Biblical Proof; Jesus did not have any Brothers!

[Jimmy_B]

Biblical Evidence that Proves, Jesus did not have Biological Brothers

***Brothers of Jesus? James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55-57). Jesus also had sisters? ***The “sisters” are not named or numbered

*There has been a much written regarding whether or not Jesus had any of biological brothers or sisters, sharing the same biological mother and father, Mary(the Mother of Jess Christ) and Joseph ( the husband of Mary). *

*Much of what has been written on this topic and much of the discussion, addresses the translation of “brother” into English and that Brother could also have had the meaning of cousin or another close relative, not sharing the same biological parents. *

*I’ve also read arguments that Jesus referred to all of his close friends, kinsmen or followers of Christ as “brother”, much like we here consider ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing the same Father, God. *

*Both of these arguments are valid and true. However; using a concordance and a bible I have found biblical evidence the supports the Roman Catholic position, that Mary and Joseph did not have any other children and any confusion made regarding the persons referred to as a “brother of Jesus” are the sons of other fathers and mothers and not Joseph or Mary; Jesus did not have any biological brother or sisters. *

Here is where the confusion begins;

Matthew 13:55
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? 56 Where did this man get all this?”

(Note: the Bible actually names the “Brothers”, this made is easy for me to identify them.)

*The next verse Jesus rebukes the one making this comment as a non-believer. *

Matthew 13:55
57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” 58 And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

The purpose of this verse is not to “prove” that Jesus had brothers and sisters, but was to show that there were some who did not believe because of their lack of faith and that, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.”

If you read on you will see the persons, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas can be clearly identified in the New Testament and were brothers in the sense that they were followers of Jesus and the same could be said for the unidentified “sisters”. These four individuals; James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, were not the biological brothers of Jesus.

 

[Jimmy_B]

2. Brothers of Jesus continued

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Let’s start with James.
*There are two people with the name “James” in the New Testament, James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21) and the Apostle James the son of Alphaeus (Matthew 10:3) James the son of Alphaeus had a mother named Mary, however it was not the Virgin Mary, it was one of the three other Mary’s described in the New Testament.
*These are the only two “James” in the New Testament and there father is not Joseph “the carpenter”. *
Additionally the Biological mother was not the Virgin Mary’s. There were three additional Mary’s described “looking on from a distance” when Jesus was crucified, and this would include the Mary who is described as the mother of James and Joseph, a different Mary, Mary Justus, the wife of Titius Justus., Mary the mother of Jesus was not “looking on from a distance”, she was right there a the foot of his cross.
Neither “James” is the biological brother of Jesus.

Here are the bible references for “James”.
James**,**

Matthew 4:21
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,

Matthew 10:2
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

Matthew 10:3
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Matthew 17:1
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

Matthew 27:55-56
55 There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

 

[Jimmy_B]

3. Brothers of Jesus continued

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Mark 1:19
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.

Mark 3:17
James son of Zebedee and his brother John

Mark 3:18
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot

Next - “Joseph”.
*The only other Joseph found in the bible is Joseph Justus, also known as Barsabbas the son of Titius Justus, also known simply as Justus, his last name or surname. And finally referred as Judas (called Barsabbas) - Acts 15:22. He was chosen by the Apostles and elders, with the whole church, to go to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. *
This Joseph is not the biological brother of Jesus.

Here are the bible references for “Joseph”.

Joseph** (**Joseph Justus, not Joseph, the step father of Jesus)

---

Acts 1:23
So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

(Note; See Judas below who is also Barsabbas)

Acts 18:7
Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

(Note; Justus is this Joseph’s surname or last name, his father is Titius Justas)

Acts 15:22
Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers.

Matthew 13:55

 

[Jimmy_B]

4. Brothers of Jeusus continued

55"Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

Next - “Simon”.
*There exists (4) “Simons” in the New Testament; 1. Simon (who is called Peter) the son of Jonah Simon, 2.The Leper Simon, who becomes Simon the Zealot; *
And finally, 3. Simon of Cyrene, the Simon who carries the Cross of Jesus
None of whom are the biological brothers of Jesus.
Here are the bible references for “Simon”.

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Simon

Matthew 10:2-3
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Matthew 4:18
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Matthew 10:2
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

Matthew 10:4
Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Matthew 16:17
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

Matthew 26:6
While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper,

Matthew 27:32
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

Mark 1:16

 

[Jimmy_B]

5. Brothers of Jeusus continued

Mark 1:16
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw **Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

**
** Finally, Judas**
There are (2) Judas’ listed in the bible; 1. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, who killed himself, the son of Simon Iscariot, and 2. Judas, called Barsabbas also called Joseph (also known as Justus) he is the same person as the Joseph Justus listed above)

---

Neither “Judas” is the biological brother of Jesus.
Here are the bible references for “Judas”.
Judas

John 6:71
He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.

Matthew 10:4
Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Matthew 26:14
Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests

Matthew 26:25
Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.”

Matthew 26:47
While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Acts 15:22
Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers.

 

[Jimmy_B]

If anyone can find any errors in my posts please let me know, I am not infallible. I encourage all of you to use a concordance and a bible to identify the so called “brothers of Jesus”. I think you will come to the same conclussions that I have. All of Jesus’ so-called “brothers can be clearly identified and we can also determine who their parents are. And they are not Joseph and Mary. If, using a bible you can come to a difference conclusion, please post it here, with the bible verses that support a different conclusion…

 

[Jimmy_B]

The title of this thread is supposed to be;

Biblical Proof; Jesus did not have any Brothers!

For some reason I can not edit the title, oh well….

 

[papaspicy]

I am not disagreeing with you on the essence of your statements, and you have certainly made a great survey of those four names from the New Testament. But I just wanted to point out what seems to me to be one serious gap in the logic of your argument. You have made the assumption that the James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas listed in Mark 6 and Matthew 13 are found elsewhere in the New Testament. These verses could be the only references to these men, and they might be entirely different persons than the others by the same name you mention. Similar to the confusion about the various women named Mary that you discuss.

I thought I might paste here a response I made a few weeks ago in another thread titled “Virgin Mary in Scripture” because it is relevant to the discussion on Jesus’ brothers, and I never really got any responses to my theories, which I was looking forward to:

I often look at things from a very different angle, and I thought I would just add my :twocents: on two passages. Some support for Jesus’ biological brothers comes in Mark 6:17:

Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?

However, if we take this at face value, this would be a very uncommon family. There would be four brothers + at least two sisters + Jesus. At this time in history it is estimated that one in four pregnancies ended in the death of the mother. It would be an even higher rate for the lower class in a back-water of the Roman Empire like Judea. If Mary had seven children, she would really be beating the odds. (Of course this proves nothing because clearly God would protect Mary, but it is a valid historic point.)

Matthew 13:55-56 is a similar passage which is also interesting:

Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us?

Here we have people who are taking offense to some of Jesus’ teachings and who can’t believe that such wisdom comes from a person like Jesus. They clearly don’t have respect for him and ask isn’t this the carpenter’s son? And the answer, of course, is NO! He is not the carpenter’s son. We know this, but the people speaking don’t. Right from the start we know that they have no idea who Jesus is, and if they don’t truly know Jesus, how can we take any of their biographical sketch of him as fact.

 

[Jimmy_B]

Response to papaspicy 1

JMJ

papaspicy,

Thank you very much for replying to my thread. I agree with your comments and it is “possible” that the four names given in Matthew 13:55 as the “brothers of Jesus”, or the four persons of; *James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, *might be entirely different persons than the others by the same name mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament.

And it is “possible” that the specific four individuals in Matthew 13:55 , are mentioned in this verse alone and never commented on anywhere else in the New Testament. This might be the only place (Matthew 13:55) were they are mentioned. Anything is possible, so papaspicy, we are not in disagreement.

However, when I did my research, I literally looked up every “*James, Joseph, Simon and Judas” *in the entire New Testament. Then I looked up their contacts, where they traveled to, their brothers, mothers and fathers and other facts surrounding the nine persons who shared these four names.

Remember, there are only two “James’”, two “Joseph’s”, three *“Simons” *and two “Judas’” mentioned in the entire New Testament, nine characters altogether. All of the characters are part of an unfolding story, a written story that includes their introduction to us as readers, who their family and friends are, what they do, what they are like, where they travel to and who they meet and so on and so on.

I also researched the context in which these four names were used. I did this by using the New American Bible (NAB), Saint Joseph Edition, the Practical Bible Dictionary and Concordance (printed in 1952), A Catholic Guide to the Bible (printed in 1998), The Every thing Bible (printed in 2004), The Hidden Mystery of the Bible (printed in 1969), The Catholic Study Bible, New American Bible (printed in 1990), The New World Concordance to the NAB and The NIV Complete Concordance along with information from other sources including the internet and this Catholic Answers web-site. The process which I am using to form my opinion here took me several months.

I also listened to the entire New Testament on CD, the NAB New Testament narrated by Eric Martin. I read and listened to one book at a time, un- interrupted, for hours at a time, several times, so that I could sense or grasp the rhythm, flow and timing of the author(s) and understand the chronological order of events involving these nine individuals.

I wanted to hear their entire story, in context, from the beginning to end and I wanted to understand the message of each book and get to know all of the characters, including, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. Although, at the time, I was listening specifically for the names; James, Joseph, Simon and Judas. (Continued on next post)

 

[Jimmy_B]

(Continued from last post)

Response to papaspicy 2

The books of the bible, if read and listen to, straight through, un-interrupted in the manner one would read or listen to any other book in which the writer is telling a story, have a sense of timing and a rhythm, or “flow” unique to each writer, which can not be appreciated by reading alone or listening alone.

That’s why I am not a real big fan of “bible verse Christianity”. Even though I did list a few verses in this thread, I did not list every verse that had the name “*James, Joseph, Simon and Judas” *just a few to make my point. And my point is; Jesus did not have biological brothers.

I recommend you purchase The New Testament on compact disc, narrated by Eric Martin marianland.com/autodevotional/41819a.html By listening to the Bible one book at a time you get a better sense of what the author are trying to say and a feel for the writer and his writing style.

And when you are interested in a verse, read the entire chapter or the entire book and you might view a verse differently.

All books are written differently. Matthew is different than Mark and Mark is written differently than Luke. All writers have a unique style of writing and all well written books have a sense of timing and a rhythm. The books in the bible are all well written books.

When writers tell a story, they develop the characters, so that the reader can get to know each character and the writers of the bible did developed their characters. By reading and listening to the New Testament, I got to know all of the characters including all of the “*James, Joseph, Simon and Judas”, *mentioned in the various New Testament books.

It is because of this, I am confident that the four described in Matthew 13:55, were the same four characters described elsewhere in the bible.

(Note:** papaspicy, **just so you know, when I write a respond to a post, I am not just addressing you specifically but also others who might read my response to you, so please don’t apply any assumptions I make to yourself unless I specifically name you.)

Thanks Again,

May God bless you.

Yours in Christ,

Jimmy Brousseau

 

[Jimmy_B]

 

[Jimmy_B]

I am not disagreeing with you on the essence of your statements, and you have certainly made a great survey of those four names from the New Testament. But I just wanted to point out what seems to me to be one serious gap in the logic of your argument. You have made the assumption that the James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas listed in Mark 6 and Matthew 13 are found elsewhere in the New Testament. These verses could be the only references to these men, and they might be entirely different persons than the others by the same name you mention. Similar to the confusion about the various women named Mary that you discuss.

I thought I might paste here a response I made a few weeks ago in another thread titled “Virgin Mary in Scripture” because it is relevant to the discussion on Jesus’ brothers, and I never really got any responses to my theories, which I was looking forward to:

This is a great post, I am going to read more of your post’s.

 

[Nita]

You have made the assumption that the James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas listed in Mark 6 and Matthew 13 are found elsewhere in the New Testament. These verses could be the only references to these men, and they might be entirely different persons than the others by the same name you mention. Similar to the confusion about the various women named Mary that you discuss.

I thought I might paste here a response I made a few weeks ago in another thread titled “Virgin Mary in Scripture” because it is relevant to the discussion on Jesus’ brothers, and I never really got any responses to my theories, which I was looking forward to:

Papaspicy,

Am responding to the portion of your message that I underlined. In Galatians 1:19 Paul says he “saw none of the other** apostles **except James the Lord’s brother.” Which means that this apostle James is the same person mentioned in Mark 6 and Matthew 13. Either that, or there were two separate men named James who were called brothers of Jesus - which is certainly possible as long as one accepts that “brother” really means “relative”.

(I also posted on the thread “Virgin Mary in Scripture” citing the Galatian passage, but for a different purpose.)

Nita

 

[Guardian]

Papaspicy,

Am responding to the portion of your message that I underlined. In Galatians 1:19 Paul says he “saw none of the other** apostles **except James the Lord’s brother.” Which means that this apostle James is the same person mentioned in Mark 6 and Matthew 13. Either that, or there were two separate men named James who were called brothers of Jesus - which is certainly possible as long as one accepts that “brother” really means “relative”.

(I also posted on the thread “Virgin Mary in Scripture” citing the Galatian passage, but for a different purpose.)

Nita

That’s a great observation. If Galatians 1:19 says James is an apostle and Jesus’ brother, and there are only two apostles named James, one being son of Zebedee and the other son of Alphaeus, then obviously “brother” does not mean “biological brother.”

Unless you want to get really unorthodox…like Joseph died and Jesus’ mother Mary married Zebedee or Alphaeus (or both), and got pregnant and had more kids.

Or you could say there were more than 12 apostles when Jesus was alive, and one of them being named James that is not son of Zebedee or Alphaeus.