According to the Gospel books, Jesus had sisters (Mark 6:3; Matt 13:56). “Of the names which later tradition gives to sisters of Jesus,” Bauckham explains, “the best attested are Mary and Salome” (Relatives, 8). It is possible that he had more sisters, but these are the two whose names we can be reasonably sure of. “These [names[ are given by Epiphanius (78:8:1; 78:9:6; cf. Ancoratus 60:1) as the names of the two daughters of Joseph by his first wife” (Bauckham Relatives, 37).

The family of Jesus served as key leaders in earliest Christianity until the second century. While their influence waned as Christianity expanded from Jerusalem, the relatives of Jesus, known as desposynoi, remained an important group within early Christianity until at least 250 AD. We have a surprising amount of historical information in both the New Testament and other historical documents that give us some insight into the family of Jesus.

In this article, I outline the key lines of evidence for the identity and influence of Jesus’s relatives in early Christianity.

The Brothers of Jesus (James, Joseph, Simon, Judas)

Other than his mother Mary, the most famous relatives of Jesus are his brothers. Paul mentions how the brothers of Jesus travelled as missionaries during the earliest centuries of Christianity (1 Cor 9:5). Likely, he has in mind Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Mark 6:3; Matt 13:55; see also Matt 12:46; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19; John 2:12; 7:3–10; Acts 1:14). The latter is often known as Jude, the author of the Epistle of Jude. English translations prefer to call him Jude over Judas to avoid the implication that the betrayer of Christ wrote a New Testament letter.

The most famous brother of Jesus, James, wrote the Letter of James but also presided in Jerusalem as the key leader in the earliest decades (Acts 12:17; 15:13, 19; 21:18). He is so well-known that he can write his letter by simply calling himself, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” (James 1:1). By contrast, Jude has to introduce himself as the brother of James so that people know who he is (Jude 1). Given his duties in Jerusalem, he may not have travelled as a missionary like the other brothers of Jesus. That said, nothing prevents him from travelling in and around Jerusalem as a missionary. So perhaps Paul does include him in 1 Corinthians 9:5.

James stands as one of the three pillars of early Christianity along with Peter and John (Gal 2:9). When Paul went to Jerusalem after his conversion, he only saw Peter and “James the Lord’s brother” (Gal 1:19). By this time, James already had a significant role in Jerusalem. At the Council of Jerusalem held in Acts 15, Paul, Barnabas, Peter, and the rest of the leaders even submit to James’s judgment regarding Gentile inclusion: “Brothers, listen to me … my judgment is…” (Acts 15:19). In this passage, James ties the reality of Gentile salvation to the Old Testament prophecy (Acts 15:13–18). Afterwards, when he makes his judgment, the church agrees, and so James’s proposal unites the church in its mission (Acts 15:22–35).

And when Paul desired to go to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles along with Barnabas, James along with Peter and John perceived the grace that was given to me” and so “they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (Gal 2:9. James’s emphasis on the poor also appears in his letter (James 1:27–2:7), a teaching that he almost certainly received from his brother, Jesus (e.g., Matt 5:3).

The Letter of James—while sometimes overlooked and misunderstood—may be the most Jesusy book of the New Testament outside of the Gospels. Almost every sentence in James can be traced to a saying of Jesus in the Gospel books. James’s intimate knowledge of Jesus’s teaching shines throughout this epistle. Paul provides evidence of their ongoing relationship when he specifies that Jesus appeared to James in particular after his resurrection (1 Cor 15:7).

While the brothers of Jesus became key leaders of the earliest church, they did not always believe in him as John 7:5 tells us (also Mark 3:19–35; 6:1–6). Likely, it took the resurrection for his brothers to understand that he was not just a divine messianic figure, but that he was the Christ and Word from the Father. Hence, Acts 1:14 records that Mary and the Lord’s brothers prayed in the upper room as they awaited Pentecost. Later, his brother Jude would see him as God incarnate, leading Israel out of Egypt (Jude 1:5). Anecdotally, it seems to be of great import that Jesus’s unbelieving brothers would later affirm him as the Divine Christ, something that brothers would be unlikely to do unless Jesus demonstrated his messiahship with utter clarity. I can only think of the resurrection as an event that could do just that.

Because James regularly appears at the top of the list of the brothers of Jesus in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, it seems likely that he was the oldest brother besides Jesus. Being the eldest brother may explain how James came to take such a senior role in the earliest Church. Yet the other brothers of Jesus also played roles that seem just as important as the apostles. When spoken of together, the brothers of the Lord appear alongside the apostles with the same sort of deference given to them (Acts 1:13–14; Gal 1:19; 2:9; 1 Cor 9:5).

As travelling missionaries, the brothers of Jesus held well-known role in the early church (1 Cor 9:5). Richard Bauckham points to a letter by Julius Africanus, which outlines the scope of their ministry: “During the first half of the third century, Julius Africanus, in his Letter to Aristides, wrote of the desposynoi [‘those who belong to the Master’]—a term which, he explains, was used to designate the relatives of Jesus—that they preserved their family genealogy and interpreted it wherever they went on their travels throughout Palestine” (Relatives 60-1; HE 1.17).

Their ministry thus centred on Palestine. Given what we know of James in Jerusalem and the Palestinian context of Jude’s letter such a location tracks with the biblical data. Further, reliable records point to Jesus’s nephew Symeon/Simon as succeeding James as the primary leader in Jerusalem, further evincing the Palestinian scope of their ministry (see the section on Jesus’s nephews below).

Julius Africanus explains that the brothers of the Lord “traveled from the Jewish villages of Nazareth and Cochaba over the rest of the land and explained the aforesaid genealogy from the book of daily records as far as they extended” (HE 1.7). That the relatives of Jesus were known as desposynoi, not the “brothers of the Lord,” signifies that this group likely included a wider range of relatives than just the biological brothers of Jesus such as his uncle Clopas and cousin Symeon (Relatives, 61–2).

The Death of James

James died as a martyr in Jerusalem around 62 AD. According to the second-century historian Hegesippus whom Eusebius summarizes:

“The same author also describes the beginnings of the heresies of his time in these words: ‘And after James the Just suffered martyrdom, just as the Lord and for the same reason, Symeon, his cousin, the son of Clopas was appointed bishop, whom they all proposed because he was another cousin of the Lord.”[1] (HE 4.22)

Eusebius recounts how, along with the living apostles and other disciples, the relatives of the Lord whom he calls “the family of the Lord according to the flesh” gathered together to decide who would succeed James after his death. They “all unanimously decided that Symeon the son of Clopas, whom the writings of the Gospel mentioned was worthy of the throne of the diocese there. He was as they say, the cousin of the Saviour, for Hegesippus relates that Clopas was the brother of Joseph” (HE 3.11; see also 3.22).

In Book Five of his Memoirs, Hegesippus records in detail the martyrdom of James in the city of Jerusalem.

“The government of the Church passed to James, the brother of the Lord, together with the Apostles. He was called the “Just” by all from the time of the Lord even to our own, since many were called James, but this man was holy from his mother’s womb. He drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh; no razor passed over his head; he did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath. To this man alone was it permitted to enter the sanctuary, for he did not wear wool, but linen. He used to enter the Temple alone, and be found resting on his knees and praying for forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became as hard as those of a camel because of his constant bending forward on his knees in worshiping God and begging for forgiveness for the people. Because of his excessive righteousness he was called the Just and Oblias, which in Greek is “Bulwark of the people” and “Righteousness,” as the prophets disclose about him.” (HE 2.23)

Eusebius here in the story begins to summarize Hegesippus’s account before returning to direct citation:

So, some of the seven sects among the people, which I have already described in the Memoirs, asked of him what is the “door of Jesus,” and he said that this was the Saviour. Because of these words some believed that Jesus was the Christ. But the sects mentioned previously did not believe in a resurrection or in one coming to mete out to each according to his works, but as many as did believe did so because of James.

So, since many even of the rulers believed there was a commotion among the Jews and the Scribes and the Pharisees, who said that the whole people was in danger of looking for Jesus as the Christ, they therefore came together and said to James: “We beg you, restrain the people, for they have strayed to Jesus, as though He were the Christ. We beg you to persuade concerning Jesus all who have come for the day of the Passover, for we all obey you. For we and all the people testify to you that you are righteous and that you do not respect persons. Therefore, persuade the multitude not to be led astray regarding Jesus, for all the people and all of us obey you. So, stand upon the turret of the Temple that you may be visible on high and your words may be easily heard by all the people, for because of the Passover all the tribes, with the Gentiles also, have come together.”

Thus, the afore-mentioned Scribes and Pharisees made James stand on the turret of the Temple, and they cried out to him and said, “Oh, just one, to whom we all owe obedience, since the people go astray after Jesus who was crucified, tell what is the door of Jesus?”

And he answered with a loud voice: “Why do you ask me about the son of man? He is sitting in heaven on the right hand of the great power, and he shall come upon the clouds of heaven.”

And when many were fully satisfied and glorified in the testimony of James and said: “Hosanna to the Son of David,” then again the same Scribes and Pharisees said to one another: “We have done badly in furnishing Jesus with such testimony, but let us go up and cast him down that through fear they may not believe him.” And they cried out, saying: “Oh, Oh, even the just one has erred,” and they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaias: “Let us take away the just man, because he is troublesome to us. Yet they shall eat the fruit of their doings.”

So they went up and cast down the Just, and they said to one another: “Let us stone James the Just,” and they began to stone him, since, though he had been cast down, he did not die, but he turned and with his knees on the ground said: “I beseech thee, Lord, God and Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And while they were stoning him thus, one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, who are mentioned by Jeremias the Prophet, cried out saying: “Stop! What are you doing? The Just is praying for you.” And someone among them, one of the laundrymen, took the club with which he beat out the clothes, and struck the Just upon the head, and thus he suffered martyrdom. And they buried him on the spot near the temple, and his gravestone still remains near the temple. This man became a true witness to Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ.” (HE 2.23)

The Jewish historian Josephus independently records the death of James whom he rightly calls “the brother of Jesus” (Antiquities 20.200). Josephus adds that the high priest Ananus, a Sadducee, assembled the Sanhedrin to accuse James and others of law-breaking. They then sentenced James to be stoned (Antiquities 20.196–20).

Interestingly, some Jews did not find this action equitable and, Josephus records, complained to both King Agrippa and the new Procurator Albinus who had not yet arrived after the death of Festus (Antiquities 20.201–203). As Josephus tells us, Ananus lost his status as high priest over his execution sentence of James the Just, the brother of Jesus. Again, this independently confirms Hegesippus’s description of James as beloved among the people.

While we do not have similar records for the other brothers of Jesus, they remain well-known during the reign of Domitian (81–96 AD). So much so that informants report the grandsons of Judas as being guilty of being “of the race of David” (HE 3.20). Eusebius almost certainly quoting Hegesippus speaks of them as “grandsons of Judas … His brother according to the flesh.”

Read More