All in the Family
Scripture and the Question of the Brother of Jesus
By Robert Rodgers
“What do you mean Mary was the virgin Mother of God?”  These common words uttered to us Catholic’s, often followed by “Scripture is clear, Mary had other sons and daughters.”  The latter statement will be our focus here.
                Once again we are present with an argument that views verses of the Sacred Writ out of context with the Canon.    The entire Canon needs to agree before we attempt to make a claim to the truth it reveals.
                Those who put forward this argument holding to the same verses: Matthew 12:46, Luke 8:19, and Mark 3:31, Matthew 13:55-56, John 7:1-10, and Gal 1:19.   Let us take these common examples that claim a definitive truth of Mary’s other child and lay them against the rest of the Canon.
                Below as a series of bullet points the shed further light to the truth of Mary’s “other children” and the truth proclaim by Christ’s Holy Catholic Church.
Adelphos
                Most Protestants will claim the authors would have used a word other then brother (adelphos) should they have been otherwise.  Should this be the case, these to examples from Genesis show their error when we look at all usage of the Greek word.

• For example in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14 the word adelphos was used to describe the relationship between Abraham and Lot; however, these two men did not share a brother relationship, but one of uncle and nephew. Another instance is that of Laban, who was an adelphos to Jacob, not as a brother, but as an uncle

Linguistics

• Actually, the confusion originates in Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of most of the original Old Testament texts and of Christ. In these languages, no special word existed for cousin, nephew, halfbrother or stepbrother; so they used the word brother or a circumlocution, such as in the case of a cousin, "the son of the brother of my father." When the Old Testament was translated into Greek and the New Testament written in Greek, the word adelphos was used to capture all of these meanings

What of the mentioned of his brothers and sister?

• Nevertheless, other Gospel passages clarify these relationships. James and Joses were the sons of Mary of Cleophas (Mk 15:40). Judas, and by extension Simon were the sons of James (not either of the apostles) (Lk 6:16). James the lesser was the son of Alphaeus (Lk 6:15). James the greater and John were the sons of Zebedee with a mother other than our Blessed Mother Mary (Mt 20:20ff).

Mary the Mother of God

• The gospels are also very clear that Mary was a Virgin at the time she conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 1:1825, Lk 1:2638). Remember when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary God's plan, she responded, "How can this be since I do not know man?" After the birth of our Lord, although the Gospels do not give us many details of His childhood, no mention is made of Mary and Joseph ever having other children. Never does it refer to the "sons of Mary" or "a son of Mary," but of Mary.

Jesus on the Cross

• Woman, there is your son," and then to St. John, who is definitely not a blood brother, "There is your mother." According to Jewish law, the oldest son had the responsibility of caring for the widowed mother, and that responsibility would pass to the next oldest if anything happened to the first born son. By this time, St. Joseph has died. Since Jesus, the first born, had no "blood brother," He entrusted Mary to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple.

Early arguments

• Actually, this whole confusion in not new. About 380, Helvidius suggested that the "brethren" were the children born of Mary and Joseph after Jesus. St. Jerome declared this as a "novel, wicked, and daring affront to the faith of the whole world." In his On the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Mary, St. Jerome used both Scripture and the fathers like Saints Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr to refute Helvidius. Later, the First Lateran Council (649) definitively declared that Mary was "ever virgin and immaculate." Therefore, as Catholics, based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, we do not believe that Mary and Joseph had other children and consequently that Jesus had blood brothers and sisters.

What is key for us as Christians is to remember we fit the faith, we do not make the faith fit us.  One versus is a window to the truth of the Word of God; however, it needs to be tested against the Word.