James the brother of the Lord (1:19)

Because of the amount of confusion about the meaning of the brothers and sisters of Jesus I include this note here since James is referred to as a brother of Jesus. The brothers and sisters of Jesus appear in Matt 12:46; Mark 3:32; 6:3; John 2:12; Acts 1:14. We say they are not blood brothers and sisters of Jesus but his cousins. You may ask, “What is the evidence for making this claim?” The following are reasons.

1.    In Mark 15:40 and Matt 27:56 there is mention of a Mary who is the mother of James and Joseph. James and Joseph are two of the four named elsewhere in the Gospels as brothers of Jesus. Clearly this Mary could not be Mary the mother of Jesus because the evangelists would have stated clearly if she were. So the crucifixion scene suggests that Mary is not the mother of the brothers and sisters of Jesus.

2.    When on the cross in John, Jesus gives his mother to John to be looked after (John 19:25-27). According to Jewish law, if Jesus had younger brothers and sisters it would be beyond strange and would be illegal if Jesus asked someone who was not a family member to look after his mother.

3.    We believe that Semitic usage of the words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ underlies their usage in the Gospels. In Semitic use the words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ were used far more widely than for just one’s blood brothers and sisters. The words were used to describe everyone in the clan. An example of this is Gen 13:8 where the Hebrew describes Abraham and Lot as brothers whereas they are uncle and nephew. There are other similar usages throughout the Bible.

4.    When Matt writes in 1:25 that Joseph did not know Mary until she had given birth to Jesus the use of ‘until’ (heos hou in Greek) does not imply that they had marital relations after the birth. heos hou in Greek does imply continuation beyond the time indicated. Other examples of similar usages are 2 Sam 6:23 where we read that Michal had no children until the day she died. Another usage is in Deut 34:6. The use of until may not be evident in some of your translations because translators have removed it due to it making for a strange translation.

5.    Describing Jesus as Mary’s ‘first-born’ in Luke 2:7 does not imply that Jesus had younger brothers. It was the normal way to describe the first baby whether or not other children followed.

6.    About the fourth century St Jerome complained about Helvetius who interpreted Matt 1:25 to mean that Mary had other children. Jerome said this is ‘novel.’ So late in the fourth century it was a novel and new interpretation of Scripture to suggest that Mary had other children. In the early centuries Mary was always understood to be a virgin.

7.    Even during the Reformation the virginity of Mary was not an issue. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli used the term “ever Virgin” of Mary. It is only in recent years that the dispute about the brothers and sisters of Jesus has arisen due to a literal reading of the Bible. The Orthodox and Eastern Churches as well as many “High” Anglicans and Episcopalians maintain that Mary remained a virgin.

8.    We need to see this debate in a wider context. Churches which argue for a literal interpretation of the brothers and sisters of Jesus do not have a celibate priesthood. In the New Testament family is redefined beyond the blood family, we are all one family in the Church. The natural order is now subverted and in the Church we are subsumed into the family of the Trinity. The virginity of Mary and celibate priesthood is an expression of this new family with the Trinity.

9.    Finally, as you are aware, the perpetual virginity of Mary is one of the four dogmas of Our Lady in the Catholic Church. The four dogmas are

1.     Mother of God, proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.

2.     Perpetual Virginity of Mary before, during and after the birth of Jesus was proclaimed during the Lateran Synod in 649 AD.

3.    Immaculate Conception proclaimed by Pius IX on 8^th December 1854

4. Assumption into Heaven proclaimed by Pius XII on 1^st November 1950