Read Online All Things Christmas by E. G. Lewis - Free Book Online
Authors: E. G. Lewis
Tags: Non-Fiction
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their traditions, Joseph was a widower with children when they married. So instead of having s iblings, Jesus ha d older step-brothers and step-sisters.
Making Joseph an older man solves two other issues. First, if he were not searching for a wife, in the fullest sense of the word, but rather a caretaker for his children , it becomes more reasonable to view him as “a most chaste spouse”…a term the Church has applied to him from earliest times. Secondly, making him older conforms to the tradition that Joseph had died by the time Jesus began his public ministry. (The last mention of Joseph in the Bible occurs when the 12-year-old boy Jesus is left behind at the Temple and he is not mentioned at the wedding feast in Cana.) The Orthodox view makes Jesus the youngest child in the family. And, since he was Mary’s only child, he would be solely responsible for her care when Joseph died. Were Joseph not dead, her car e would have been a moot point.
The Catholic Viewpoint
Where the Protestant view tends to a younger Joseph and the Orthodox view to an older, the Catholic view demands neither. While agreeing with the Eastern view on Mary’s perpetual virginity and Joseph’s death prior to Jesus’ public ministry, the Catholic Church believes the Holy Family consisted of three persons: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. This, of course, necessitates charging John with her care since there was no one else.
This still leaves open the question of his “brothers” and “sisters.” The Bible provides a list of these brothers. If they were not siblings, who were they? A real and close kinship between Jesus and these brethren is clear . But the term brethren , or brother , can be applied to step-brothers as well as to blood brothers, and in Scriptur e is often extended to near or even distant relatives .
Comparing John 19:25 to Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 , we find that Mary of Cleophas , or Clopas , was the sister of Mary the Mother of Jesus. We know she is Clopas ’ wife because that is the way a married wom a n would have been identified. So this Mary is the same Mary who was the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, or Joses . Isn’t James the Lesser named in the list of apostles as the son of Alpheus ? Yes, but it is commonly recognized that Clopas and Alpheus are different transcriptions of the same Aramaic word, Halphai .
Following the Brethren Through History
We know nothing of Joses , or Joseph . Jude , however, is the autho r of the Epistle of Jude. He is identified Judas Jacobi , Jude the brother of James , in the Douay Version of Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 . It was the Greek custom for a man to append his brother's name instead of his father's when the brother was better known. In his Epistle, Jude calls himself the brother of James .
Simon, like Joseph, remains a bit of a mystery . Many commentators identify him as Symeon , or Simon, who, according to Hegesippus , was a son of Clopas and succeeded James as Bishop of Jerusalem. Others have identified him as the Apostle Simon the Cananean (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18) or Simon the Zealot (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Th e grouping of James, Jude ( also called Thaddeus ) , and Simon, after the other s but before Judas Iscariot, seems to indicate a conne ct ion between the m .
So two, and possibly three, of these cousins were among Jesus’ Apostles. This seems to be verified in 1 Corinthians 9:5 where Paul writes, “Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” The mention of Cephas at the end indicates that St. Paul, after speaking of the Apostles in general, calls special attention to the more prominent ones, the brothers ( brethren ) of the Lord and Cephas .
Further Considerations
Some would object that the brethren of the Lord couldn’t have been Apostles since just months before his death they didn’t believe in him (John 7:3-5) . This assumption is based on a misreading of the text. They didn’t
Making Joseph an older man solves two other issues. First, if he were not searching for a wife, in the fullest sense of the word, but rather a caretaker for his children , it becomes more reasonable to view him as “a most chaste spouse”…a term the Church has applied to him from earliest times. Secondly, making him older conforms to the tradition that Joseph had died by the time Jesus began his public ministry. (The last mention of Joseph in the Bible occurs when the 12-year-old boy Jesus is left behind at the Temple and he is not mentioned at the wedding feast in Cana.) The Orthodox view makes Jesus the youngest child in the family. And, since he was Mary’s only child, he would be solely responsible for her care when Joseph died. Were Joseph not dead, her car e would have been a moot point.
The Catholic Viewpoint
Where the Protestant view tends to a younger Joseph and the Orthodox view to an older, the Catholic view demands neither. While agreeing with the Eastern view on Mary’s perpetual virginity and Joseph’s death prior to Jesus’ public ministry, the Catholic Church believes the Holy Family consisted of three persons: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. This, of course, necessitates charging John with her care since there was no one else.
This still leaves open the question of his “brothers” and “sisters.” The Bible provides a list of these brothers. If they were not siblings, who were they? A real and close kinship between Jesus and these brethren is clear . But the term brethren , or brother , can be applied to step-brothers as well as to blood brothers, and in Scriptur e is often extended to near or even distant relatives .
Comparing John 19:25 to Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 , we find that Mary of Cleophas , or Clopas , was the sister of Mary the Mother of Jesus. We know she is Clopas ’ wife because that is the way a married wom a n would have been identified. So this Mary is the same Mary who was the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, or Joses . Isn’t James the Lesser named in the list of apostles as the son of Alpheus ? Yes, but it is commonly recognized that Clopas and Alpheus are different transcriptions of the same Aramaic word, Halphai .
Following the Brethren Through History
We know nothing of Joses , or Joseph . Jude , however, is the autho r of the Epistle of Jude. He is identified Judas Jacobi , Jude the brother of James , in the Douay Version of Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 . It was the Greek custom for a man to append his brother's name instead of his father's when the brother was better known. In his Epistle, Jude calls himself the brother of James .
Simon, like Joseph, remains a bit of a mystery . Many commentators identify him as Symeon , or Simon, who, according to Hegesippus , was a son of Clopas and succeeded James as Bishop of Jerusalem. Others have identified him as the Apostle Simon the Cananean (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18) or Simon the Zealot (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Th e grouping of James, Jude ( also called Thaddeus ) , and Simon, after the other s but before Judas Iscariot, seems to indicate a conne ct ion between the m .
So two, and possibly three, of these cousins were among Jesus’ Apostles. This seems to be verified in 1 Corinthians 9:5 where Paul writes, “Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” The mention of Cephas at the end indicates that St. Paul, after speaking of the Apostles in general, calls special attention to the more prominent ones, the brothers ( brethren ) of the Lord and Cephas .
Further Considerations
Some would object that the brethren of the Lord couldn’t have been Apostles since just months before his death they didn’t believe in him (John 7:3-5) . This assumption is based on a misreading of the text. They didn’t
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