WOW, how many times do I have to answer this one??? Okay here it goes. This position is based on a strict interpretation of the Greek word
adelphos as meaning a sibling born of the same parents or just one parent of another child. Now the word is used in this way as pointed out [Mat 4:18, 4:21, 10:2, and 10:21] but no one denies that
adelphos can mean a sibling or son of the same parents. The question is in scripture does
adelphos **ALWAYS ** mean a son of the same parent? Because if it does not then we cannot force the strict meaning of sibling onto it every time. The answer to the question is that, in scripture,
adelphos is used to denote other relationships other than a son of the same parent. Let’s take a look.
In Galatians 1:19 Paul writesthat while he was in Jerusalem visiting with Peter:
“But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.” [Ga 1:19]
The word translated as brother is the Greek
adelphos but there is something else there. The verse states the James that Paul saw was an Apostle. Now there were only two apostles named James were either of them the son of Joseph and Mary? Let’s see shall we. In Mt 10:2-3 Matthew tells us about the Apostles. What does he say of the two James? In Mt 10 :2 we learn about one of them:
“The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother;
James the son of Zeb’edee, and John his brother;” [Mt 10:2]
Obviously this is not the sibling of Jesus because his father is Zebedee. In fact this is one of the brothers that Jesus called the “sons of thunder”. So it must be the other Apostle James who is Jesus sibling brother, right? Let’s see. Mt 10:3 tells us:
"3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector;
James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. " [Mt 10:3]
OOPS!!! This James is the son of some guy named Alphaeus. Who was Mary married to, Alphaeus or Joseph??? Obviously Paul is using the word
adelphos to denote a relationship other than a son of the same parent. The verses you quoted come from the gospel of Matthew. So does Matthew use
adelphos only to denote a sibling relationship? Let’s see. In Matthew 23:8 Jesus says to the Apostles:
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all
brethren.”
There the word
brethren is the Greek
adelphos but obviously all the Apostles did not come from the same family sohow could they be siblings? They can’t. Again in Mt 28:10 Jesus calls all of the Apostles his brothers:
"Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my
brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” [Mt 28:10]
Again the word
brethern is the translation of the Greek
adelphos but were all the Apostles Jesus’ siblings? Of course not. We see the same use of the Greek *adelphos * in Luke 22:32 as well as John 20:17 and John 21:23. So obviously
adelphos was not restricted to mean a sibling brother and to do so is terrible exogesis.
But let’s not stop there because there is more evidence to consider. First, name one person, other than Jesus, that scripture calls a child of Mary. Can you? No, because only Jesus is called Mary’s child. Second, on the cross Jesus entrusts Mary to the care of the youngest Apostle, John. Why entrust His mother to someone outside the family if he had all these otjher siblings? Third, care of the parents was the obligation of the youngest child. Why is Jesus doing this if He is Mary’s first born and thus the oldest of this alleged family of siblings? It does not make sense except if Jesus is both the oldest as well as the youngest which He would be if He was an only child. And notice He entrust Mary to the youngest of his “brethren” as He called his Apostles in Mt 28:10.
And I’ll end with this last point to ponder. The early church was quite boastful of their pedigree. We see evidence of this in the scriptures in the epistle of Jude who claims to be the brother of James [Jude 1:1]. Later cities would boast that they have the body of this Apostle or that Apostle and later still the boast would be the bodies of the saints. We do something similar hby claiming “We are No.1” when our favorite sports team wins the championship. But there are three boasts that are never found at anytime in the early church or down to the present day. They are:
- No city claims to have the body of Jesus Christ.
- No city claims to have the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
- No one has ever claimed to be the brother of Jesus.
That last one is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to talk about let alone acknowledge.
