someone asked if Jesus had sister?

Question

The Roman Catholic argument is that Jesus’ brothers and sisters were the children of Joseph from a previous marriage, before he married Mary. An entire theory of Joseph's being significantly older than Mary, having been previously married, having multiple children, and then being widowed before marrying Mary is invented. The problem with this is that the Bible does not even hint that Joseph was married or had children before he married Mary. If Joseph had at least six children before he married Mary, why are they not mentioned in Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7) or their trip to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15) or their trip back to Nazareth (Matthew 2:20-23)?

Answer 1

While it is possible that biblical refernces to the brothers and sisters of Jesus refer to children of Joseph, that is not likely, and is not the Catholic position. The Catholic position is that the Greek word "adephoi" occurs in the original texts many times, and while that word can refer to siblings, in Scripture it almost never does. For example, we read that after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to more than five hundred brothers [adelphoi] at once. Obviously these five hundred are not all Mary's children. Similar usage appears in the New Testament over a hundred times, in situations where it is obvious that siblings are not being referred to. Therefore, when we read that someone says to Jesus, "your brothers [adelphoi] are outside", the most reasonable interpretation is that found throughout the New Testament. It means that His "brother Christians", or "brethren" are waiting for Him outside. One of the most basic principles of accurate biblical exegesis is maintaining the prevalent sense of a word or phrase. It is poor exegesis to see that a given word means one thing in over a hundred appearences, and then to try to force that same word to mean something else in another passage.

Mary was a consecrated temple virgin who had taken a solemn vow of perpetual chastity. Like many other consecrated virgins, she married an older man, probably a widower, thereby obtaining protection and security while providing companionship and domestic service. It was a common custom of the time. Consecrated virginity is still an option for women in God's Church today. I personally know three women who have taken such vows before the bishop, and been consecrated by him. Today such women rarely marry, though that possibility is still open. If they do so, it is with the same understanding that Mary and Joseph had. Her perpetual virginity would be honored.

In any case, if Jesus had younger brothers, He certainly would not have entrusted the care of His mother to John, a non-relative. That would be unheard of in Jewish society. Care of the mother after the death of her husband was the responsibility of the first-born son, and passed automatically to the next oldest son if the eldest son died.
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Answer 2

You need to read history and Christian tradition which is in the writings of the early Church fathers. It's not only the Catholic Church that teaches that Mary did not have any more children than Jesus. The Orthodox Churches have also always taught this. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches are the only ones who go back to the time of the apostles. It's only recently that Protestants have been questioning Mary's perpetual virginity because they are separated from historical apostolic Christianity and they are trying to understand a culture of 2,000 years ago by modern secular standards of sexuality.

If someone takes the word "brother" to mean that it has to be a full blooded brother and can't be a cousin or disciple, then you would be saying that, according to the Bible, Mary had 120 children (that's not even including the "sisters"!).

Acts 1:12-15 ... apostles, Mary, "some women" and Jesus' "brothers" number about 120. That is a lot of "brothers."

Answer 3

After Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary did have other children. Since during that time it was common to exclude women from the family genealogy's records, we do not see in the Bible any part mentioning that Jesus had a sister. Therefore, I'd rather not risk an affirmative or negative answer.

Answer 4

Jesus did not have brothers and sisters. Against the doctrine of the virginity of the Virgin Mary, the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. The Church has always understood these passages as NOT referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact, James and Joseph, "brothers of Jesus", are the sons of ANOTHER Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls "the other Mary".

Answer 5

Jesus had several half-siblings, children of MARY. The previous marriage theory is TOTALLY BOGUS, NOT supported by scripture or culture / history of the time.

Matt 13:54 He came to his hometown of Nazareth. There he began teaching the people in their synagogue. They were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom? Where did he get this power to do miracles?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary? Aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Then where did this man get all these things?”

Go back to the catholic church's reasoning behind their "theory." They needed some way for Mary to lack their supposed guilt of "original sin." This in itself is false, as becomes clear from this cursory study of Ezekiel 18. Since the theory "fixes" a non-existent problem, it is baseless.

The doctrines of "immaculate conception" and infant baptism are both meaningless. No one is born with the guilt of sin. Since everyone is born innocent, there is no need to figure out some way for Jesus to be born without guilt for Adam's sin.

Ezekiel 18:1 A message came to me from the LORD. He said, 2 “You people have a proverb about the land of Israel. What do you mean by it? It says, “‘The parents eat sour grapes. But the children have a bitter taste in their mouths.’

--> 3 “You will not use that proverb in Israel anymore,” announces the LORD and King. “And that is just as sure as I am alive. 4 Everyone belongs to me. Father and son alike belong to me.
--> People will die because of their own sins.

[ God presents a hypothetical family of alternating good and evil fathers to explain this teaching:]

5 “Suppose a godly man does what is fair and right.
...
9 He follows my rules. He is faithful in keeping my laws. He always does what is right. You can be sure he will live,” announces the LORD and King. 10 “But suppose he has a mean son who harms other people. The son commits murder. Or he does some other things that are wrong.
...14 “But suppose that son has a son of his own. And the son sees all of the sins his father commits. He sees them, but he does not do them.
...17 ... He will not die because of his father’s sin. You can be sure he will live. 18 But his father will die because of his own sin. He got rich by cheating others. He robbed his relatives. He also did what was wrong among his people.

--> 19 “But you still ask, ‘Is the son guilty along with his father?’ No! The son did what was fair and right. He was careful to keep all of my rules. So you can be sure he will live.

Read the whole chapter and you will see I have not lifted the passage out of its context. I just skipped sections that elaborate on what they did or did not do.

Answer 6

I don't buy the theory Jospeh had kids from another marriage.

But, look at this...the Bible records that John and James were brothers. So if James was Jesus's brother, then John was too.
But if John was Jesus's brother, why did Jesus ask John to take care of Mary before He died?

Answer 7

Sisters are loosely referred to, not by name, in one of the Gospels. No mention of Joseph and a previous marriage.

Answer 8

Very well put. He also had brothers. The most important thing is missed in all the todo about whether Jesus had brothers and sisters and that is that Jesus came to save lost man. One day we will be able to ask Jesus face to face how many and where they all are and get the whole story. Till then, what is more important, if He had siblings or have we really accepted Him that can save us?

Answer 9

The Bible fails to mention many things. Throughout history, powerful men decided what was to be included in the Bible, and what was to be omitted. I'm sure Joseph had other children with Mary, too.

Answer 10

That's my main problem with the Bible and the Catholic church. When it suits them they invent information outside of the bible. When non-Catholics give additional information not contained in the bible, they are labeled anti-Christ. I agree with you that it does not make sense that a widower would have gone up and down without his children. There's no mentioning of other children because they were not there.Period.