The 2001 Commentaries

Did Jesus have fleshly brothers and sisters?

info All commentaries are written by volunteers, readers, or supporters of our Bible translation project. These are not official views of our project; we are not a religious denomination and we do not establish doctrine. These commentaries reflect a variety of views and some disagree with each other.

Did Jesus have fleshly brothers and sisters? Yes, we know that he did, because Matthew 12:46-50 make it very clear.

There we read that while he was indoors speaking, his mother (Mary) and his brothers (James, JoSeph, Simon, and Judas) had been standing outside waiting to talk to him. Further, at Acts 1:14, we read that Jesus’ mother and brothers were present (along with his Apostles) shortly after he ascended to heaven.

However, were these really Jesus’ fleshly brothers, or could they just be ‘spiritual’ brothers?

The context provides the answer. Since Jesus’ brothers are mentioned as being there along with his Apostles, his disciples, and his mother (Mary) in the account in Acts, by elimination, these had to be his fleshly (half) brothers, that is, other children of Mary.


All commentaries

1

3

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W


Our Bible translation

Check out our Bible translation project.

arrow_circle_right View our Bible


The 2001 Mailing List

Keep up-to-date with our project and receive interesting tidbits of Bible-related information.

arrow_circle_right Sign up