Are there any major christian denominations that believe that Jesus had any siblings or half-siblings?
Well, I would think most of them would, as it is stated there in the Gospels, after all.
Well, after Jesus was born, Mary and Joeseph had a bunch of kids, so in a sense he had siblings, but I have not heard of other angels being born to mortal women.
Dostromin could you cite any biblical passages that state that Mary and Joseph had other children, or mention who they are?
Thanks
Yeah, good question. I remember someone mentioning to me Jesus’ “brother” James I think and I thought WTF? I thought he–Jesus–was the only one whom the Big Guy engendered, so to speak, as in “the only-begotten son of God.” Half-siblings, schmalf-siblings. But I guess it means something to some people.
Matthew 12:46 (KJV) While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. ((NIV)While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him)
Matthew 13:53 (KJV) And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence.
54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?
56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
((NIV) When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”)
One intriguing side note, Jesus may have had a twin brother. The Gospel of Thomas ( a very early sayings gospel, contemporary with Mark) is attributed to one Didymos Judas Thomas, who the Gnostics called the twin brother of Christ. “Didymus” and “Thomas” are the Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic words for “twin” respectively, so this phrase translates as “Twin Judas the Twin.”
John refers to “Thomas called Didymos” (Literally the twin called the twin, but Greek readers would have seen it as “Thomas called the twin”). Old Syriac versions of John call him “Judas Thomas” other Syriac writings refer to “Judas, not the Iscariot.” Matthew 13:55 says that Jesus had a brother named Judas. Thomas was never used as a proper name in Aramaic, although it later was in Greek.
It seems unlikely that Jesus really had a twin, but there couild be a prosaic explanation for the “twin” thing. 'Thomas" does seem to have had some idiomatic usage in Aramaic. It could also mean “double,” in the sense of someone who just looked a lot like someone else. It may also have been used for people who were alike in other ways.
If Jesus had brothers, it doesn’t seem out of the question that they might have resembled him, or that one brother resembled him enough to earn the nickname “Twin.” (even if he wasn’t a brother, he still might have just looked a lot like JC) That’s just a WAG on my part, though.
Cecil’s column on the subject: Did Jesus have siblings?
According to Cecil, it’s mainly the Catholic Church which has a problem with Jesus having siblings, who would have been the children of Mary and Joseph produced the traditional way.
A Catholic Bible, “The Holy Bible” translates the above “brethren” as “cousins.”
Perhaps a Greek/Aramaic scholar among us can suggest which English word better captures the writer’s intent.
The Greek word is [symbol]adelfoi[/symbol] (adelphoi, plural of adelphos) which means literally “of one womb” or born of the same mother. It’s most common usage is 'brother" but it can also have the same range of meaning (in Greek, I don’t know about Aramaic) as brother does in English.
Since Matthew talks about Jesus’ “adelphoi” in the same sentence as his mother, it was probably meant to indicate brothers. There was an early and widely accepted tradition that Jesus had a brother named James, and the doctrine of perpetual virginity is not actually Biblical, so there’s no reason to presume he did not have brothers and sisters, especially since the gospels repeatedly say that he did.
I mean, if someone pointed out a gropup of people to you and said "Hey, that’s so-and-so’s mother, and those are his brothers, you wouldn’t think he was talking about lodge brothers, or cousins. Occam’s razor say "vrothers meant brothers, (IMO)
Thanks.
Uhh… only a very old Catholic Bible.
The New American Bible (used in Catholic liturgy) and the Jerusalem Bible, both Catholic Bibles, use the term ‘brothers’ for ‘adelphoi.’
The RC Church still insists that through tradition, the Church knows that Mary was perpetually a virgin, and thus, Jesus didn’t have siblings from Mary. And so, the adelphoi are either step-siblings from a previous marriage of Joseph whose first wife has died; or, they are more distantly related relatives, perhaps cousins.
‘Adelphoi’ could mean cousins or kinfolk, although its most common meaning is siblings. And so as not to let theological beliefs influence translation, but to let the translators translate by proper rules of translation, even Catholic bibles today will use the more common translation of adelphoi, i.e., brothers.
And it’s not just Catholics who believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary… the Orthodox and a handful of Anglicans do, too. Everyone else doesn’t care.
Peace.
“Ave Maria, so glad to see 'ya”
Brothers and sisters? That would suck…
“Why can’t you be more like your brother?!?”
“CAUSE HE’S THE MESSIAH!”
“There’s always wine when your brother is around…”
lol
Daylon
What really brought the sibling issue into light recently was the ossuary discovery last year .
Of course those who’ve seen DOGMA already know about his siblings.
Interesting takes on the paternity of Jesus, incidentally, include:
Pantera (“the Panther”)- the anti-Christian author Celsus claimed that Jesus was fathered by a German soldier in the service of Rome who went by this name.
Antipater bar Herod- the plot of Robert Graves’ novel KING JESUS is based on an old and very obscure myth that Jesus was born of a union between the oldest son of Herod the Great and a Jewess of higher pedigree than his own clan. (Though his grandfather had converted to Judaism at the point of a sword, Herod was an Edomite, an Arab whose ancestry was traditionally traced to Edom/Esau, and as such had no genealogical claims to the throne [though a Roman army trumps a genealogy]). There has been some attempt to claim that PANTERA is a corruption of ANTIPATER, just as another theory claims that PANTERA is a corruption of PARTHENOS (virgin).
There have also been wacky claims of descent from Jesus, including one by Toyoji Sawaguch (a modern day garlic farmer in Shingo, Japan, who states that Jesus escaped to Japan, married, had three daughters, and died at the age of 106 and is buried in his family cemetary) and one stating that the Merovingian dynasty of France (and by extension Charlemagne, who though the great-grandson of an usurper was descended from a branch of this line through his mother and became the ancestor of all the crowned heads of Europe [and, according to Kurt Vonnegut in BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS the ancestor of all Europeans). The current champion of the Merovingian lineage is
DAR.Michael Baigent , though he’s not accepted seriously by other scholars.
Ultimately, the only thing that’s definite about the bloodline of Jesus is that he wouldn’t be eligible for membership in the DAR.
I agree, including my neighbor’s assertion that he is a grand nephew of Jesus (to the 60th power)!!!
Um huh, yeah right ( I thought cynically)…until he showed me the lineage papers…Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia…