if the Gospel writers wanted refer to Jesus’ “brothers” as something other than uterine siblings, they could have used other Greek words that they themselves use in the Gospels for “relatives” & “kinsmen” (syggenes), “cousins” (anepsios or syggenis - with an “i”), such as Mark, Luke, John, & later Paul uses these available Greek words.
Not quite: συγγεν
εις, with an iota after the epsilon, is actually the nominative
plural of συγγεν
ης, i.e. a merely different inflection of the
same word (like “child” and “children”). As “people of the same clan (γενος)”, it refers to relatives in a very broad sense. It is also usable for brothers (cf. Sophocles’
Oedipus at Colonus 1387).
Thus, Paul, in Romans 9:3-4, uses συγγενης and αδελφος as
synonyms, saying, ηυχομην γαρ αυτος εγω αναθεμα ειναι απο του χριστου υπερ
των αδελφων μου των συγγενων μου κατα σαρκα, οιτινες εισιν ισραηλιται (“For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for
my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites”). He thus uses αδελφος for others of his entire γενος, not just for members of his own household.
This exclusivity of denotation which you are trying to construct between αδελφος and συγγενης
does not exist either in Greek or in biblical Greek. Thus, the fact that one is used in one verse and the other is used in another verse logically does not demonstrate that the verses refer to exclusive sets of people.
Meanwhile, had the Gospel writers really wanted to say that they were Jesus’ half-brothers, other children of Mary, Greek
did have a term for consanguinity:
συναιμος.
Ανεψιος, of which I can find no other example in the NT than Paul’s usage in Col 4:10, refers particularly to cousins, a very specific type of relationship. If the others mentioned were not the children of Jesus’ aunts or uncles, ανεψιος would be inappropriate. Both αδελφοι and συγγενεις, on the other hand, are broad enough to cover a whole range of people.
Same with Peter being the “adelphos” of Andrew
Who was their mother? It is not particularly significant, since, as already pointed out, the NT does use αδελφος for people who had different mothers. I just cannot remember there being any reference to her.
rather than simply “dismiss” that the “adelphos” of Jesus does not refer to uterine brothers, simply because one’s preconceived religious view says otherwise.
As previously noted, far from dismissing the possibility of αδελφοι referring to Mary’s other children, I have commented that such a thing is linguistically
possible, but is
not expressed in Scripture. Your assumption that it
must be so is evidently based upon reading the English into the Greek, regardless of native speakers’ readings of it.
When you begin with the Word of God, rather than beginning with the religious view, you’ll discover that Scripture actually supports that they are Jesus’ half-brothers, and not any other relationship.
Sorry, but perhaps you missed my religious identification: I am not Catholic, and
none of this comes from my religious views. It comes merely from reading the Greek.
