In their Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament,
Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Eric D. Huntsman, and Thomas A. Wayment wrote the
following about James, the brother (αδελφος) of Jesus and how this refutes the perpetual
virginity of Mary:
James, Jesus’
Brother
James, the Lord’s brother, sometimes referred
to as “James the Just,” is a powerful yet enigmatic figure in the New Testament
(Galatians 1:19). In his lifetime, he would have been called by the Hebrew name
Yacob or Jacob, bearing the same name as the great patriarch Jacob. In the New
Testament, James the brother of Jesus should be distinguished from James the
son of Zebedee and James the son of Alphaeus, both of whom were disciples
during the mortal ministry of Jesus. James was not a follower of Jesus before
the resurrection, although he converted shortly thereafter (Mark 6:3; John 7:3,
5; Acts 1:14). James went on to become a powerful influence in the first
decades of the church’s existence.
Paul listed James as one who was privileged
to see the resurrected Savior along with the other apostles (1 Corinthians
15:7); he is called a pillar in the church (Galatians 2:9); and he was a
powerful influence on the church’s conference of A.D. 49 (Acts 15:13-21). The
Gospel of John relates a story when Jesus’ brothers taunted him to go to Jerusalem
to prove himself. Jesus disregarded their taunting but later went to the feast
of his own volition. The story relates that the brothers of Jesus, presumably
including James, were perhaps antagonistic to their elder brother (John 7:3-5).
On another occasion, Jesus’ mother and brothers came to his aid when a crowd
thought that Jesus was “beside himself”—or, more literally, out of his senses
(Mark 3:21, 31). Jesus maintained close contact with his family throughout his
life, even though it seems that at times tension surfaced between him and his
brothers. According to early church tradition, James served as the first bishop
of Jerusalem; and, upon his death as a martyr, he was succeeded by his brother
Simeon (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History,
2.1.10-17).
Many people, both modern and ancient, have
bristled at the possibility of Jesus’ having half-siblings through Joseph and
Mary. The suppression of the idea that Jesus had brothers can be traced back to
the late fourth century when the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary
was being developed by Jerome (A.D. 342-420). If Mary were perpetually a virgin,
then she could not have borne other siblings to Jesus; therefore, as the
rationale goes, the brothers of Jesus must be stepbrothers or cousins by
another woman, possibly even an earlier wife of Joseph. The issue with this
approach is that it permits a later doctrinal development to alter the meaning
of the text. The natural and logical way to speak of Jesus’ having literal
brothers is to call them adelphoi,
exactly as they are called in the Gospels (Mark 6:3; John 7:3). Furthermore,
the Gospels speak of Jesus’ sisters (adelphai),
a fact that undermines the possibility that the Gospels are using the term “brother”
to describe believers. Mark 3:31-33 solidifies the argument, when Jesus contrasts
his earthly mother and brothers with those who become his brothers through
entrance into the kingdom. (Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Eric D. Huntsman, and
Thomas A. Wayment, Jesus Christ and the
World of the New Testament: An Illustrated Reference for Latter-day Saints [Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006], 165)
For more against the Catholic dogma (and Eastern Orthodox doctrine) of
Mary being a perpetual virgin, including a lengthy discussion of the term αδελφος, see pp. 83-138 of my
book, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology.
