Brothers of Jesus

The brothers of Jesus or the adelphoi (Ancient Greek: ἀδελφοί, romanized: adelphoí, lit. 'of the same womb, brothers') are named in the New Testament as James, Joses (a form of Joseph), Simon, and Jude; unnamed sisters are mentioned in Mark and Matthew. They may have been: (1) sons of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph; (2) sons of Joseph by a former marriage; or (3) sons of Mary of Clopas, named in Mark 15:40 as the "mother of James and Joses", who has been identified as either the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a sister-in-law to Joseph.

Those who uphold the perpetual virginity of Mary reject the idea of biological brethren and maintain that the brothers and sisters were either cousins of Jesus (option 3, the position of the Catholic Church) or children of Joseph from a previous marriage (option 2, the Eastern Orthodox Church). Some Lutheran Churches have accepted both option 2 and option 3 as being valid explanations for the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.

According to context, the Greek plural noun ἀδελφοί (adelphoi), from a- ('same') and delphys ('womb'), may mean physical brothers, physical brothers and sisters, figurative brothers, or figurative brothers and sisters. Adelphoi sometimes means more than a blood brother, e.g., Gen 29:12; Rom 9:3 (kinsman); Matt 5:22–3 (neighbor); Mark 6:17–8 (step-brother). In such instances the context must determine the meaning. Adelphoi is distinct from anepsios, meaning cousin, nephew, niece, and this word is never used to describe James and the other siblings of Jesus. The word "anepsios" is only employed once in the entire New Testament, being used in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. Although neither Hebrew nor Aramaic had a word for "cousin", both customarily spoke of a cousin as a "son of an uncle" (Hebrew: ben dod; Aramaic: bar dad) and the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, never translates either expression as "brother" or "sister".

The Vulgate renders with the Latin word frater (e.g. Mark 6:3), which, even in classical Latin, can also mean "maternal cousin" or "paternal cousin".

Mark 6:3 names James, Joses, Judas (conventionally known in English as Jude) and Simon as the brothers of Jesus, and Matthew 13:55, which probably used Mark as its source, gives the same names in different order, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. "Joseph" is simply the longer form of "Joses", and so it appears that James was the eldest and Joses/Joseph the next, but as Matthew has reversed the order of the last two it is uncertain who was the youngest. Unnamed sisters are mentioned in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:56 and may be implied in Mark 3:35 and Matthew 12:46, but their number is unknown.

The gospels indicate a rift between Jesus and his brothers in the early part of his ministry (see Mark 3:31–35 and the parallel passages in Matthew 12:46–50 and Luke 8:19–21), and they never appear among his followers during his lifetime. John has Jesus's brothers advising him to go to Judea despite being aware that his life would be in danger, and they are absent from his burial, which should have been their responsibility, but they do appear in Acts 1:14 with the Eleven (i.e., the remaining disciples after the betrayal by Judas Iscariot): "These all (the Eleven) were persevering in prayer along with the women, with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."

In 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 Paul lists a "James" among those to whom the risen Christ had appeared, and most scholars agree that this refers to James the brother of Jesus. The 2nd century historian Hegesippus (c. 110–80 AD) reports that James the brother of Jesus came to be known as James the Just, and Eusebius of Caesarea (died 339) says that he spent so much of his life in prayer that his knees became "like the knees of a camel." According to Clement of Alexandria, reported by Eusebius, he was chosen as bishop of Jerusalem, and from the time when Peter left Jerusalem after Herod's attempt to kill him (Acts 12) he appears as the principal authority in the Jerusalem church, presiding at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15. In Galatians 1:19 Paul tells how he went to Jerusalem a few years after his conversion and met Cephas (Peter) but no other apostles, only "James, the brother of the Lord"; Paul's Greek leaves it unclear whether he includes, or does not include, James among the apostles. He goes on to describe a second visit fourteen years later when he met the "pillars of the Church", James and Peter and John; James is mentioned first and seems to be the primary leader among these three. In chapter 2 he describes how he and Peter were later in Antioch and in the habit of dining with gentile Christians in breach of Jewish torah, until "certain people from James" came and Peter withdrew, "fearing those who belong to the circumcision." The 1st century historian Josephus tells how he was martyred by the Jews in 62 AD on charges of breaking the Jewish Law.

Paul records in 1 Corinthians that the other brothers of Jesus (that is, other than James, who is portrayed as rooted in Jerusalem) travelled as evangelists, and that they were married ("Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas (Peter)?" - 1 Corinthians 9:5). The 3rd century Apostolic Father Eusebius left a list of 12 bishops of the early church, of whom two, Joseph/Joses and Jude, may be the brothers of Jesus. The number of sisters and their names are not specified in the New Testament, but the apocryphal 3rd century Gospel of Philip mentions a Mary, and Salome, who appears in the late 2nd century Gospel of James, is arguably the other sister.