The idea
His strongest point: the named brothers James and Joses have a DIFFERENT mother. Mark calls her 'Mary the mother of James and Joses'; Matthew literally calls her 'the other Mary.' She is alive at the resurrection, so she can't be a dead first wife of Joseph either. Pitre concedes that the ordinary meaning of adelphos is a blood brother (p 104) and argues from context: 'brother' covers cousins in Genesis 31:37 and 1 Chronicles 23:22 (LXX) and in Josephus, and Jesus himself calls the Nazareth 'brothers' his kin (Mark 6:4). John names the other Mary 'Mary the wife of Clopas' (19:25), and Hegesippus, the first Church historian, records that James and Simon, the first bishops of Jerusalem, were the Lord's cousins, sons of Clopas, Joseph's brother (pp 108–111).
Key verses
- Mark 6:3 — James, Joses, Judas, Simon — his 'brothers.'
- Mark 15:40, Mark 16:1 — their mother is 'Mary the mother of James and Joses.'
- Matthew 27:56, Matthew 27:61 — 'Mary the mother of James and Joses' is 'the other Mary' (27:61; 28:1).
- John 19:25 — 'Mary the wife of Clopas.'
- Mark 6:4 — Jesus calls them his 'kin' (syngeneis).
The connection
| Old Testament root | New Testament fulfilment | |
|---|---|---|
| Broad Semitic kinship terms | → | 'Brothers' = kin of another Mary, not sons of Mary |
The named 'brothers' James and Joses turn out to be sons of a different Mary — whom Matthew even calls 'the other Mary' — still alive at the resurrection. That, plus the wide Semitic sense of 'brother,' is Pitre's lead answer to the objection.
Sources
- Hegesippus — in Eusebius, Church History 3.11; 4.22 (pp 110–111) · read · read
- Josephus — Jewish War 6.356–57, adelphoi and syngeneis (pp 106–107) · read
- Modern scholars Pitre cites — Richard Bauckham on 'James' (p 106)