Was James Jesus' brother or cousin?

Question

Josephus seems to think James was Jesus' brother. Why is it so hard for the Catholic church to accept Jesus had half-siblings?

"Convened the Sanhedrin (the highest Jewish religious court / governing body). He had brought before them the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ, who was called James, and some other men, whom he accused of having broken the law, and handed them over to be stoned."
Antiquities, Book 20, 200.

Johnny Dangerous - You are right about Aramaic. The question is does that have anything to do with this? The NT was written in Greek which has well defined terms for brothers and cousins. Josephus also wrote in Greek. Thus the failings of the Aramaic language play no role here.

Tina T - Nothing wrong with using historians to prove a point. In addition the Bible clearly teaches Jesus had siblings. I am not sure why it is so hard for Catholics to admit Mary had sex. It was with her husband. It is not sinful for a wife to have sex with her husband.

Answer 1

Matthew 12:46, Luke 8:19, and Mark 3:31 say that Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him. The Bible tells us that Jesus had four brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). Later, in Galatians 1:19, it mentions that James was Jesus’ brother.

Using the New American Bible, which is a Catholic translation of the Bible, we can see that the perpetual virginity of Mary is not taught in the Bible. Matthew 1:25 NAB tells us, "He had no relations with her until she bore a son, and he named him Jesus." He, Joseph, did not have sexual relations with her, Mary, UNTIL after she bore a son, Jesus." The meaning of this Scripture is abundantly clear. Joseph and Mary did not have sexual relations until after Jesus was born.
Matthew 13:55-56 NAB declares, "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 all with us?" Catholics claim, correctly, that the Greek terms from "brothers" and "sisters" in these verses could also refer to male and female relatives, not necessarily literal brothers and sisters. However, the intended meaning is clear, they thought Jesus to be Joseph's son, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and the brother of the unnamed and unnumbered sisters. Father, mother, brother, sister. It is straining the meaning of the text to interpret brothers and sisters as "cousins" or "relatives" with the mentioning of Jesus' mother and father.

Answer 2

James was a close relative of Jesus, likely a cousin.

I think you're trying to challenge the virginity of Jesus' mother. Catholics rely heavily on Tradition, that is, information passed down from key players, but not recorded in the bible. The Church has always believed James and someone named Joseph were sons of another Mary (a common name at the time). Matthew called her "the other Mary".

Answer 3

The reason that it is hard for Catholics to believe she had sex is because she did not and there is no evidence to the contrary. Jesus was her only child. You have already been told that the use of the word brother is more properly interpreted as brethren which could mean cousins or other relatives. Jesus was the only Son of God and of the blessed mother.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

For those who say that Jesus had brothers and sisters, where are these descendants today. Had He had siblings their descendants would be honored as the children of the brothers and sisters of God. There are no such people. they did not exist in the first century nor do they now. If they had in the first century it would have been them that took care of their mother instead of St. John. Can you not see the theological confusion such a speculation causes. Not to mention the fact that all the Church fathers are unanimous on the ever virgin status of the blessed mother of God. Poor scholarship causes erroneous conclusions especially when it is mixed with a hatred of Christ's Church..

Answer 4

in line with early non-biblical traditions, Mary remained a virgin after the start of Jesus. Joseph married Mary and accompanied Jesus as his son. Joseph might have had little ones from a prior marriage or the "brothers and sisters of the Lord" are His cousins. This final state of affairs seems to be the likely because interior the hebrew/Jewish society of the day a cousin substitute into considered and definitely observed as a brother or sister.

Answer 5

James was Jesus Half Brother, Mother was Mary and Joseph was his Father. The Catholic Church holds to the theory that Mary did NOT have Children after Jesus, that she was Ever Virgin which is Completely Nonsense. Mary Gave birth many a time after the Birth of Jesus.

Answer 6

Aramaic - the language of Jesus and his family and land - uses a word we translate as 'brother' to refer to all male relatives. Come to think of it, some ethnic groups use 'brother' as a slang word to refer to male associates today. Anyway, the Aramaic term is a broad one that means 'male family members' - not specifically real blood brothers. Even so, couldn't James still be a brother? The chief evidence that this is not so comes at the foot of the cross where Jesus assigns the care of his mother to John, not to a survivng blood brother. This is strong cultural evidence that Jesus did not have a blood brother.

Answer 7

James was a half brother of Jesus. The son of Joseph and Mary.

Answer 8

I believe James was Jesus' brother-son of Mary but not by the Holy Spirit. I believe he had other family too. I'm not sure why they think Mary only had one child-the Bible clearly states he had siblings.
I think this false belief was a carry over of the female diety beliefs at that time...and Mary had to be Holy, therefore couldn't have other children.

Answer 9

For someone who prides themselves on Bible Only theology, what are you doing reading about Josephus and assuming it is fact?

Of course Joseph and Mary never had relations. It is not alright to make up all kinds of stuff about them.

Answer 10

i am a non-christian and i can tel you that josephus has no authority. he is a false historian.

regarding jesus, scripturally, he had no siblings(although my theory is that mary magdeline was not his wife, but his sister)

james was the son of zebedee

Mat 4:21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James [the son] of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.


opposing catholic teaching that mary was a perpetual virgin by using scripture, it is certainly possible that jesus did have siblings, but there are no authoritive writings on the matter.

Mat 1:24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:


Mat 1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.


after jesus was born, joseph did, indeed, consecrate the marriage and TAPPED THAT 4SS

EDIT: thumbs down? i provided scripture. you can't refute scripture!

that is, unless you are like me and don't put faith into the words of men.

i was just answering by biblical standards.

EDIT 2 for those of you who claim that there is no evidence that joseph and mary had sex, it is BLACK AND WHITE in the first chapter of the old testament.

Mat 1:25 And knew her not TILL she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

this is irrefutable. regardless of catholic dogma.

he knew her not UNTIL after jesus was born. there is no other possible interpretation of this verse. if you are choosing catholic doctrine, which supposedly gets it's authority by the bible, over the bible, then you are making it very clear that the foundation on which catholic dogma is dismissable. if the foundation of the religion is dismissable, so is the faith.