I don't understand the Church's position on Jesus

[Kingofalldems]

not having brothers. Anyone?

[hrmjustin]

1. The Roman Catholic Church believes they were cousins because they believe Mary was a perpetual

Virgin.

[Kingofalldems]

2. Cousins? I remember in Catechism the nuns said Jesus had

half brothers, Joseph's from his first marriage. That was 50+ yrs ago so my memory could be faulty. I recently saw a thing on History channel where scholars claimed that is the one of the things we know for sure about Jesus--he had quite a few siblings.

[hrmjustin]

3. The bible is clear that they are brothers. James the brother of Jesus has been called his

Cousin. The RRC believes in the perpetual virginity of Mary so they do not believe she gave birth to these siblings.

[demosincebirth]

6. That's one thing I have a hard time believing is that Mary remained a virgin. I believe

a brother means a brother, not a cousin. Also, I don't believe Joseph remained chaste after Jesus was born. That is hard for me to believe.

[hrmjustin]

8. I think they were Mary's other children.

[TommyCelt]

4. If I'm not mistaken...

The half-brother thing is the general understanding of the Orthodox Church and RCC undertsanding is that they were his cousins of varying degrees.

If the doctrine of perpetual virginity is true, it would have to be one of these.

[No Vested Interest]

7. That's a new one to me. 16 years Catholic school and

I never heard of half-brothers before.
Not that it isn't plausible. It is believed that Joseph was a number of years older than Mary, and very well could have been widowed with children.
It is also believed that Joseph had died before Jesus' public life - it doesn't seem that he was present with Mary at the marriage at Cana - but who knows?

[Kingofalldems]

9. Actually you and I agree. I assumed the

'half brothers' term on my own. They taught that Joseph was a widower and had other children.

[rustbeltvoice]

5. brother can be kinsman

Read the passages of Abram/Abraham. I am not going to Genesis for the citation, now. He refers to his nephew Lot as brother; and his wife Sarah as sister.

Also, it is possible that Joseph was a widower with children; if this so his children would be brethren to Jesus. The language of discourse millenia ago does not always correspond one to one to now. One has to realise that sometimes the language of Scripture is poetic, and allegorical. The books of the Bible were not written as technical manuals.

O, and the History Channel loves to sensationalise items, and their historicism is suspect (and i am being kind). Some people say they like history, and what they like is speculation about history taken as history. If i remember correctly, the Anglais used to refer to it as the Hitler Channel.

Yes, and the Eastern Church's tendency is to view these brothers as Joseph's children from the time before his marriage to Mary. The Eastern Church is fully part of the Universal Church. The Orthodox are Catholic, and the Catholic are Orthodox; although they quite often dislike the other. Both the Eastern and Western Church believe in the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God, Theotokos. The Protestant churches have their own views.

Really, we do not know. We are separated from their era; but we must recognise that some people will present things for their purposes, and historical truth and good faith (of the faith) is not of prime concern.

And to tick off other people, we must remember that all men are brothers. Many people have referred to their friends as brothers; of course to do so in this context is to court contempt from certain circles.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

10. In one language, relationships can be seen differently than in another

For example, in Norwegian, there are two words for "uncle" -- farsbror and morsbror, depending on whether he is on the father's side or the mother's side.

However, the whole thing about the Perpetual Virginity of Mary goes back to the basically unhealthy attitude towards sex in the early Church. Just consider the phrase "virgin undefiled", which is based on the assumption that having sex somehow "defiles" one.

[meow2u3]

11. Speaking of "virgin undefiled", it goes deeper than the idea that sex "defiles" one

However, the whole thing about the Perpetual Virginity of Mary goes back to the basically unhealthy attitude towards sex in the early Church. Just consider the phrase "virgin undefiled", which is based on the assumption that having sex somehow "defiles" one.

I understand the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity as God ensuring that Jesus had no possibility of having an earthly father. The doctrine that a virgin gave birth to a boy instead of a girl (by parthenogenesis) gives it away that science could not explain the Virgin Birth.