Isn’t it clear that James was the brother of Jesus? Well, no. Quite apart from the cousins approach —and incidentally, Sam and John Adams were sometimes referred to as “the brothers Adams”—there is the alternative, never ruled out that James was the son of Joseph, that Joseph was a widow—much older than Mary —later 20s, say, and Mary was a young girl. Then there is much confusion about who the several James (or Jacobs) who are mentioned in the New Testament and their relation to Jesus. John and James, sons of Zebedee, may have been his cousins. Maybe not. Likewise the several Marys. These were. after all, common names. Beyond this is the general approach of the Gospels. They are not interested in the question we are talking about, Or they don’t bother to explain to US what, after all, they expected their readers to know. Paul’s letters are full of names that have no significance to us but were known to his readers. We have a great saint—Apollos—about whom we know almost nothing. We don’t know the author of “Hebrews, one of the greatest of Christian works. FAME, which is something we moderns lust for, was not something these people care much about. Back to the point, the Bible tells us very little about the Holy Family, is largely silent about his earthly life, tells us so little about his person that we haven’t a clue what he looked like. What we do know is the emphasis on her virginity. She is always the Virgin Mary as far back as we can trace. Joseph’s role is that of Guardian of mother and child. Luke says NOTHING about any siblings. That is one of the disjunctions between the writings, not unlike those between the nativity stories in Luke and Matthew. I don’t think absent tradition one can make sense of Scripture.
Thanks!
I always think of it this way. In the Greek.
Philo - love
Adelphoi - brothers (which is the word used in that passage).
What do you get when you put them together? Philadelphia.