2105.—Brothers and Sisters of Jesus.
Did Jesus have brothers and sisters? I note references in various religious publications which imply that Jesus when here on earth as a child had older brothers. Does ancient history or the Bible show that Mary was the second wife of Joseph, and that these older brothers were the stepsons of Mary?
B. R. N. Sometimes the term brother is used to mean a more distant relative than what we use the expression for, so that a cousin might be termed a brother; and yet such expressions as found in Mark 6:3 would certainly seem to indicate that Jesus had brothers and sisters. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not His sisters here with us?" So also we read of "James the Lord's brother." The tradition is quite strong, and seems to be fairly well founded, that no other children were born to Mary. If that be the case, these were evidently children of Joseph by a former wife. There is nothing, however, in the Scriptures to prove that other children were not born to Mary.