Old Joseph and his Sons

Here we have an eleventh-century image, from the Church of the Blessed Saviour in Chora, Istanbul, of Mary and Joseph reporting for the preliminary census in Nazareth. Note Joseph's grey hair--re the immediate previous post. Mary was fourteen at the time.

And who are those three young men standing behind Joseph?

Those are his grown sons--from a previous marriage.

This explains another puzzle in the Bible: the apostle James is referred to as a "brother"of Jesus; and elsewhere reference is made to "brothers" of Jesus. Yet Mary is held to have remained a virgin throughout her life. Moreover, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus asked the apostle John to take care of Mary as if she were his own mother. It would have made no sense for him to have done this if she had any surviving sons.

So, according to this Orthodox tradition, Jesus had half-brothers, sons of Joseph by a different mother.

But it is also true that the same word is used in Aramaic for "brother"and "cousin"; so that James et al may only have been kinsmen of Jesus.