The Brothers of Jesus

Matthew 13:54–58

54 He came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? 55 Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? 56 Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” 58 And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

When to his native place and teach the people in the synagogue

The Virginity of Mary.

Some people have mis lead this passage and affirm that Jesus had more brothers, then they conclude that Mary was not always Virgin.

What is the problem of that, we confess that Jesus is true man because he is son for Mary, and we confess that is true God, because we confess that Mary remains always Virgin.

If the people says that Jesus has another brother, then haw can you affirm that only Jesus is son of God, they will understand that Jesus is also natural son of Joseph, then only a merely man, and then rejected him as son of God.

Because Mary’s virginal motherhood is the guarantor of both Jesus’ divinity and His humanity. Saint Thomas Aquinas summed it up: “In order that Christ’s body might be shown to be a real body, He was born of a woman. In order that His Godhead might be made clear, He was born of a virgin.”

The First Christian always confess that Jesus was born of The Virgin, they never says, born of Mary, nor he born from the one that was Virgin… No they say The Virgin, means that among the all the apostles and the firs Christian Mary was known as The Virgin.

Any attack to the Virginity of Mary is an attack to the Divinity of Jesus, and a deny of the fulfillment of the prophesy hence the Virgin will conceive… Isaiah 7,14

Then question the of his brethren:

These so-called brethren of Jesus are thus his relatives but not children of Mary. Four observations support the Church’s tradition: (1) These brethren are never called the children of Mary, although Jesus himself is (Jn 2:1; 19:25; Acts 1:14). (2) Two names mentioned, James and Joseph, are sons of a different “Mary” in Mt 27:56 (Mk 15:40). (3)It is unlikely that Jesus would entrust his Mother to the Apostle John at his Crucifixion if she had other natural sons to care for her (Jn 19:26–27). (4) The word “brethren” (Gk. adelphoi) has a broader meaning than blood brothers. Since ancient Hebrew had no word for “cousin”, it was customary to use “brethren” in the Bible for relationships other than blood brothers. In the Greek OT, a “brother” can be a nearly related cousin (1 Chron 23:21–22), a more remote kinsman (Deut 23:7; 2 Kings 10:13–14), an uncle or a nephew (Gen 13:8), or the relation between men bound by covenant (2 Sam 1:26; cf. 1 Sam 18:3)[1]

Let there be no quarrel, I beseech you, between me and you … for we are brethren (Gen 13:8), said Abraham to Lot, while nevertheless Lot was the son of his brother[2]

We se that in deed any attack to Mary is an attack to Jesus, and the people who insult Mary are doing to Jesus.

The Consequences of Lack of Faith

Saint Jerome

But the source of their error is at hand, because they regard Him as the Son of a carpenter; as they say, Is not this the carpenter’s son? They look at the carpenter soon, but not ad the Son of God.

Jerome. This error of the Jews is our salvation, and the condemnation of the heretics, for they perceived Jesus Christ to be man so far as to think Him the son of a carpenter.

They receive the preaching, but not the salvation because they did no recognize Jesus as son of God. This is the son of Carpenter… So different for the confession of Peter you are the son of the living God.

Jesus quote: A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.”

Saint Tomas Says:

In the prophets of the Old Testament, we find no one honored by his own, but more by foreigners, as is written in Jeremiah, who was captured by his own, but when the city was taken, he was freed by outsiders. It was also this way with Christ, who was honored by outsiders, but looked down on by his own.[3]

And this remain still know Jesus is honor but another nation but among the Jews is still without honor.

Second part

Application to our daily life, the church is the body of Christ is like Jesus, two sides is human and is Divine, human because is formed by all the baptized, and Divine because was funded by God and guided by the Holy Spirit.

But the brother of Jesus looks only to the human body of Jesus, if look only in the human part of the Church our faith can be week, and we will no receive the salvation.

The sacraments are divine in his root, through them we receive the life of God, even of the defect of the minister you are receiving the life of God in the sacraments.

And even more if we see the human part of the Church be amazed, because even our sins the Church still remain, because is no my power, but the power of the Holy Spirit, I as a priest will die with all my sins, with all my failures but the Church of God, the Catholic Church will remain until the end of the time.

[1]Curtis Mitch, “Introduction to the Gospels,” in The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), 29–30. [2]Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Chapters 1–28, ed. The Aquinas Institute, trans. Jeremy Holmes and Beth Mortensen, vol. 2, Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas (Green Bay, WI; Steubenville, OH: Aquinas Institute; Emmaus Academic, 2018), 42. [3]Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew Chapters 1–28, ed. The Aquinas Institute, trans. Jeremy Holmes and Beth Mortensen, vol. 2, Latin/English Edition of the Works of St. Thomas Aquinas (Green Bay, WI; Steubenville, OH: Aquinas Institute; Emmaus Academic, 2018), 43.