It
just seems so obvious! Jesus Had No Brothers
By Anthony W. Antolic
12/13/07
Every
Catholic has heard the question: “Why do Catholics say that Mary is
an eternal virgin, when Jesus has brothers?” Well there is no quick
answer to this question. This question has severed our protestant
fallen well, when talking to a Catholic who is not well practiced in
defending our faith. The traditional defense is to explain that there
[is] no Hebrew word for Cousin. However in recent years the living
Hebrew language has adopted western concepts and added them into
their spoken language.
As
a result, the Catholic just trying to defend his or her faith is made
to look like a fool, when their protestant friend finds the word in
question. So now we must change our strategy, for we are lousing this
war against heresy, and will continue to do so until ever Catholic is
able to quote the Bible Chapter and verse with a true understanding
of its meaning.
Here
is my case against Jesus having brothers. Ironically the first thing
you need to remember is a verse in John that protestants tend to hold
close to their heart. “For God so loved the world that he gave us
his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him
might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16). You must
stress the word “only” to help your friend realize that the
scriptures do say that God only has one son.
The
response to my first argument would be that Mary was married to
Joseph and had relations with him after Jesus was born. The problem
with this is that God is and always has been Jealous. Further,
although, Joseph was promised Mary, no where in the bible does it say
the Joseph had relations with Mary. In fact if he believed that Jesus
was the son of God, which he did, he would have never know Mary in
such away. For in Hebrew tradition She would have been married to God
himself. After all “Marriage is covenant or partnership of life
between a man and woman, which is ordered to the well-being of the
spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of child. When
validly contracted between two baptized people, marriage is a
sacrament [of practically every one of the worlds religions]” (CCC,
1601).
Remember
our God is a jealous God, according to Moses. We see examples of
this, through out the Bible. The most noted of these has been
embedded into our Christian culture. The Decalogue {the Ten
Commandments} even has the words, “I am the Lord your God, and I am
a Jealous God,” right there in bold print (Exodus, 20:5). So what
would the Hebrew culture have done to a man who takes another man''s
wife or daughter with out consent? The Jews are God''s people and live
under God''s law therefore, it stands to reason that God would have
the same sense of Justice.
We
are given an excellent example of divine justice in Genesis. Which
takes place after “Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob
(Genesis, 34:1),” was raped by Shechem the son of Hamor. After
Dinah''s rape, as is the Hebrew custom during the time of the OT, her
kinsmen sought revenger:
After they had put Hamor and his
son Shechem to the sword, they took Dinah from Shechem''s house and
left. Then the other sons of Jacob followed up the slaughter and
sacked the city in reprisal for their sister Dinah''s defilement. They
seized their flocks, herds and asses, whatever was in the city and in
the country around. They carried off all their wealth, their women,
and their children, and took for loot whatever was in the houses.
(Genesis, 35:26-29)
I
believe Joseph would have feared the reciprocations that would come
from having intercourse with the mother of God incarnate. For our God
is a Jealous God, who Joseph knew had produced a child through Mary.
Mary would have never broken her vows made to Jehovah when she said:
Behold, I am the handmaid of the
Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. (Luke, 1:38)
According law, in openly
submitting to a female''s master, the female is making her mirage
vows: therefore, one Gabriel told Joseph what had happened in a
dream, Joseph could no longer expect a right to use her body.
However, Joseph took on the role of an older male sibling. He raised
her son until and taught him a trade. When Jesus was around 12 years
old his segregate father is no long talk about in scriptures.
So with a bit
of sound logic and research, if Jesus did have brothers it would not
have been by the righteous man who God chose to raise him. As
for the way the Bible uses the word “brother,” let me remind you
the Jesus is called: “[the] Son of the most high, and the Lord God
will give him the throne of David his father” (Luke, 1:32).
If you have not noticed, no where in the Bible dose anyone talk about
someone''s grandfather or grandmother. Multiple Generational tittles
are a custom used mostly in the western world.