This article is about the persons described as Jesus' brothers. For the Catholic religious congregation, see Little Brothers of Jesus.
"Adelphoi," the Greek word for "siblings" or specifically "brothers," redirects here. For siblings, including brothers, in general, see Sibling and Brother.
The brothers of Jesus or the adelphoi (‹See Tfd›Greek: ἀδελφοί, translit.adelphoí, lit."of the same womb, brothers")[1][a] are named in the New Testament as James, Joses (a form of Joseph), Simon, Jude,[2] and unnamed sisters are mentioned in Mark and Matthew.[3] They may have been: (1) sons of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph; (2) sons of Joseph by a former marriage; or (3) sons of Mary of Clopas, named in Mark 15:40 as the "mother of James and Joses", who has been identified as either the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a sister-in-law to Joseph. [4][b]
Those who uphold the perpetual virginity of Mary reject the idea of biological brethren and maintain that the brothers and sisters were either cousins of Jesus (option 3, the position of the Catholic Church) or children of Joseph from a previous marriage (option 2, the Eastern Orthodox Churches).[4] Some Lutheran Churches have accepted both option 2 and option 3 as being valid explanations for the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary.[5][6]
Etymology
According to context, the Greek plural noun ἀδελφοί (adelphoi), from a- ('same') and delphys ('womb'),[1] may mean physical brothers, physical brothers and sisters, figurative brothers, or figurative brothers and sisters.[7]Adelphoi sometimes means more than a blood brother, e.g., Gen 29:12; Rom 9:3 (kinsman); Matt 5:22–3 (neighbor); Mark 6:17–8 (step-brother). In such instances the context must determine the meaning.[8]Adelphoi is distinct from anepsios, meaning cousin, nephew, niece, and this word is never used to describe James and the other siblings of Jesus.[9] The word "anepsios" is only employed once in the entire New Testament, being used in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. Although neither Hebrew nor Aramaic had a word for "cousin", both customarily spoke of a cousin as a "son of an uncle" (Heb. ben dod; Aram. bar dad)[8] and the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, never translates either expression as "brother" or "sister".[8]
The Vulgate renders with the Latin word frater (e.g. Mark 6:3), which, even in classical Latin, can also mean "maternal cousin" or "paternal cousin".[10]
Mark 6:3 names James, Joses, Judas (conventionally known in English as Jude) and Simon as the brothers of Jesus, and Matthew 13:55 , which probably used Mark as its source, gives the same names in different order, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas.[11] "Joseph" is simply the longer form of "Joses", and so it appears that James was the eldest and Joses/Joseph the next, but as Matthew has reversed the order of the last two it is uncertain who was the youngest.[12] Unnamed sisters are mentioned in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:56 and may be implied in Mark 3:35 and Matthew 12:46, but their number is unknown.[3]
The gospels indicate a rift between Jesus and his brothers in the early part of his ministry (see Mark 3:31-35 and the parallel passages in Matthew 12:46-50 and Luke 8:19-21), and they never appear among his followers during his lifetime.[13]John has Jesus' brothers advising him to go to Judea despite being aware that his life would be in danger, and they are absent from his burial, which should have been their responsibility,[14] but they do appear in Acts 1:14 with the Eleven (i.e., the remaining disciples after the betrayal by Judas Iscariot): "These all (the Eleven) were persevering in prayer along with the women, with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."[14]
In 1 Corinthians 15:3–7Paul lists a "James" among those to whom the risen Christ had appeared,[15] and most scholars agree that this refers to James the brother of Jesus.[16] The 2nd century historian Hegesippus (c.110 – 180 AD) reports that James the brother of Jesus came to be known as James the Just,[17] and Eusebius of Caesarea (died 339) says that he spent so much of his life in prayer that his knees became "like the knees of a camel."[18] According to Clement of Alexandria, reported by Eusebius, he was chosen as bishop of Jerusalem,[19] and from the time when Peter left Jerusalem after Herod's attempt to kill him (Acts 12) he appears as the principal authority in the Jerusalem church, presiding at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15.[19] In Galatians 1:19 Paul tells how he went to Jerusalem a few years after his conversion and met Cephas (Peter) but no other apostles, only "James, the brother of the Lord";[20] Paul's Greek leaves it unclear whether he includes, or does not include, James among the apostles.[21] He goes on to describe a second visit fourteen years later when he met the "pillars of the Church", James and Peter and John; James is mentioned first and seems to be the primary leader among these three.[15] In chapter 2 he describes how he and Peter were later in Antioch and in the habit of dining with gentile Christians in breach of Jewish torah, until "certain people from James" came and Peter withdrew, "fearing those who belong to the circumcision."[22] The 1st century historian Josephus tells how he was martyred by the Jews in 62 CE on charges of breaking the Jewish Law.[18]
Paul records in 1 Corinthians that the other brothers of Jesus (that is, other than James, who is portrayed as rooted in Jerusalem) travelled as evangelists, and that they were married ("Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas (Peter)?" - 1 Corinthians 9:5).[23] The 3rd century Apostolic Father Eusebius left a list of 12 bishops of the early church, of whom two, Joseph/Joses and Jude, may be the brothers of Jesus.[24] The number of sisters and their names are not specified in the New Testament, but the apocryphal 3rd century Gospel of Philip mentions a Mary, and Salome, who appears in the late 2nd century Gospel of James, is arguably the other sister.[25]
The author of the epistle of James introduces himself as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ".[26] He does not identify himself as the brother of Jesus or an apostle or a leader of the church in any way,[18] but one recent study characterises this letter as "the most Jewish text in the New Testament".[27] The epistle of Jude identifies its author as "Jude...the brother of James", but today there is widespread, although not unanimous, support for the view that it was composed in the early part of the 2nd century by an unknown author borrowing the name of the brother of Jesus.[28] Hegesippus mentions a Simon or Simeon (the names are equivalent) who became leader of the Jerusalem church after the death of James, but makes this Simon a son of Clopas, the brother of Joseph.[29]
Of the "brothers," however, no direct relationship to Mary or Joseph is ever indicated. Only Jesus is referred to as "son of Mary," "the son of Mary," or "son of Joseph." Only Jesus is the subject of the Old Testament messianic prophecies and only of him is the genealogy proposed.[30]
The 19th century scholar J.B. Lightfoot identified three possible positions on the relationship to Jesus of those called his brothers and sisters by reference to their 4th century advocates, namely the Helvidian (after Helvidius, who wrote c.380), the Epiphanian (after Epiphanius of Salamis, 315-403), and the Hieronymian (after Jerome, 349-419/20).[31] A fourth position, not mentioned by Lightfoot, is that the adelphoi were full-blooded brothers and sisters of Jesus.[31]
Full blood-brothers and sisters of Jesus
This position rejects the virgin birth of Jesus and argues his brothers and sisters were full siblings. Main proponents of this belief were the Ebionites, a 2nd century Jewish Christian sect, who rejected both the incarnation and divinity of Jesus.[31]
Half-brothers and sisters of Jesus (Helvidian view)
The view of Helvidius was that the adelphoi were half siblings of Jesus born to Mary and Joseph after the firstborn Jesus.[32] This is the most common Protestant position.[32] The following hypothetical family tree is from Jesus and His World book written by John J Rousseau and Rami Arav: [33][34]
The Epiphanian view, named after its main proponent, the fourth-century bishop Epiphanius, and championed by the third century theologian Origen and fourth-century bishop Eusebius, the “brothers” and “sisters” mentioned in the New Testament are sons of Joseph from a previous marriage, and hence stepbrothers of Jesus; this is still the official position of the Eastern Orthodox churches.[35]
The Hieronymian view was put forward in the 4th century by Jerome, who argued that not only Mary, but Joseph too, had been a life-long virgin.[36] Apparently voicing the general opinion of the Church, he held that the "brothers of Jesus" were the sons of Mary the "mother of James and Joses" mentioned in Mark 15:40, whom he identified with the wife of Clopas and sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus mentioned in John 19:25.[37] The Catholic Church continues to teach that the adelphoi were cousins of Jesus.[38] The following family tree is from Richard Bauckham, "Jude and the Relatives of James":[39]
Jerome's argument produces the unlikely result of two sisters both named Mary.[39] A modern variant eliminates this by identifying Clopas as the brother of Joseph, thereby making the two Marys sisters-in-law; in this version Jesus' cousin Simon is identified with Symeon the second leader of the church in Jerusalem.[39][40] The following family tree is from Richard Bauckham, "Jude and the Relatives of James":[41]
From the 2nd century onward the developing emphasis on ascetism and celibacy as the superior form of Christian practice, together with an emphasis on the chastity of Mary, led to the idea that she had been a virgin not only before, but during and after, the birth of Christ.[42] There is no direct biblical basis for this idea,[43] which in its earliest assertion appears in the mid-2nd century Protoevangelium of James;[44] this depicts Mary as a life-long virgin, Joseph as an old man who marries her without physical desire, and the brothers of Jesus as Joseph's sons by an earlier marriage.[45]
By the 3rd century, the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary had become well established, but the unequivocal scriptural references to the brethren of Jesus raised obvious problems.[46] The heretical antidicomarianites ("opponents of Mary") maintained that, when Joseph became Mary's husband, he was a widower with six children, and he had normal marital relations with Mary, but they later held Jesus was not born of these relations.[47]Bonosus was a bishop who in the late 4th century held Mary had other children after Jesus, for which the other bishops of his province condemned him.[48] Important orthodox theologians such as Hippolytus[49] (170–235), Eusebius (260/265–339/340) and Epiphanius (c. 310/320–403) defended the perpetual virginity of Mary. Eusebius and Epiphanius held the adelphoi were Joseph's children from a previous marriage. Epiphanius adds Joseph became the father of James and his three brothers (Joses, Simeon, Judah) and two sisters (a Salome and a Mary or a Salome and an Anna)[50] with James being the elder sibling. James and his siblings were not children of Mary but were Joseph's children from a previous marriage. Joseph's first wife died; many years later, at the age of eighty, "he took Mary (mother of Jesus)". According to Epiphanius the Scriptures call them "brothers of the Lord" to confound their opponents.[51][52]Origen (184–254) also wrote "according to the Gospel of Peter the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary".[53]
The History of Joseph the Carpenter, probably written in Egypt in the 5th century and heavily indebted to the Protoevangelium of James, depicts Joseph as an old widower with children from a previous marriage, thus clarifying the New Testament references to Jesus' brothers.[54]
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which was probably written in the seventh century, states the brothers of Jesus were his cousins.[58]
Western Catholic and Eastern Christianity maintain that Mary was a perpetual virgin;[53] early Protestant leaders, including the ReformerMartin Luther,[59] and Reformed theologian Huldrych Zwingli,[60] also held this view, as did John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism.[61]Eine Christliche Lehrtafel (A Christian Catechism), issued by Anabaptist leader Balthasar Hubmaier, teaches the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary too.[62] The Catholic Church, following Jerome, conclude that the adelphoi were Jesus' cousins, while Eastern Orthodox Church, following Eusebius and Epiphanius, argue they were Joseph's children from a previous marriage. Lutherans have accepted both views as being valid explanations of the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, while Anglicans and Methodists concur with the latter view.[63][6][5]
Other Christian denominations, such as some Baptist groups,[64] view the adelphoi as Jesus' half-brothers or do not specify,[63] since the accounts in the Gospels do not speak of Mary's relationship to them but only to Jesus.[65]
Absence of Jesus' brothers
There are some events in scripture where brothers or sisters of Jesus are not shown, e.g., when Jesus was lost in the Temple and during his crucifixion. Luke 2:41–51 reports the visit of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old but does not mention any siblings. Robert Eisenman is of the belief Luke sought to minimise the importance of Jesus' family by whatever means possible, editing James and Jesus' brothers out of the Gospel record.[66] The Catholic apologist Karl Keating argues Mary and Joseph rushed without hesitation straight back to Jerusalem when they realized Jesus was lost, which they would surely have thought twice about doing if there were other children (Jesus' blood brothers or sisters) to look after.[67]
The Gospel of John records the sayings of Jesus on the cross, i.e., the pair of commands "Woman, behold your son!" and "Behold, thy mother!" (John 19:26–27), then states "from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home". Since the era of the Church Fathers this statement has been used to reason that after the death of Jesus there were no other biological children to look after Mary, and she had to be entrusted to the disciple.[68][69][70] Constantine Zalalas argues it would have been against Jewish custom for Jesus to give his mother to the care of the disciple if Mary had other living sons, because the eldest son would always take responsibility for his mother.[71] Karl Keating says, "It is hard to imagine why Jesus would have disregarded family ties and made this provision for his Mother if these four [James, Joseph/Joses, Simon, Jude] were also her sons".[67]PopeJohn Paul II also says the command "Behold your son!" was the entrustment of the disciple to Mary in order to fill the maternal gap left by the death of her only son on the cross.[72]Vincent Taylor points out difficulties in this interpretation of the text: it ignores both the fact that Jesus' brothers opposed his claims, and the position of honour of John, the beloved disciple.[73]
Descendants of Jesus' family
Eusebius of Caesarea, medieval Armenian manuscript from Isfahan, Persia
The early Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus (died c.240), in his "Genealogy of the Holy Gospels", referred to "relatives of our Lord according to the flesh" whom he called desposyni, meaning "from the Lord's family".[74] Of these individuals, only the 2nd century Bishop of JerusalemJudah Kyriakos is historically attested by name.
↑ Greek singular noun adelphos, from a- ("same", equivalent to homo-) and delphys ("womb," equivalent to splanchna).
↑ According to Hegesippus, Clopas is Joseph's brother, therefore Mary, wife of Clopas, would be Joseph's sister-in-law.
Related Research Articles
The Gospel of James is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, and events immediately following. It is the earliest surviving assertion of the perpetual virginity of Mary, meaning her virginity not just prior to the birth of Jesus, but during and afterwards, and despite being condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and rejected by the Gelasian Decree around 500, became a widely influential source for Mariology.
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God. The Church of the East historically regarded her as Christotokos, a term still used in Assyrian Church of the East liturgy. Other Protestant views on Mary vary, with some holding her to have lesser status. She has the highest position in Islam among all women and is mentioned numerous times in the Quran, including in a chapter named after her. She is also revered in the Baháʼí Faith and the Druze Faith.
Ebionites as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect that existed during the early centuries of the Common Era, whose name may have been taken from the first group of people mentioned in the Beatitudes of Jesus as blessed and meriting entry in the coming Kingdom of God on Earth.
The virgin birth of Jesus is the Christian and Islamic doctrine that Jesus was conceived by his mother, Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit and without sexual intercourse. Christians regard the doctrine as an explanation of the mixture of the human and divine natures of Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox Churches accept the doctrine as authoritative by reason of its inclusion in the Nicene Creed, and the Catholic Church holds it authoritative for faith through the Apostles' Creed as well as the Nicene. Nevertheless, there are many contemporary churches in which it is considered orthodox to accept the virgin birth but not heretical to deny it.
James the Less is a figure of early Christianity. He is also called "the Minor", "the Little", "the Lesser", or "the Younger", according to translation, James is styled "the Less" to distinguish him from the Apostle James the Great with "Less" meaning younger or shorter, rather than less important. James the Great was the brother of John the Apostle.
James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord, was, according to the New Testament, a brother of Jesus. He was the first leader of the Jerusalem Church of the Apostolic Age. Traditionally, it is believed he was martyred either in AD 62 by being stoned to death on the order of High Priest Ananus ben Ananus, or in AD 69 by being thrown off the pinnacle of the Temple by scribes and pharasees and then clubbed to death. James, Joses, Simon, and Judas are mentioned as the brothers of Jesus as well as two or more unnamed sisters.
Cleopas, also spelled Cleophas, was a figure of early Christianity, one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the Road to Emmaus appearance in Luke 24:13–32.
Joses is a name, usually regarded as a form of Joseph, occurring many times in the New Testament:
The perpetual virginity of Mary is a Christian doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin "before, during and after" the birth of Christ. In Western Christianity, the Catholic Church adheres to the doctrine, as do some Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed, and other Protestants. In Eastern Christianity, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East both adhere to this doctrine as part of their ongoing tradition, and Eastern Orthodox churches recognize Mary as Aeiparthenos, meaning "ever-virgin". It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Most modern nonconformist Protestants reject the doctrine.
Jude was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus and is also variously called Judas Thaddaeus, Jude Thaddaeus, Jude of James, or Lebbaeus. He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Catholic writer Michal Hunt suggests that Judas Thaddaeus became known as Jude after early translators of the New Testament from Greek into English sought to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and subsequently abbreviated his forename. Most versions of the New Testament in languages other than English and French refer to Judas and Jude by the same name.
Clopas is a figure of early Christianity. The name appears in the New Testament, specifically in John 19:25:
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
According to the Gospel of John, Mary of Clopas was one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus and bringing supplies for his funeral. The expression Mary of Clopas in the Greek text is ambiguous as to whether Mary was the daughter or wife of Clopas, but exegesis has commonly favoured the reading "wife of Clopas". Hegesippus identified Clopas as a brother of Joseph. In the latest official edition of the Roman Martyrology of the Catholic Church she is commemorated with Salome on April 24th.
The Antidicomarians or Antidicomarianites, also called Dimoerites, were a Christian sect active from the 3rd to the 5th century. Their name was invented by an opponent, Epiphanius of Salamis, who described them as heretical in his Panarion. The existence of the Antidicomarians as an organized sect may be doubted, as it is attested only in Epiphanius, but the doctrines he attributes to them were certainly matters of live debate in the late 4th century.
Richard John Bauckham is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.
Jude is one of the "brothers" of Jesus (Greek: ἀδελφοί, romanized: adelphoi, lit. 'brethren') according to the New Testament. He is traditionally identified as the author of the Epistle of Jude, a short epistle which is reckoned among the seven general epistles of the New Testament—placed after Paul's epistles and before the Book of Revelation—and considered canonical by Christians. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians believe this Jude is the same person as Jude the Apostle; Catholics hold that Jude was a cousin, but not literally a brother of Jesus, while the Eastern Orthodox hold that Jude is St. Joseph's son from a previous marriage.
James, son of Alphaeus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, appearing under this name in all three of the Synoptic Gospels' lists of the apostles. He is generally identified with James the Less and commonly known by that name in church tradition. He is also labelled "the Minor", "the Little", "the Lesser", or "the Younger", according to translation. He is distinct from James, son of Zebedee and in some interpretations also from James, brother of Jesus. He appears only four times in the New Testament, each time in a list of the twelve apostles.
Joseph was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus.
Simon is described in the New Testament as one of the "brothers" of Jesus.
In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles, were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and ministry of Jesus in the 1st century AD, the apostles were his closest followers and became the primary teachers of the gospel message of Jesus. There is also an Eastern Christian tradition derived from the Gospel of Luke that there were seventy apostles during the time of Jesus' ministry.
The name James appears 42 times in the New Testament. James was a very common given name in the historical period and region of Jesus, but surnames were still very rare. It is therefore not always clear which person these names refer to, and whether some refer to the same person or distinct characters, which has led to confusion. Therefore, Christian authors and modern scholars have given these men names based on their known attributes. According to American theologian and scholar Donald Hagner (2012), there are at least 5, and possibly up to 7, different Jameses in the New Testament.
Curi 2020: "adelphoi, fratteli, fra coloro dunque che, letteralmente, provengono dallo stesso delphys, escono dallo stesso 'uttero'."
Segal 1999, p.184: "For brothers related by blood Greek then develops a new term, adelphos, "of the same womb" (a-delphys), which denotes kinship through the mother.97"
Dozier & Adams 1993, p.4: "literally 'from the womb' and originally meant from the same womb."
Silver 1914, p.272: "In the New Testament the Greek word ἀδελφοί (adelphoi) , rendered "brethren," is the plural form of ἀδελφός (adelphos) which means, literally, 'of the same womb, a brother, relative"
Levine 2022: "the Greek term adelphoi, literally 'brothers,'"
1 2 Erasmus, Desiderius (1998). Disputatiuncula de Taedio, Pavore, Tristicia Iesu. University of Toronto Press. p.187. ISBN9780802043092. The Lutherans accepted the perpetual virginity of Mary, while rejecting the invocation of the saints.
↑ College, St. Epiphanius of Cyprus; translated by Young Richard Kim, Calvin (2014). Ancoratus 60:1. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. p.144. ISBN978-0-8132-2591-3. Retrieved 22 September 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ of Hierapolis, Papias. "Fragment X". Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord. Peter Kirby. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
↑ Lightfoot, J.B. (1865). "The Brethren of the Lord". Philo logos. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2016. The testimony of Papias is frequently quoted at the head of the patristic authorities, as favouring the view of Jerome… It is strange that able and intelligent critics should not have seen through a fabrication which is so manifestly spurious… [T]he passage was written by a mediaeval namesake of the Bishop of Hierapolis, Papias… who lived in the 11th century.
↑ Zwingli, Ulrich (1905), "Eini Predigt von der ewig reinen Magd Maria", in Egli, Emil; Finsler, Georg; Zwingli-Verein (eds.), Huldreich Zwinglis sämtliche Werke (in German), vol.1, Zürich: C. A. Schwetschke & Sohn, p.385, retrieved 1 July 2008, I firmly believe that [Mary], according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin
↑ Wesley, John (1812), Benson, Joseph (ed.), The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, p.112, I believe that He was made man, joining the human nature with the divine in one person; being conceived by the singular operation of the Holy Ghost, and born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought Him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.
↑ Yarnell, Malcolm B. (2013). The Anabaptists and Contemporary Baptists. B&H Publishing. p.130. ISBN978-1-43368174-5. Question 53 of the Kinderfragen posed, "What do you believe about the Virgin Mary?" It parallesls questions 68 of the Lehrtafel, which solicited, "What do you believe regarding Our Lady? Both catechisms spoke of her perpetual virginity. The Kindergragen proclaimed "that she was pure before the birth, during the birth, and after the birth, a humble maiden," while the Lehrtafel declared that "she was a pure, chaste, and spotless Virgin before, during, and after the birth."
↑ Witherington, Ben III, "Jesus' Extended Family", Bible Review, vol.19, no.3, pp.30–31, So James, according to this view, would be Jesus' younger half-brother.
↑ Eisenman, Robert (2002), James, the Brother of Jesus, Watkins.
↑ Arthur B. Calkins, "Our Lady's Perpetual Virginity," in Mark Miravalle, ed. (2008), Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated PersonsISBN978-1-57918-355-4 pp. 308–309
↑ Mark Miravalle, 1993, Introduction to Mary, Queenship Publishing ISBN978-1-882972-06-7, pp. 62–63
↑ Fundamentals of Catholicism, Kenneth Baker 1983 ISBN0-89870-019-1 pp. 334–35
Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). "Brethren of the Lord". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780192802903.
Hunter, David G. (2008). "Marriage, early Christian". In Benedetto, Robert; Duke, James O. (eds.). The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History: The early, medieval, and Reformation eras. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN9780664224165.
Zervos, George Thelemis (2005). "Christmas with Salome". In Levine, Amy-Jill; Robbins, Maria Mayo (eds.). A Feminist Companion to Mariology. A&C Black. ISBN9780310321859.
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