THE BROTHERS OF JESUS
by Giuseppe Monno
Matthew 12:46
While he was still speaking to the crowd, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to him.
Mark 3:31
His mother and his brothers arrived and, standing outside, they sent word to call him.
In the Bible, the Semitic meaning of the word “brother” is much broader than simply those born of the same parents (Genesis 4:1–2; Matthew 4:21). It can also refer to cousins (1 Chronicles 23:21–22), uncles and nephews (cf. Genesis 13:8 with 11:27), fellow citizens (Genesis 19:6–7), members of the same tribe (1 Chronicles 15:4–10), compatriots (Exodus 2:11; Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:17), spouses (Tobit 7:12), those in need (Matthew 25:40), the disciples of Jesus (John 20:17–18), and all those who do the will of God (Matthew 12:49–50).
The “brothers” mentioned in Matthew 12:46 and Mark 3:31 are not to be understood as children of Mary and Joseph, but rather as relatives who came together with his mother to meet Jesus.
When the Bible intends to specify that individuals are full brothers, it uses more explicit expressions, such as:
“his brother, his mother’s son” (Genesis 43:29);
“his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother” (Leviticus 20:17);
“my brothers, the sons of my mother” (Judges 8:19);
“James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee” (Matthew 4:21).
The New Testament never uses expressions of this kind when referring to those referred to as the “brothers of Jesus.”
As for Psalm 69:8 — “I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons” — it cannot be applied to supposed uterine brothers of Jesus, as is sometimes claimed. Read in a Christological sense, this verse instead refers to the rejection he experienced from his own people. This is confirmed by the account in Mark 6:1–6, where the inhabitants of Nazareth, although recognizing his wisdom and his deeds, take offence at him:
“A prophet is only despised in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house.”
In this figurative sense, “my mother” represents Jesus’ homeland, while “my brothers” and “my mother’s sons” indicate his fellow countrymen who did not believe in him.