Jesus’ Extended Family

In Matthew 13:55–56 an awed crowd reacts to Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue of his hometown: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” they say. “Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?”

That Jesus had siblings—attested by this and several other passages in the New Testament—comes as a surprise to many people, particularly now with the renewed interest in James, the leader of the Jerusalem church after Jesus’ death.

What was James’s relation to Jesus? Was he really his brother? What does “brother” mean, anyway, when talking about a man who is called the Son of God? These are complicated questions—and there has long been disagreement between different Christian (and non-Christian) traditions about how to answer them. There are four main opinions: The simplest one is that James was Jesus’ full brother—that James and Jesus were the sons of Mary and Joseph.