[Kolokotronis]

BD, you have missed Alex's point. In Greek, despite the fact that there are words which directly translate the English word cousin (the word is ξαδελφος, the word you used, συγγεννες, means relation or kinsman)the fact is, whether you as an English speaker want to accept it or not, the Greek word αδελφος which indeed does mean brother can and often does also mean cousin or a male relative of some sort. Your argument that the Temple elders spoke of Christ they also spoke of his "brothers" and "sisters" in a context which indicates they all lived in the same place and thus must be what we in English call brothers and sisters, doesn't wash. Until WWII in the Middle East and even in Greece, groups of related people all lived on pretty much the same patch of ground, though in different houses usually (but by no means always). These places, like my own family's land in Greece, is almost like a family compound; in fact some are exactly that. What you are reading describes a set up like my own family's 70 years ago in Greece (pretty much so even to this day). BD, the fact is that until a generation or two after the Reformers, no Christian believed that Christ had brothers and sisters the way we in English use those words. Your interpretation is in great measure ethno and glossocentric.

[blue-duncan]

I appreciate what you have said but that doesn't explain the listing of the names of the brothers. It also does not explain the double use of adelphos for brothers and sisters. If they were talking about cousins, one word would have sufficed for male and female, especially when we have a word for cousin in Luke.

All of the other uses of the word in the New Testament are for members in a believing community, Israel or the church.