[RobbyS]

Whether one uses cousin or brother would boil down to the particularand personal relationship, would it not? Famous example" the Brothers Adams," referring to Sam and John Adams, who were, of course, second cousins. If we did not know so much else about them, we might think they were actually brothers. There is so much we do NOT know about the people named in the New Testament, because the writer either did not know them Or did know them and assumed that his listeners would know what he meant. He could drop a name and the reader whould think of a bull-blown personality, complete with hook nose or red-hair, whereas to us it is simply a name on a tombstone.

[Invincibly Ignorant]

Famous example" the Brothers Adams," referring to Sam and John Adams, who were, of course, second cousins.

Oh. We get something different again. This sounds much better than that they were all boinking each other back in the first century which made everyone cousins. :-)