... and of course, the bible DOES say “James, the brother of Jesus.” Western Catholics have insisted for many centuries that “brother” refers more generally to kinfolk, including cousins.
Greek Catholics and the Orthodox argue for the perfection of the Greek and insist that if the Greek says, “adelphos,” the original text must have meant “brothers,” even though there was no Hebrew word for “cousin.” The translators, they insist, would have known to use Xathelphos, even though they could not know that solely from any Hebrew text. IN fact, the Greek versions of the birth of Mary supposes Joseph to be an elderly widower. The tradition of Joseph as elderly survives in some Western tradition, even though it would be strange for him to be marrying for the first time at an old age.
by Giovanni Baptista Gaulli
An obviously anachronistic one:
Catholics insist on a lot of things that are not true. The Greek word for cousin is ἀνεψιὸς (anepsios) as used in Colossians 4.
Colossians 4:10 My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas.
The Greek word for brother used in Matthew 12:46 and other places referring to Jesus siblings is ἀδελφοὶ (adelphoi). It's also used here.
Mark 12:20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children.
Do you seriously think that when the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of scripture that He was unaware of the difference in the two words? The Holy Spirit chose the Greek for a purpose. Simply repeating the Catholic Church attempts to justify the perpetual virginity of Mary only make people to appear cultish.
The problem is that this would be a major departure from Jewish tradition that held that you were to find your daughter a husband that was of her youth rather then marrying her off to one of your old cronies.
It was considered a shameful thing to marry a young virgin to an elderly man.