Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. And Moses brought their cause before the Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren. And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the Lord commanded Moses.
>>This informs me that Jesus, in bequeathing his mother to John, signaled he had no paternal or maternal siblings.<<
Conjecture. From all four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, the only male close to Christ in attendance is John. This informs me Jesus trusted John and signaled He had little faith in His half brothers to see to Mary’s needs.
This is what a body of believers will do. Mary was in the family of God and John the closest of His disciples.
Why quote from a source on Jewish law when Jesus was not obligated to follow rabbinical tradition, only the Word of God? A review of Matthew 15:1-9 might be in order.
In another post, you claim that this was a working hypothesis. Perhaps, you should consider Occam's Razor. Redleghunter (and other) have suggested a far cleaner explanation for the data: Jesus gave Mary to John's care because he was in the body of believers and hadn't abandoned Him like his siblings had. Remember that Jesus held his spiritual brothers in higher regard than his actual siblings (Matthew 12:46-50). Going with the clear meaning of Scripture means no more linguistic gymnastics to explain away a myriad of verses of Scripture which speak clearly about Jesus' siblings.