Jesus and his brothers

samwise gamgee said:

The way the family of Jesus came to be saved is a picture of how his greater family, the Jewish nation, will come to salvation.

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samwise gamgee said:

There were four boys named James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and an unspecified number of girls. These children had not received the divine revelations their parents had and they thought that Jesus was just an ordinary person like them.

Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”For not even his brothers believed in him.
John 7:2-5 ESV

This changed after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul lists some of the appearances Jesus made after his resurrection.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
1 Corinthians 15:7 ESV

The James mentioned here was the brother of Jesus. He became a leader of the early church and was the author of the book of James in the Bible. Another of Jesus’ brothers wrote the book of Jude. The Bible says nothing about the other siblings of Jesus but I think it is safe to conclude that they also became believers.

The children of Joseph and Mary weren’t the only brothers Jesus had. Jesus came to be king of the Jews and so in a sense the entire Jewish nation could be said to be his brothers. Most of the responded to him the way his immediate family did.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
John 1:11 ESV

A few Jews believed in him and followed him, and after his death and resurrection they formed the nucleus of a new body called the church. Most of the nation, including the leaders, refused to follow and when he was on trial before Pilate they formally rejected his kingship.

They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
John 19:15 ESV

The members of Jesus’s immediate family eventually came to believe in him. The same thing will happen to his larger family, the Jews.

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
Romans 11:25-27 ESV

His brothers became believers after Jesus rose from the tomb; Israel will repent and believe when he returns from Heaven. The details of his return are found in Zechariah 12-14. The nations of the world will be united in an attempt to destroy Israel. Two thirds of the Jews will perish but the other third will call on God and be saved.

In the whole land, declares the Lord,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.
And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, “They are my people”;
and they will say, “The LORD is my God.”
Zechariah 13:8,9 ESV

After this Jesus will return and give victory to his people.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Zechariah 14:2-4 ESV

The way the family of Jesus came to be is a picture of how his greater family, the Jewish nation, will come to salvation.

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Quasar92 said:

Did Jesus have brothers and sisters ?When we carefully consider the
Biblical record, the question itself seems quite ridiculous, because it is so
clear even from the context of many of the scriptures that He did. The only
major religion that chooses to dispute this is the Roman Catholic religion.
Roman Catholicism dogmatically maintain that following the Lord's birth, Mary
continued in her virginity the rest of her life and never bore any more
children. This in direct contradiction to everything in scripture which shows
that though Joseph and Mary did not come together before Jesus was born, they
did afterward, and the Lord indeed blessed them with Children.

With so much Biblical validation for this, the question is, why would anyone
attempt to dispute it, or even want to? The answer is as simple as the word
'tradition'. It is because these scriptures directly contradict Roman
Catholic tradition which glorifies Mary as a perpetual virgin, Co-Redemptrix,
and Mediatrix. If this church were to confess that the scripture is correct and
Mary had other children, it would destroy their well oiled myths about Mary.
Therefore, a way had to be devised which would justify this teaching. It is hard to imagine the argument against Mary having other children being more thin or groundless. Number one, nowhere does the Word of God say she had no other Children and so it is a doctrine which is not based on solid scripture.

Number two, Roman catholics have made the fundamental error of building a house from the roof down. In other words, they started out with a conclusion, and then set out to find what they call "technicalities" in the Greek to try and give the
appearance their conclusions have support. But any logical Bible scholar knows
that sound Bible hermeneutics doesn't start out with a conclusion and then
search for justification of it, rather, it starts out with the Word, and then
follows it to it's conclusion. Since there is nothing in God's word which says
or even implies that Mary had no other Children, that starting conclusion is
based on man's thoughts, not God's.

What they have done in one instance is taken the Greek word
[adelphos], that is translated brethren, and attempted to make it's
meaning vague and unclear. But while it is true that this word can have a couple
of meanings in different parts of the Bible (Brethren/in Christ,
Brethren/Kin), it cannot be used this way in the pertinent passages we are
dealing with, nor is there is any reasonable justification to claim that this
word in it's context could mean cousins. As for the spurious claim that it means
brethren 'in Christ,' the very context of the passages precludes it. Moreover,
even without the word "brethren" we can see clearly that Mary had other
children. To simply "ignore" these things would be handling the scriptures
tortuously. The best way to find an answer of what is true is to go right to the
Scripture and let it speak for itself. Remember, the scriptures (the Word of
God) are the ultimate Authority. Note carefully that you would have to
"tortuously" wrest the scriptures to even begin to make them imply Mary didn't
have other children. for example...

Let us first sum up what we know from the New Testament of the brothers and sisters of the Lord. They are mentioned in Matthew 12:46-50, 13:55-56; Mark 3:31, 6:3; Luke 8:19; John 2:12, 7:3; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5; and Paul speaks of a James the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:19). Of the brothers, there seem to have been four who are named in Matthew 13:55: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (see Mark 6:3). Matthew and Mark mention the sisters, but neither the number nor the names are given. From the language of the Nazarenes (Matthew 13:56, "His sisters, are they not all with us?"), there must have been at least two, probably more, and apparently married, and resident at Nazareth. These brothers and sisters are not mentioned at all until after the Lord began His ministry and are first mentioned as going with His mother and Himself to Capernaum (John 2:12). It is in dispute whether any were believers in His Messianic claims, at least until the very end of His ministry (John 7:3-10). Most say that they were made believers through His resurrection, as they appear in company with the Apostles (Acts 1:14).

Quasar92

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samwise gamgee said:

Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” That was certainly true of Jesus. His mother Mary honored him because the angel Gabriel had foretold his birth and he had been born while she was still a virgin. Joseph honored him because after he discovered that Mary was pregnant an angel appeared to him in a dream to tell him that Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he would save his people from their sins. But after he was born Joseph and Mary had other children. There were four boys named James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and an unspecified number of girls. These children had not received the divine revelations their parents had and they thought that Jesus was just an ordinary person like them.

The way the family of Jesus came to be saved is a picture of how his greater family, the Jewish nation, will come to salvation.

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LittleLambofJesus said: ↑
From what I understand, Roman Catholicism does not believe Jesus had other brothers and sisters born of of Mary, aka her "perpetual virginity".

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samwise gamgee said:

I know what the Catholic church teaches. I am not a Catholic and believe what the Bible says about the family of Jesus.

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JackRT said:

Mary seems to have completely forgotten the miraculous circumstances of Jesus' birth when she gathers her other sons to take Jesus into custody because they thought him insane (beside himself). So strange! How could she possibly forget?

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