Let’s see now, St Matthew CHANGES an earlier Gospel retelling of this passage. Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3
Here is St Matthew: **"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 with us?
Here is St Mark: “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?”
St Matthew’s first verse REFERENCES St Joseph. Are those others listed then step siblings? Or cousins?
In one passage we have “Joseph” and in the other we have “Joses”. Why the inconsistency? And, these names ARE NOT interchangeable.
Further, in St Mark’s Gospel IN THE SAME CHAPTER at verse 17 we find: “Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.”
Gee, I thought Philip was the half-brother (step-brother) of Herod???
Remember: it was common in Semitic usage not only to call children of the same parents ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ but also nephews and nieces, step siblings, cousins.
See Genesis 14:16 and 29:15. See Lev 10:4
Come on, j4it, read a little bit more in your Bible.
Robert