Did Jesus Have Brothers and Sisters? The Witness Every Church Forgot

Did Jesus have brothers and sisters? Mark 6:3 names James, Joses, Judas and Simon, and mentions his sisters too. Yet Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants give three different answers about who they were. Catholics have traditionally said cousins. The Orthodox say Joseph’s sons by an earlier wife. Most Protestants say Mary’s own children. This video weighs the evidence for each answer in the order it was written: the gospels and Paul; the Jewish historian Josephus on the stoning of James; the overlooked second-century witness Hegesippus, who called James a brother and Simeon a cousin; the Protoevangelium of James and Origen; Jerome against Helvidius in 383; Epiphanius; what Luther, Calvin and Zwingli actually believed. Which answer were you raised with? Tell me in the comments. Sources: Mark 6:3 · Matthew 13:55–56 · Mark 3:21, 31–35 · John 7:5 · John 19:25–27 · Galatians 1:19 · 1 Corinthians 9:5 · Colossians 4:10 · Josephus, Antiquities 20.200 · Hegesippus, in Eusebius, Church History 3.11, 3.20, 4.22 · Protoevangelium of James · Origen, Commentary on Matthew 10.17 · Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ 7 · Jerome, Against Helvidius (383) · Epiphanius, Panarion 78 · Calvin, Harmony of the Gospels (on Matthew 13:55)