A Direct Comprehensive Defense on the Sibling Quandary of Jesus…

A Direct Comprehensive Defense on the Sibling Quandary of Jesus
(For Catholics’ on Jesus’ Brothers Claim by Non-Catholic Christians)

By: Emmanuel Jacobo
May 24, 2020

In Matthew 13:55-56, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 “And His sisters, are they not all with us?

In Galatians 1:18-19,
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

To debunk the claim that Mother Mary had other children aside from Jesus based on the 2 passages among others above, I will prove that James et al including the sisters have a mother, another Mary that is the wife of an Alphaeus or Clopas. I need to present 3 more passages to come up with a compelling conclusion reconciling with that cited passage above to refute that claim:

At the Cross there are 3 accounted women nearby.
A. In John 19:25,
25 “So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Mag′dalene.”
( Here, John accounted 3 women: Mother Mary; Mary Magdalene and Jesus mother’s sister named another Mary, described as wife of Clopas.)

B. In Mark 15:40,
40 “There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Mag′dalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salo′me,”
(Here, Mark recognized and accounted 2 women: Mary Magdalene and another Mary described as the mother of James, Jose’s, and Salo’me.)

C. When Jesus choose the 12 Apostles, he named them and described them in: Matthew 10:3, (Parallel in Mark 3:18, and Luke 6:15)
3 “Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;”
(Here, Apostle James,the less was described as the son of Alphaeus while the other James, the greater was the brother of John were sons of Zebedee.

Here are the Facts/Truths about this issue:

I. In Matthew 13:55-56, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas were identified as his brothers.

II. In A. (John 19:25) and B. (Mark 15:40), Mother Mary’s sister, another Mary is clearly both wife of Clopas and mother of James, Jose’s, and Salo’me.

III. In C. (Mt 10:3), When Jesus chosed the 12 Apostles, he described Apostle James as the son of Alphaeus.

IV. In Galatians 1:18-19, Paul saw only Apostle James, the Lord’s brother.

V. In Aramaic and Hebrew Language, there’s no word for “First Cousin” and “Brother/Sister” is use to identify same.

SUMMARY:
James and brothers in I. (Mt 13:55-56) and II. (Jn 19:25; Mk 15:40) are the same group of siblings whose mother is Mary (sister of Mother Mary), and whose father is Clopas.

In III. (My 10:3) and IV. (Galatians 1:18-19), Apostle James is both son of Alphaeus and Jesus’ brother.

CONCLUSION:

Therefore the so called “brothers and sisters” of Jesus was Jesus First Cousin from Mother Mary’s sister, also named Mary whose husband was named Clopas and also Alphaeus and whose cousin Apostle James was identified as brother because of the fact that in Jesus’ days Aramaic and Hebrew, First Cousin was also called “Brothers” because of lack of a distinct vocabulary to represent the word “First Cousin”.

God Bless!