Thanks for this great post, Narses. It clearly illustrates how these brothers, as quoted in Scripture and posted in the above article, were not children given birth by the Virgin Mary. It really shows how the word "brother" can mean something different than how the word is commonly today - at least by English speakers in America.
Let's hope this article is not ignored.
The context of the verses and the culture make clear
that ‘cousins’ or any other role but
blood half-siblilngs
would have made NO SENSE.
The point of the verses is AN EMPHASIS ON THE INTIMACY OF SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS.
NOTHING ELSE MAKES SENSE.
Evidently your strength is not in psycholinguistics.
“Is not this the carpenters son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”
Unfortunately for you, adelphoi is the same word used here.
Again, the word is used to mean his brethren.