disciples who are called "[sons] of Alphaeus" are probably simply from Alphaeus.
In any event, we know that one apostle James is James of Alphaeus, and brother of Judas and Joses. We know the other James cannot possibly be the brother of Jesus, because he is the son of Zebedee. And in this case, we know that Zebedee is the name of James' father, because we meet him in Matthew 4:21, fixing the boat.
So, at this point, it seems more than likely that Jesus had cousins named James, Joses and Judas, and that neither James is Jesus' brother.
Not so long ago, newspaper headlines screamed that a New-Testament era ossuary had been found bearing the inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The inscriptions later proved to be a fraud, newly scratched on an ancient ossuary. (Didn't anyone check this out BEFORE publishing??? I mean, "Duh!") And the inscription did not say what people claimed it said. It said, "Yacoub [James] of Joses [Joseph] of Yasou [Jesus]." That would imply to me that James was a relative of Joseph, who was the closer relative of Jesus, but I digress. The point is that we had a parade of scholars opining that it was inconcievable, inconcievable that these three names could be mere chance.
Is it possible that Jesus had brothers named James, Joses and Judas, and then went out and found another group of brothers who also had a mother named Mary and who also were named James, Joses and Judas? In addition to disciples named who were also brothers and were also named James and Judas who also had a brother named Joses?
And where were these brothers when Jesus told Mary, "There is THE son of you." And, yes, in the Greek, the article means implies that there are no other sons.
Another odd thoughts: The bible lists five brothers of Jesus, and uses the plural, "sisters." That's seven siblings. When Jesus was twelve, there's no mention of other siblings. Now, here he is at 30, and he's got at least seven? Could "James the elder" have been only 17 when Jesus died?
Later thought: Just to clarify, Mathew 27:56 refers to "Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." These are two separate people and not simply a truly bizarre way of expressing one woman's relations. I've established that James and Joses are also Judas' brothers. But the James who is the son of Zebedee is also the brother of John. The bible pairs one James and John as brothers, and in the same list that James and John are mentionned together, calls another James and Judas brothers.
***Well, in ancient times, there was no concept of an "in-law." Mary of Cleophas was apparently BVM's sister-in-law.***
You've obviously never read Ruth. See Ruth 1:14.
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Col 4:10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas's cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him);
From the Greek word "anepsios".
or this
Luk 1:61 And they said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name."
Distinctions are sometimes made with family even in the New Testament.
Not when James, at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, was a sceptic/unbeliever. He probably wasn't even AT the crucifixion. He thought Jesus was nutty.
Paul was a Roman citizen writing to Greeks. Different author, different audience. I didn't say there was no GREEK word for cousin, I said that JEWS called their cousins "brothers," and that Greeks often did.
There has never been any scholarly debate as to whether "adelphos" can refer to cousins. The debate has been over whether its usage is unusual in that circumstance.
>>You've obviously never read Ruth. See Ruth 1:14.<<
You caught an error. Allow me to rephrase myself: They did not distinguish that someone was merely an in-law.
I also stood corrected that Mary of Clopas/Cleophas had to be an in-law. According to one source (not that I can confirm it), expectation was so high that the Messiah was imminently to be born to a woman named Mary, parents would name each daughter they had, "Mary." It's even been suggested that Mary of Magdala and Mary of Bethany were sisters.
The point remains that Mary of Cleophas's children, James, Judas and Joses would've been Jesus' cousins.
On another note I can't help but think of poor Joseph. Here you have a man who is eagerly anticipating his wedding day only to find out his future wife is pregnant. While contemplating whether to marry or not an angel comes forth and tells him to go ahead. The Bible says:
And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. Matt 1:24-25
It would be a real bummer to want to marry this beautiful lady and be told of God to go ahead and marry this lady but know you never can have sex with her for your entire life. As noted above Matthew puts in a conditional clause by adding “until she gave birth”. If he kept her a virgin all her life then I believe Matthew would have said that or would have ended at “kept her a virgin.”
BTW-I always think Joseph gets the short end of the stick. God appears to Joseph far more times than Mary.
I don't even mean to go so far. Paul can say "anepsios," because he is writing his own words to a Greek audience. He specifically means a cousin, and so he chooses a word specifically meaning cousin.
Matthew is reporting what was spoken by Jews. Since the Jews don't have a word for cousin, Matthew isn't going to report that the Jews called them cousins. The Jews said the Jewish word for brothers, so when Matthew writes in Greek, he uses the Greek word for brothers.
If we look at JUST that passage, we still don't know whether Jesus had cousins or brothers. Certainly "adelphos" does refer to actual brothers as well. I just set about to prove that people named James, Judas and Joses were in fact Jesus' cousins.
I have heard the argument over the word "until." The classical Greek word has been used to mean actions which did not necessarily stop after the condition was met, both before and after the writings of the gospel. I read one apologist, posted on this site, who made the strange claim that the gospel was written during a period where the word "until" was not so used; Catholics pointed out other uses of the word in the New Testament; the person who posted the original article claimed that conditions hadn't necessarily been meant afterward, and the whole thing became quite absurd.
Oh, and umm, of course, God never appeared to Joseph, except in the person of the Son, who was Mary's own flesh and blood.
Yikes!!! Excuse my theological boo-boo on poor typing.
“Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
If the word “brother” meant “cousin” what does “sister” mean within this context? I believe He is referring to His immediate family (notice there is no mention of “father”). It doesn’t make sense and its inconsistent that our Lord Jesus would mean cousin in one case and brother and sister in another.
I still don't get what you're driving at.
Our Lord Jesus puts serving Him in context of His immediate family, not his cousins. I don't see how it could be more clearer.
Not the same Salome who witnessed the Resurrection, nor the daughter of Herod. Salome, like Mary (or Miriam) seems to have been a common name in first century Palestine.
It kinda makes you question why the evangelists mention her, if there's no way we could attach significance to the name. On the other hand, I heard that following Peter's proclamation that Christians could eat non-Kosher foods, there was a nasty slander spread among the Romans that they had brought Salami to the resurrection. The evangelists probably just wanted to clarify.
Yes, but that he asks us to be his brother or sister doesn't mean he *has* a biological brother or sister. And the sentence isn't structured in such a way to suggest an intended parallel. He says, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
If a parallel was meant, he'd probably say something more like “Behold My brothers and sisters and mother! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
or “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My mother and My brother!”
All I see is a clear invitation to be mother and sister, not just mother. Why not father? Because God was his father, and he does not invite us to that role.
>>I don't know if referring to Jesus's brothers meant actually brothers, or cousins, or just brothers in the faith, but I do have a problem with the perpetual virginity of Mary. She married Joseph, and I would expect that they had a normal married life together and I can't find any scripture that states they didn't. Do you know of any?<<
No, I don't. There is, for instance, a biblical basis for asserting the document of the immaculate conception, but it is admittedly certainly esoteric (in the literal sense of the word, "esoteric.") There may be some similarly esoteric basis for the perpetual divinity, but I do not know of it.
This is one of the issues that demonstrates the problems with Sola Scriptura. The doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary predates the compilation of the New Testament by centuries; it is not an invention of the "Roman Catholic" Church. It was a belief universally held by the apostolic Church long before the apostolic Church even announced which apostolic writings were to be considered scriptural. There may be nothing in the scriptures that states that Mary did not have sexual relations with Mary; there is also nothing stated she did. You may think that it is presumable that they did have relations, but, on the other hand, Joseph was traditionally held to be an old man while Mary was about thirteen. This would suggest an obvious reason for them not having relations. Another suggestion is that Mary and Joseph, in the direct presence of the physical body of Christ, did not have a spiritual need for sexual relations.
Neither the Catholic Church nor the bible ever asserted Sola Scriptura. (The Church does assert *Prima* Scriptura, however, which is that the bible is the primary source of doctrine.) So I do not feel bound to defend the perpetual virginity of Mary according to the rules of Sola Scriptura.
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