The New Testament names four brothers of Jesus (James, Joseph (Joses), Judas and Simon) as well as mentioning, but not naming, sisters. The most notable is James, whom Paul calls "the brother of our Lord."
Some scholars argue that Jesus' relatives held positions of special honor in the Early Christian Church. Christians of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox traditions, as well as some Anglicans and some followers of Lutheranism, reject the idea that Jesus had blood siblings, as their churches hold the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary.
In the third century blood relatives of Jesus, without explicit reference to "brothers", were called the desposyni, from the Greek δεσπόσυνοι, plural of δεσπόσυνος, meaning "of or belonging to the master or lord". The term was used by Sextus Julius Africanus, a writer of the early 3rd century.
Read more about Brothers Of Jesus: Jesus' Brothers and Sisters, As Church Leaders, Degree of Consanguinuity Between Jesus and His Brothers, Family Trees and Pedigrees, Interpersonal Relationship With Jesus in The New Testament, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words brothers and/or jesus:
““Oh tell her I lie in Kirk-land fair,
And home shall never come.””
—Unknown. The Twa Brothers (l. 39–40)
“Protestantism has the method of Jesus with His secret too much left out of mind; Catholicism has His secret with His method too much left out of mind; neither has His unerring balance, His intuition, His sweet reasonableness. But both have hold of a great truth, and get from it a great power.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)