The Lord's Brother - One Of The Twelve?

[Madame Vengier]

[quote name='thessalonian' post='1810495' date='Mar 18 2009, 10:04 AM']Read my posts above. Likely those whom were called brothers were of multiple relationships. Not just cousins. Likely those of the Mary who was likely Jesus's mother's "sister" was actually a cousin of Mary (iin some translations). If she was a blood sister then we have the issue of there being two girls in the family with the same first name. Rather odd don't you think. This would make James and Joses second cousins I believe, not first cousins. Simon and Jude seem to be of a different relationship. orthodox tradition has it that Jesus had some step brothers form Joseph. Likely when the bibles were written and translated the exact relationships were not known as well. Thus one word does not fit all except the broad usage of "brother".[/quote]


Um, was it really necessary to TELL me to read your posts? I was not questioning the fact that the "brothers" were not real brothers, but rather questioning why some other word other than "brother" was not used, such as "cousin" or "kinsman". I already understood that the original text was talking about family members not literally brothers.

Maybe it was just your wording....

Edited March 18, 2009 by Madame Vengier

[thessalonian]

It wasn't meant to be offensive. I just wanted to emphasize that part of my answer to your question was in there. Cousin could not be used because they don't seem to have all been cousins. Not sure any of them were except perhaps second cousins. kinsman seems a bit too broad as it includes people who are not related in a family way. Relatives could be used but I am not sure where the hebrew and greek are on that. Ack is the hebrew and it is brother and is quite fitting in the culture of the day. I believe brother or brethern to be the best term in my analysis considering culture, hebrew, greek, etc. that all play a role in this. I also trust the scholars to some degree as the Catholic Church picks the most qualified to do this work. It is more than translating languages. They would not let Luther or Tinsdale or others who wanted to do it, do it because it was gravely critical and history bears that out.

Edited March 19, 2009 by thessalonian