August 2, 2005
Here is a question that was asked by a young lady named Christina…
Did Jesus Christ have siblings? I always believed that Jesus was the only child… also that the Hebrew language has no word for ‘cousin’ and so ‘brothers and sisters’ are used a lot in the Bible… but I have been informed many times that Jesus was not the only child.
Insistence is not a very good argument, but sometimes a convincing one. No, Jesus did not have siblings. Not only in Hebrew is there no specific word for “cousin,” but also in Aramaic (a descendant of Hebrew – kind of how French is to Latin). As we know, Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke. The understanding of “brother” in the Bible is broader than our own. For us brother = my mother’s son. For the Hebrew people “brother” could mean any male relative from whom you were not descended. Those relatives from whom you are descended are fathers; other male relatives are often called “brothers.” For example, Lot is called Abraham’s “brother” in Gen. 14:14, even though he was actually Abraham’s nephew. In the book of Chronicles, Kish and Eleazar were the sons of Mahli. The New American Bible reads “Eleazar died and had no sons, but daughters only, so their brothers, the sons of Kish, took them as wives.” (1 Chr. 23:21–22) In this verse alone is seen how the usage of the word “brother” is different than our own.
So there is no word like we have for cousin. The New Testament writers brought with them this same understanding of the word in question. In using the Greek word “adelphos” (brother) they ascribed the Hebrew meaning. The first translations of the Old Testament into Greek (called the Septuagint) used this same word “adelphos.” This is not merely an ancient phenomenon. In Spanish, for example, the word for cousin is “primo,” but the full word is “primo hermano,” which means literally “first brother.” For a complete answer I will have to refer you to some other sources but here are a few quick answers:
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary asks how she was going to conceive this child since she had no relations with man (Luke 1:34). From the earliest days of the Church this was interpreted as Mary making a perpetual vow of virginity even in marriage, for she was already betrothed to Joseph. Also, if Jesus had brothers, why did he entrust His mother to the disciple John? This responsibility would automatically have gone to his supposed brothers. For further reading try: The Catechism of the Catholic Church 496-500 or http://www.catholic.com/library/Brethren_of_the_Lord.asp.
Br. Agostino Miguel Torres, CFR
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