20/07/2024
MARY'S OTHER CHILDREN APART FROM JESUS?
This afternoon I was asked to explain Mark 6:3...to prove that Mary did not have other Children.
1. WHAT DOES MARK 6 : 3 says?
In the New American Bibleβs English translation of the Gospel of St. Mark, we read about the crowd asking, βIsnβt this the carpenter, the son of Mary, a brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Arenβt his sisters our neighbors here?β
A similar reference occurs earlier in Mark 3:31 β βHis mother and brothers arrivedβ¦.β
2. SO MARY HAD OTHER CHILDREN?
As a student of theology, every Seminarian must study Greek and Hebrew, the original languages of the Bible. The understanding of this languages will help one understand the original meaning of biblical verses in its unadulterated version.
The problem of Jesus having brothers lies in the word brother. In the original text of the gospel, we find the Greek word adelphos, meaning brothers, used.
However, adelphos does not just mean blood brothers born of the same parents. Rather, adelphos was used to describe brothers not born of the same parents, like a half-brother or step-brother. The word also described other relationships like cousins, nephews, uncles, etc.
For example in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14-16, the word adelphos was used to describe the relationship between Abraham and Lot; however, these two men did not share a blood brother relationship, but one of uncle and nephew.
Another instance is that of Laban, who was an adelphos to Jacob, not as a brother, but as an uncle. (In the New American translation, βkinsmanβ or βrelativeβ will be used.
Actually the confusion originates in Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of most of the original Old Testament texts and of Christ. In these languages, no special word existed for cousin, nephew or aunt, half-brother or half-sister, or step-brother or step-sister; so they used the word brother or a circumlocution, such as in the case of a cousin, βthe son of the brother of my father.β