Who
A cousin of Jesus, one of the four whom the people of Nazareth called his brothers: “Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?” (Matthew 13:55). They were not sons of Mary, who remained ever virgin, but near kin, whom Hebrew and Aramaic call brothers (CCC 500). Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius, records that after James was killed the apostles and the Lord’s kin chose Symeon the son of Clopas to succeed him as bishop of Jerusalem: “He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph” (Church History III.11). He was crucified under Trajan at a great age. Many have taken him for the Simon of Matthew 13:55.
Key verses
- Matthew 13:55
Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?
- Mark 6:3
Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended at him.
Where the Bible names him
Family
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name him (8 of 53).
- Theophylact of Ohrid on Mark 6:1–6Catena Aurea on Mark
After the miracles which have been related, the Lord returns into His own country, not that He was ignorant that they would despise Him, but that they might have no reason to say, If Thou hadst come, we had believed…
- Bede on Mark 6:1–6Catena Aurea on Mark
He means by His country, Nazareth, in which He was brought up. But how great the blindness of the Nazarenes! they despise Him, Who by His words and deeds they might know to be the Christ, solely on account of His…
- Augustine of Hippo on Mark 6:1–6Catena Aurea on Mark
Matthew indeed says that He was called the son of a carpenter; nor are we to wonder, since both might have been said, for they believed Him to be a carpenter, because He was the son of a carpenter.
- Jerome on Mark 6:1–6Catena Aurea on Mark
Jesus is called the son of a workman, of that one, however, whose work was the morning and the sun, that is, the first and second Church, as a figure of which the woman and the damsel are healed.
- Bede on Mark 6:1–6 (2)Catena Aurea on Mark
For although human things are not to be compared with divine, still the type is complete, because the Father of Christ works by fire and spirit. It goes on: “The brother of James, and Joses, of Jude, and of Simon.…
- Jerome on Mark 6:1–6 (2)Catena Aurea on Mark
Oftentimes also the origin of a man brings him contempt, as it is written, “Who is the son of Jesse?” [1 Sam 25:10] for the Lord “hath respect unto the lowly; as to the proud, He beholdeth them afar off.”
- Theophylact of Ohrid on Mark 6:1–6 (2)Catena Aurea on Mark
Or again, if the prophet has noble relations, his countrymen hate them, and on that account do not honour the prophet. There follows, “And He could there do no mighty work, &c.” What, however, is here expressed by He…
- Bede on Mark 6:1–6 (3)Catena Aurea on Mark
Not as if He Who knows all things before they are done, wonders at what He did not expect or look forward to, but knowing the hidden things of the heart, and wishing to intimate to men that it was wonderful, He…