Jozef Janssens, The Crucifixion, from a series of The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, Antwerp Cathedral, 1903-1910

The Gospel of St. Matthew (13:55) mentions brethren of Jesus: James, Joseph, Simon, Judas. Some Protestants try to proof text this into asserting Mary, Jesus’ mother, was not a perpetual virgin. This is incorrect. One must read Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:55 in conjunction with Matthew 13:55 to understand that this Mary whose sons are James, Joseph, etc. is the wife of Clopas, not the wife of St. Joseph. Tradition holds that these two women, both named Mary, were sisters-in-law because Clopas was Joseph’s brother. (See CCC 500).

These men listed as sons of Mary are relatives of Jesus but not his blood brothers for Mary, Jesus’ mother, had no other children.

Four observations support the Church’s tradition:

(1) These brethren are never called the children of Mary, although Jesus himself is. (See Jn 2:1; 19:25; Acts 1:14).


(2) Two names mentioned, James and Joseph, are sons of a different “Mary” in Mt 27:56 (Mk 15:40). Mary is the wife of Clopas, who tradition holds is Joseph’s brother.


(3) It is unlikely that Jesus would entrust his mother to the Apostle John at his Crucifixion if she had other natural sons to care for her (Jn 19:26–27). This would have been scandalous to a Jewish family.


(4) The word “brethren” (in Greek, adelphoi) has a broader meaning than blood brothers. Since ancient Hebrew had no word for “cousin”, it was customary to use “brethren” in the Bible for relationships other than blood brothers. In the Greek Old Testament, a “brother” can be a nearly related cousin (1 Chron 23:21–22), a more remote kinsman (Deut 23:7; 2 Kings 10:13–14), an uncle or a nephew (Gen 13:8), or the relation between men bound by covenant (2 Sam 1:26; cf. 1 Sam 18:3). Continuing this Old Testament tradition, the New Testament often uses “brother” or “brethren” in this wider sense. Paul uses it as a synonym for his Israelite kinsmen in Rom 9:3. It also denotes biologically unrelated Christians in the New Covenant family of God (Rom 8:29; 12:1; Col 1:2; Heb 2:11; Jas 1:2; CCC 500). (Mitch, C. (2010). Introduction to the Gospels. In The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament (pp. 29–30). Ignatius Press).

An ancient historian named Hegesippus sheds further light. A native of Palestine, Hegesippus, in his old age, finished his “Memoirs” around 165 AD. Hegesippus draws his information from personal sources, as he was able to personally interview some surviving members of Jesus’ family. Church historian Eusebius, writing in the early 4th century, records, “Hegesippus can tell us that, ‘After the martyrdom of James, it was unanimously decided that Simeon, son of Clopas, was worthy to occupy the see of Jerusalem. He was, it is said, a cousin of the Savior.’ Hegesippus recounts, in fact, that Clopas was a brother of Joseph” (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, III, 11).

No one until the 16th century questioned Mary’s Perpetual Virginity. The sons of Mary listed in the New Testament were never interpreted to be sons of Mary, Mother of Jesus until the Protestant Reformation, and even then, main line reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Wesley believed that Mary remained a virgin her whole life. They read and understood these sons of Mary mentioned in the New Testament to be sons of Mary, the wife of Clopas.