Did Jesus Have Brothers?   As Catholics, we do not believe that
our Lord, Jesus Christ, had blood brothers and sisters.
Oftentimes, such articles as the one cited present a Protestant
understanding of the life of our Lord. The problem arises from
how one understands the texts of Sacred Scripture: In the New
American Bible's English translation of the Gospel of St. Mark,
we do indeed read about the crowd asking, “Isn't this the
carpenter, the son of Mary, a brother of James and Joses and
Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters our neighbors here?” (Mk
6:3). A similar reference occurs earlier in Mk 3:31 — “His
mother and brothers arrived….” At first hearing, the words seem
to state that Jesus did indeed have blood brothers and sisters.
Someone with a fundamentalist or literalist bent toward sacred
Scripture would make this conclusion. However, such a conclusion
is contrary to not only a thorough understanding of Sacred
Scripture but also sacred Tradition.  The problem emerges in
understanding the meaning of the wor