blue-duncan wrote (quoting Josephus):
“Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others ...”
Again, what does brother mean here? The early fathers, as well as Luther and nearly all of the Reformers, were well acquainted with Josephus. Still, they were not swayed that this was conclusive proof. Also, Josephus’ accuracy is not always perfect.
For the record - again - I have no dog in this hunt. I freely admitted that, having examined the arguments both ways, I don’t know. For that reason I well understand why the early and even not so early Lutherans labeled this a true adiaphoron.
“Again, what does brother mean here?”
Brother means brother. Josephus wasn’t writing in Aramaic and it would be superflous for him to mention “cousin” or Jesus if the relationship was not significant to his history.