St. Matt 13. 55

[Cruikshank_s]

I’ve only ever read the Douay-Rheims bible seriously, and when I came across Matthew Chapter 13 verses 55 and 56 I scanned down to the footnotes and found this:

“His brethren. these were the children of Mary the wife of Cleophas, sister to our Blessed Lady, (St. Matt. 27. 56; St. John 19.25,) and therefore, according to the usual style of the scripture, they were called brethren, that is, near relations to our Savior.”

I was previously told that the brethren of Christ were his step-brothers and sisters, the children of St. Joseph who was an older man and a widower. Am I confused in this? Are there other mentions of brethren in the bible that are more accurately the step-brothers and sisters of Christ? Or is this simply something unknown and I am free to believe whatever pious tradition I find most attractive? Perhaps in this instance only we are talking about our Lord’s cousins?

 

[NotWorthy]

I’ve only ever read the Douay-Rheims bible seriously, and when I came across Matthew Chapter 13 verses 55 and 56 I scanned down to the footnotes and found this:

I was previously told that the brethren of Christ were his step-brothers and sisters, the children of St. Joseph who was an older man and a widower. Am I confused in this? Are there other mentions of brethren in the bible that are more accurately the step-brothers and sisters of Christ? Or is this simply something unknown and I am free to believe whatever pious tradition I find most attractive? Perhaps in this instance only we are talking about our Lord’s cousins?

We don’t know if they are kinsfolk of Mary’s or children of Joseph’s. I believe several Church fathers were on one side of the fence or the other.

 

[NHInsider]

I’ve only ever read the Douay-Rheims bible seriously, and when I came across Matthew Chapter 13 verses 55 and 56 I scanned down to the footnotes and found this:

I was previously told that the brethren of Christ were his step-brothers and sisters, the children of St. Joseph who was an older man and a widower. Am I confused in this? Are there other mentions of brethren in the bible that are more accurately the step-brothers and sisters of Christ? Or is this simply something unknown and I am free to believe whatever pious tradition I find most attractive? Perhaps in this instance only we are talking about our Lord’s cousins?

The story about St. Joseph’s children by an earlier marriage come from the Protoevangelium of James, a book that was not accepted as canonical by the Church but which is nonetheless ancient. I think it’s also the source of the traditional names of Mary’s parents.

The reality is that the word in Hebrew means near-kin, nothing more or less, and that’s all we can be sure about.

We do know that when Jesus died he instructed His best friend to take care of His mother (and let’s not forget that John had his own mother to deal with, and she was a formidable woman) which would not have been necessary had she had other sons.