A common challenge: Matthew 13:55 names “his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas.” If Jesus had brothers, Mary couldn’t have remained a virgin. So the ancient Christian tradition that Mary is Ever-Virgin must be wrong.

The answer is actually right inside the same Gospel, if we keep reading.

The Greek word matters.

The word translated “brothers” in Matthew 13:55 is adelphoi. It literally means “of the same womb” — but in actual Biblical and cultural usage of the time, it had a much broader meaning. It regularly referred to kinsmen of all kinds: cousins, nephews, in-laws, members of the same tribe. A couple of quick examples right from the text:

  • In Genesis 13:8 and 14:14-16, Abraham calls Lot his “brother” — but Lot is actually his nephew (the family tree is laid out in Genesis 11:27).
  • In Tobit, the word gets used constantly for kinsmen of various kinds. Tobit addresses his wife Anna as “sister” (Tobit 5:21), and addresses Raguel — a distant relative — as “brother” (Tobit 7:1-9).

This wasn’t a quirky exception. Ancient Hebrew (ach) and biblical Greek (adelphos) simply didn’t have precise vocabulary for “first cousin” or “in-law” the way modern English does. Kinsmen were brothers.

But here’s the part that really settles it — and it’s in the very same Gospel.

Skip ahead to Matthew 27:56, the women at the crucifixion:

“Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.”

Now cross-reference Mark 15:40, 15:47, and 16:1 — Mark identifies the same group of women, naming a “Mary the mother of James and Joses (Joseph)” — clearly distinct from Mary the mother of Jesus, whom Mark and John identify separately.

So in the same Gospel where Jesus’s “brothers” are listed as James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55) — when we get to the cross, we find a different Mary who is “the mother of James and Joseph.”

John identifies this other Mary explicitly.

“But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25)

John tells us this other Mary is “the wife of Clopas” — and in the same verse identifies her as a sister or kinswoman of Mary the mother of Jesus.

So the “brothers” James and Joseph in Matthew 13:55 are the sons of Mary of Clopas — not of Mary the mother of Jesus. They’re Jesus’s cousins, or close kinsmen. Adelphoi fits perfectly.

The text itself tells us what adelphoi means here.

You just have to read Matthew 13:55 alongside Matthew 27:56, in the language and culture the Gospel was written in, and let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Scripture. As the apostolic Church read it.