Did Jesus have siblings?

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My business partner and I were having a discussion the other day, when he started speaking of a brother of Jesus. I did not think this was right, but could not figure out why I felt this way.

Did Jesus have brothers and/or sisters that were born of Mary and Joseph?

Can anyone give me some direction or a good site to look at for further study?

Burke
 
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bsnrjones:
Did Jesus have brothers and/or sisters that were born of Mary and Joseph?
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The Church maintains that Mary remained a virgin her whole life. Therefore Jesus did not have sibilings born of Mary and Joseph. There is no proven historical knowledge that Jesus had siblings.

Many people use some vague passages in the Bible to support that Jesus matter of fact had siblings. Some English translations of the Bible use terms like “brother” to describe people Jesus associated with (James comes to mind). The term used in the original greek of the New Testament can be translated as “brother”, but more likely refers simply to a close relative: meaning possibly a brother, but also possibly a cousin or other close relative. Note: I am not a Biblical scholar, so those who have more knowledge than me, please correct or confirm my statements. I am stating what my understanding of the facts are.]

One theory is that Jesus could have had half-brothers. It is thought that Joseph may have been a widower and was much older than Mary. He may have had children from a previous marriage, giving Jesus half-siblings, although not of Mary and Joseph. This theory also supports the idea that Joseph was older, so he may have died earlier in Jesus’ life and you don’t hear much about him later in the Gospels. Again, this is just a theory some support. There is not much fact to prove or disprove it.

You wanted some references discussing this subject. Catholic Answers has a good discussion of this very subject:

catholic.com/library/Brethren_of_the_Lord.asp
 
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bsnrjones:
My business partner and I were having a discussion the other day, when he started speaking of a brother of Jesus. I did not think this was right, but could not figure out why I felt this way.

Did Jesus have brothers and/or sisters that were born of Mary and Joseph?

Can anyone give me some direction or a good site to look at for further study?

Burke
Click to expand...
No, Jesus did not have any full brothers and sisters.

Although there are at least two English translations of the Bible that include references to the brothers of Jesus, in John, 19:26 upon seeing his Mother at the foot of the Cross, Jesus said to Mary: “Woman, here is your son” and to John “Here is your mother”. “And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”

This was because she had no other children of her own with whom she could live.
 
Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles, did not have a word for cousin. Instead, like modern Thai, they simply called male cousins “brother” and females “sister”. Any Greek writing based on these Aramaic words would use the terms brother and sister because that’s the correct translation, but they do not represent what we mean when we use the terms in English. It’s impossible to tell just from Scripture what the meaning of the word actually was; thank God we have the Magisterium!
 
Modernists concede to the liberals that St. Joseph had other children, so Christ had half brothers; nevertheless, that is not the tradition of the Church, nor would it be common at that time. It is only logical and in accord to with Church tradition to conclude these “brothers” are merely other relatives for which the Greek does not have a specific word. God bless.
 
the scripture is not cut and dry on the issue. the word translated brother (or sister for that matter since they are mentioned as well) could mean cousin, half, or some other close relative (even uncle) or it could mean brother. the only way we know what it means is through the church’s interpretation.
 
The answer is NO JESUS DID NOT BROTHER OR SISTERS. How do I know this, because the church teaches us this as part of our Marian faith. Ghosty is correct when he said “Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles, did not have a word for cousin.” Except I always thought it was the Greek that the Gospels were written in that did not have a word cousin. This I know for fact, in that day their is no word for cousin, if it was Greek or Aramaic who cares. Now that we know that we need to look at scripture. Matthew mentions his brothers and sisters the children of Mary and yes we could take this and say that he did, but we have to look at John when he writes of the same event and he says the same thing except he adds the children’s Mother Mary and her sister (cousin) the Virgin Mary was there. So it is John that we find the truth on this.
 
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ATexasCatholic:
Ghosty is correct when he said “Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles, did not have a word for cousin.”
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Correct. Remember Aramaic was a verbal language therefore there are many spellings for the same word, in this case (brother) I found around 30. To keep it easy I choose to remember an easy one, Aha! Like you’re saying Aha! In reality it isn’t spelled that way it’s pronounced that way. It means kinsman, or kinswoman, there are different genders. They would include brother and sister, but also cousin, nephew, niece. For example in Gn, when Lot is referred to as Abrams “brother” in actuality Lot is his nephew. If Jesus were to speak of his cousin, John, the Baptist He would have referred to John as His Aha, which could, as in the case of Lot, been translated to “brother” even though it is really His cousin. The Gospels were written in Greek, but the translation from Aramaic to Greek would require the translator to put a relationship on the word Aha. They chose “brother” both in OT and NT. Greek, by the way does have a word for cousin but the translator would have no way of knowing the relationship since Aha means kinsman.
Scripture never says the children of Mary except in relation to Jesus.
 
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ATexasCatholic:
The answer is NO JESUS DID NOT BROTHER OR SISTERS. How do I know this, because the church teaches us this as part of our Marian faith. Ghosty is correct when he said “Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the Apostles, did not have a word for cousin.” Except I always thought it was the Greek that the Gospels were written in that did not have a word cousin. This I know for fact, in that day their is no word for cousin, if it was Greek or Aramaic who cares. Now that we know that we need to look at scripture. Matthew mentions his brothers and sisters the children of Mary and yes we could take this and say that he did, but we have to look at John when he writes of the same event and he says the same thing except he adds the children’s Mother Mary and her sister (cousin) the Virgin Mary was there. So it is John that we find the truth on this.
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I said Matthew I meant Mark 6:3 and I know it says what I attribute to John. it may not be John But i will find it
 
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