Jesus Siblings

The Bible has various interesting components that are often missed. Bart Ehrman regularly notes how the gospels conflict in many ways, but people don't think anything of it. This is especially notable in the birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke. 

People often combine the two birth narratives when they conflict in multiple ways. Nativity stories pick and choose favorite aspects like the Magi and the census story arc in Luke, combining the two. 

This is used in one musical modern take, Journey to Bethlehem, which is overall enjoyable. It is somewhat silly to complain about dramatic license when the original had lots of it. I also think even evangelicals accept biblical fiction that adds to the story. 

The film rushes the finale some, mostly skipping the usual bit about the shepherds to insert a scene where Herod's son protects the Holy Family! I felt this a bit much. In real life, the son was executed, and not because he went against his father's wishes here.

I spoke about Joseph here a while back. I more recently talked about Joseph as a historical person, following up with one about Mary. 

What about his siblings? Years ago, I wrote a paper about James, who because a leader of Jewish Christians. The gospels reference multiple siblings, brothers and sisters, only giving the former names. The gospels do not agree on the names.

I recently read something that noted that the siblings (in general) twice are cited as Christians. They were referenced in the gospels with John 7:5 directly saying that his "brothers did not believe in him." 

Luke is Acts, and I knew this, had one more reference to Mary being among the disciples after Jesus rises to heaven. But and this is often a charm with close reading of verses, there is more:

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

The Greek word for "brothers" here could mean "brothers and sisters." So, we are not just talking about James, but other siblings too.

The other example is 1 Corinthians 9:5 where Paul references Peter travelling with his wife. Again, this is what I remember, and what is usually referenced. There is more though, and people miss it:

Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas [Peter].

I suppose (to the degree I paid attention) I read "brothers" here to mean the general usage "brothers and sisters" to cover all believers. However, the verse has an independent reference (first Luke, now Paul) of the siblings of Jesus "believing" in the resurrection.

The general usage of "brothers and sisters" is found in 1 Corinthians 15, which is Paul's summary of death and resurrection of Jesus. Note that "brothers and sisters" is not the same as "Lord's brothers." 

That reference singles out James as seeing the resurrected Jesus without mentioning any other member of his family. This probably underlines my assumption only James was cited as a believer.

The two references show this is not true. We are left to wonder what ever happened to the siblings and Mary. Josephus, the Jewish historian, says James was killed in 62 though some Christians writers gave a later date. It is somewhat striking rest of the family gets so little attention. I put aside Dan Brown. 

There were also some later references to second or third generation members of the family being poor farmers. Overall, the Jewish Christian branch of the faith reflected by James (and his siblings?) died out.