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Why does the Church teach that Mary had no other children when scripture says otherwise?

My adult daughter asked this question at the dinner table over the Christmas holiday. I told her that theologians have been debating for centuries whether or not Jesus had any siblings. I agreed that all four gospel writers make some mention of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, and if you accept the English translation literally, you might conclude that Jesus did have siblings.  So let’s examine a few passages.

In Mark’s gospel (6:3), a crowd asks of Jesus, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are his sisters here with us?” In Luke (8:19-21), when Jesus is told by a crowd gathered to hear him speak, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you,” Jesus famously rejects them: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” And John (2:12) writes that after Jesus performed his first miracle in Cana, “He went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.”

How do we reconcile oral teaching with what the bible says since they are different? Maybe they are not different at all; maybe it is just how scripture has been translated from the original Greek writing.

One of the early recorded arguments for Jesus having siblings or cousins or step brothers and sisters was between St. Jerome and another fourth-century theologian, Helvidius. Helvidius wrote that after the virgin birth of Jesus, Mary had other children with her husband, Joseph. St. Jerome disagreed, indicating that by the fourth century, many of the church community believed that Mary had stayed a virgin for the rest of her life. These children of Mary, Jerome said, were from Mary of Clopas, Jesus’ aunt and his mother’s sister, making them cousins.

Then there was Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis and a contemporary of Jerome and Helvidius.  He argued that the siblings weren’t cousins, but Joseph’s children from a previous marriage, making them the step-siblings of Jesus.  This supported the belief that Joseph was much older than Mary.  There are apocryphal works (non-scriptural), such as the First Gospel of James, the Gospel of Peter, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, that appear to support this theory that Jesus’ brothers and sisters were the children of Joseph.

Teaching truth has always been the primary focus in the Church.  If any one person or group of people started teaching anything deviant from what was accepted universally by the Church, they would be corrected by the whole. (The word “Catholic” comes from the Greek word “kata holos” meaning according to the whole.)  Preaching consistent truth is one way the Church preserves its oral teaching, making it impossible to change without anyone noticing.

What the Church teaches today does not deviate from the writings of the early Church Fathers, the Christian leaders who were taught by the Apostles.  We learn from what they believed.  And what they believed is what the Catholic Church believes and continues to teach for over 2000 years.





Author Bio:
Deacon Dan Vaughn