© 2009 Jan Herca (license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0)
We know very little about Jesus’ family, that is, about his uncles and grandparents. There is virtually no trace of them in the Gospels, and mentions of them by the early Christians are also scarce. This has led to an anomalous image of Jesus’ life, depicting him as a boy who grew up with little family contact except for his parents. But this view doesn’t seem to fit with the numerous parables in which Jesus used family relationships to express his teachings, and which were surely drawn from his own personal experience.
But what can we know about his family according to the gospels?
Mattan became the father of Jacob. And Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary; and of her was born Jesus, who is called the Messiah. Mt 1:16
According to Matthew, Jesus’ paternal grandfather was called Jacob and his great-grandfather Mattan, but this does not agree with Luke’s text.
When Jesus began his ministry, he was about thirty years old, and people believed he was the son of Joseph. These were his ancestors: Heli, Mattath… Luke 3:23
Luke mentions a certain Heli as his paternal grandfather and Matthat as his great-grandfather. The lack of agreement between the two evangelists casts doubt on their reliability.
While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers arrived. Mt 12:46
Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Aren’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Mt 13:55
His mother and brothers came and called him from outside. Mk 3:31
Then his mother and brothers came to him, but they couldn’t get to Jesus because of the crowd. Luke 8:19
We are told of his brothers (full brothers or stepbrothers according to different theories), but never accompanied by other relatives, only by his mother.
James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus Mt 10:3
James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus Mk 3:18
James, son of Alphaeus, Simon called Zealot, Judas the son of James Luke 6:15
Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee to help him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. Mt 27:56
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and Joseph, and Salome. Mk 15:40
Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jn 19:25
There is a tendency to identify these James the Lesser and Joseph with the two brothers of Jesus mentioned in Mt 13:55. But it is worth analyzing the passages to realize that this does not make sense. If this were the case, then “Mary, the mother of James and Joseph” would be referring to the mother of Jesus, and then Mk 15:40 would be more appropriate to say “Mary the mother of Jesus.”
As we can see, references to Jesus’ relatives are very few. The only mention of a Mary, his mother’s sister and therefore Jesus’ aunt, is in Jn 19:25. But this reference seems to be a corruption. How is it possible that Jesus’ mother had a sister with the same name? No father, for obvious practical reasons, would give two daughters the same name. How can this be reconciled? In my opinion, the text of Jn 19:25 is a corruption that should be translated as
Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister-in-law, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
That is to say, this Mary was actually the wife of a brother of Mary called Cleopas.
References to another Mary, identified by many scholars as the mother of two of Jesus’ brothers, also contain corruptions and are, in my opinion, misinterpreted. This Mary, who has nothing to do with the previous one, is the mother of two apostles named Thaddeus and Lebbaeus. This unrelated Mary is demonstrated by the fact that one of them, named James, is said to be the son of Alphaeus, and the other, named Judas, is said to be the son of James. Therefore, she has nothing to do with Cleopas.
But the references to these two figures in the Gospels are contradictory. One is consistently called James, saying he is the son of Alphaeus. Mentioning the father’s name here makes perfect sense if we consider that we have another James among the apostles, the son of Zebedee. The father’s name, therefore, as was Jewish custom, served as a surname to distinguish people with similar names. But the references to the other apostle, which always follow the first, are all different. This apostle is called “Thaddaeus” and “Judas the son of James” (and it may be that in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40, he is being called “Joseph” if we imagine that the person at the foot of the cross was his mother).
In any case, it does not seem that these James and Judas Thaddeus can be identified with the two brothers of Jesus who gained so much fame in the early days of Christianity, and of whom letters are preserved in the New Testament. It is incomprehensible that if Jesus had brothers among his apostles, the evangelists mention them asking to be received by him (Mt 12:46, Mc 3:31 and Lc 8:19). On the other hand, James “the brother of Jesus” was nicknamed “the Just,” while in these passages he is nicknamed “the younger.” Furthermore, if he had been Jesus’ brother, his father would have been Joseph, and not Alphaeus, as we are told here.
Given this lack of knowledge, we have no choice but to turn to other literature for more information about Jesus’s relatives. One book that provides us with a wealth of answers is The Urantia Book. That is, only if we are willing to grant this book the credibility of being a revelation.
¶ What does The Urantia Book tell us about Jesus’ relatives?
Upon her return, Mary went to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two brothers and two sisters, as well as her parents, were always very skeptical about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome that she thought her son was destined to become a great teacher. [UB 122:3.3]
(Joseph) As a youth, among his eight brothers and sisters… [UB 122:5.1]
Shortly thereafter they moved into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with the assistance of two of his brothers. [UB 122:5.9]
The larger part of Joseph’s family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, but very few of Mary’s people ever believed in him until after he departed from this world. [UB 122:5.10]
The building and furnishing of a home had been a great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the support of his parents, as his father had been recently disabled. [UB 122:7.4]
They arrived unannounced at the Nazareth home, which had been occupied for more than three years by one of Joseph’s married brothers, who was indeed surprised to see them; [UB 123:1.1]
It was midsummer of this same year that Joseph built a small workshop close to the village spring and near the caravan tarrying lot. After this he did very little carpenter work by the day. He had as associates two of his brothers and several other mechanics, whom he sent out to work while he remained at the shop making yokes and plows and doing other woodwork. [UB 123:1.6]
(Mary) bundled up both her children and fled to the country home of her brother, several miles south of Nazareth on the Megiddo road near Sarid. They did not return to Nazareth for more than two months; Jesus greatly enjoyed this, his first experience on a farm. [UB 123:1.7]
In June of this year Joseph turned the shop in Nazareth over to his brothers. [UB 123:3.7]
(Jesus) was a diligent pupil and belonged to the more progressive third of the class, doing his work so well that he was excused from attendance one week out of each month. This week he usually spent either with his fisherman uncle on the shores of the Sea of Galilee near Magdala or on the farm of another uncle (his mother’s brother) five miles south of Nazareth. [UB 123:6.1]
It seems as though the text refers to Jesus of Magdala’s uncle as if he were the brother of Joseph, his father. Hence the expression “his mother’s brother” for the other uncle of Sarid.
The family supply shop had already been taken over by his uncle… [UB 126:5.8]
Throughout this year Jesus was closely confined to the workbench. [UB 127:1.6]
One of Jesus’ uncles (Mary’s brother Simon) had already joined this [nationalist] group, subsequently becoming an officer in the Galilean division. And for several years there was something of an estrangement between Jesus and his uncle. [UB 127:2.4]
As we saw in the previous passage, Jesus seems to have remained in Nazareth for a full year. It is mentioned that his uncle, Simon, Mary’s brother, who had become a Zealot, urged him to join the group. If Jesus was unable to go to either Magdala or Sarid for a year, the Zealot uncle, therefore, must have lived in Nazareth and be a different uncle than the previous two.
Jesus’ position was made more difficult because his mother and uncle, and even his younger brother James, all urged him to join the nationalist cause. [UB 127:2.7]
Before the harvest, [Jesus] took Jude to the farmer uncle south of Nazareth, but Jude did not remain long after the harvest. He ran away, and Simon later found him with the fishermen at the lake. When Simon brought him back home, Jesus talked things over with the runaway lad and, since he wanted to be a fisherman, went over to Magdala with him and put him in the care of a relative, a fisherman. [UB 128:7.8]
Standing near the cross at one time or another during the crucifixion were Mary, Ruth, Jude, John, Salome (John’s mother), and a group of earnest women believers including Mary the wife of Clopas and sister of Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris. [UB 187:3.2]
The women who thus tarried by the tomb on this Friday evening were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha another sister of Jesus’ mother, and Rebecca of Sepphoris. [UB 188:1.7]
The conclusions we draw are:
As for Mary’s family, her parents were named Joachim and Anna, and she had two brothers and two sisters. One of her brothers, who is anonymous, lived on a farm near Sarid and therefore Nazareth (he is Jesus’s uncle, whom we might call “the farmer,” and from whom Jesus derived all his agricultural knowledge). Another brother is Simon of Nazareth, who was an important leader of the Zealots in Galilee and encouraged Jesus to join the cause. As for the two sisters, one named Salome is mentioned in UB 122:3.3, and the other, named Martha, is mentioned in UB 188:1.7. Therefore, it does not fit that another Mary, the wife of Cleopas, is spoken of as Mary’s sister in UB 187:3.2. But it also does not make much sense to interpret again in The Urantia Book, as in the gospels, a corruption of “sister” to “sister-in-law”, because that would mean that the anonymous “farmer” brother is none other than Cleopas. So why does she not mention him by name when speaking of him in UB 123?
One possible explanation is that the mention “His two brothers, his two sisters” in UB 122:3.3 does not refer to the total number of his siblings, but to those who lived in Nazareth (remember that one lived in Sarid, outside of Nazareth), so the number of brothers and sisters would have to be extended to an indefinite number that could include this Cleopas. Another possible explanation is that when Jesus was born his mother only had four brothers and sisters, but later Mary had new sisters or brothers, so Jesus would have aunts or uncles younger than he was.
The explanation that “Mary, the wife of Clopas” is a corruption of “Martha, the wife of Clopas,” so that Clepas is really Mary’s brother-in-law, does not hold good for us because in UB 188:1.7 we are told of two of Mary’s sisters. Indeed, here we are explicitly told: “Martha, another sister of the mother of Jesus.” This, after Mary, the wife of Clopas, has been designated as Mary’s sister, leaves no room for doubt. They were two distinct persons, and both were sisters of Mary.
All this leaves us with only two options: either it is a corruption of “sister-in-law” and Cleopas is the brother of Sarid, or Mary actually had another sister called Mary and therefore the number of her siblings was at least five and not four, even though four lived in the vicinity of Nazareth.
As for Joseph’s family, we are not told the names of his parents, but Joseph did have eight brothers and sisters. At least two lived in Nazareth (UB 122:5.9). One is mentioned as having taken charge of the family provision store. Jesus’ uncle, a fisherman living near Magdala, I believe was another of Joseph’s brothers, although we have seen that assigning Mary only two siblings may not be entirely correct.
¶ Letting the imagination do its work
In short, despite using The Urantia Book as a credible source, we still do not have enough information to give us a sufficient idea of the number of uncles and aunts Jesus had, especially in Nazareth, let alone his cousins, of whom he surely had many.
So what I’m going to do here is offer an invented version, albeit one based on the available data, of Jesus’ family. This family is the one that will later be revealed in the story of “Jesus of Nazareth.”[1]
¶ Joseph’s family
Jacob and Rachel, Jesus’ grandparents, had as children Joseph, Jonah, Amos, Janai, Simon, Joanne, Miriam, Ruth, Martha, and these are their families:
- Joseph married Mary (see below).
- Jonah, from Nazareth, was Joseph’s carpenter, working for him in his workshop, and later took over the provision store. He married Shunah, and they had Jonah, Oben, Serah, and Rehinah.
- Amos, from Nazareth, was the tenant of Joseph’s household upon his return from Egypt. He partnered with Joseph in the carpentry shop and later became the owner of the workshop. He married Mary and they had Jacob, John, Manael, Jeshua, Myrna, and Mary.
- Janai married Yenoah and they had: Simon, David, Jesus, Janai, Rachel, Mary and Elizabeth.
- Simon (a fisherman from Magdala) married Serah and they had no children.
- Joanne married Jebod and they had: Judas, Jebod, Joseph, Anna and Susanna.
- Miriam married Eleazar and they had: Elijah, Mary and Anna.
- Ruth died shortly before getting married.
- Martha died a few years before Jesus, single.
¶ Mary’s family
Joachim and Anna, Jesus’ grandparents, had as children: Simon, Joatan, Mary, Salome, Martha, and Mariah, and these are their families:
- Simon of Nazareth, who became a Zealot and was a prominent leader of the nationalists in Galilee, married Ainar and they had: Joachim, Jesus, Jacob, Judas and Esther.
- Joatan, who moved to live on a farm in the countryside near Sarid, south of Nazareth, married Jerusa and they had: Eleazar, Jonathan, Joseph, Zerod, Mariah and Shua.
- Mary married Joseph (see below).
- Martha married John and they had: Josim, Ruben, Jesus, Mary, Rebecca and Elizabeth.
- Salome was single all her life and took care of her mother Anna.
- Mariah, who was born after Jesus, married Cleopas, both lived in Nazareth and had: John, Phasael, Nida, Mary, Martha, Ruth, Esther and Alexandra.
¶ The family of Joseph and Mary
Joseph and Mary had, apart from Jesus, James, Miriam, Joseph, Simon, Martha, Judah or Jude, Amos and Ruth, and these are their families:
- James, born April 2, 3 BC (UB 123:1.5), was married to Esta (UB 128:7.10) around November 20. He moved to Capernaum, following in Jesus’ footsteps, and worked with Jesus in Zebedee’s shipyard in Capernaum (UB 134:1.1). By 25, James had three children: two boys and a girl, the youngest being barely one year old. In order of age, their names were James, Mary, and Joseph. In the year 27 they had their fourth son, Eleazar, and then they had: Anna (29), Martha (33), and Sarah (35).
- Miriam, born July 11, 2 BC (UB 123:2.3), married James, Jesus’ childhood friend, at the same wedding as James. James was a bricklayer and lived in a house adjacent to Joseph’s in Nazareth. James’s mother, Anna, lived with them all the time. Jacob the father, who had been Joseph’s partner, had died years before their marriage. They had their first son, Jacob, in 22 AD, and their second, Joseph, in 24 AD. They later had three more: Mary (28), Saul (31), and Hannah (33).
- Joseph, born March 16, 1 A.D. (UB 123:4.9), married Rebekah while Jesus was away, about the year 22 or 23, and they lived at Nazareth in the old family home (UB 134:1.6). They had their first son, Ariel, early in the year 24, and then Jesus was born in July 26, Joseph in April 28, and Mary in January 30. After Jesus’ death, another son was born in the year 32. Joseph kept the caravan supply store for a time, then left it in the hands of a partner and took up carpentry.
- Simon, born April 14, 2 (UB 123:6.7), was married in early March 24 (UB 134:1.4) to Hannah, and they lived in Nazareth. Their first son, John, was born in February 26. They later had six more: Judas (29), Simon (31), Mary (32), Bernice (34), Samuel (35), and Josiah (38). Simon was a mason and partner of James (UB 128:2.2), Miriam’s husband and Jesus’ best friend.
- Martha, born on September 13, 3 (UB 124:1.7), married Jesus in October 21. They had their first child, named Jesus, in mid-December 25. They later had seven more: Joseph (27), Matthan (30), Mary (32), Judas (33), Anna (35), Elizabeth (37), and Jebud (40).
- Judah, born June 24 A.D. 5 (UB 124:3.4), married Martha in early March 24 A.D. (UB 134:1.4), in a double wedding with Simon, and they lived in Magdala. Martha had frequent health problems, and they had only one son, in the year 33, named Judas. Judah was a fisherman.
- Amos. Born on January 9, 7 AD (UB 124:5.2). He was almost 13 years younger than Jesus. He died on December 3, 12 AD, at the age of almost 6, of an infection.
- Ruth was born posthumously on April 17 A.D. 9 (UB 126:3.2), and she did not marry during Jesus’ lifetime. Shortly after his death, in early June 30 A.D., she married David Zebedee (UB 190:1.10). Before her marriage, Ruth lived in her mother’s house in Capernaum, to which the family of James also moved from Nazareth (UB 134:1.6). Ruth and David had three children: Jesus (32), Martha (34), and Mariamme (35). They both moved to Philadelphia in early June 1930, where they lived. David took it upon himself to serve in Lazarus’s new household in Philadelphia as a protector and helper.
Are these names and biographies reliable?
Not really. Most of the above information is speculation gleaned from The Urantia Book. But there is no record of this information in either the canonical or apocryphal gospels, and there is even very little confirmation from The Urantia Book itself. Jesus’ family, his cousins, nephews, and their descendants, disappeared from the pages of history, giving way to a new type of character: the first Christian believers. This leads me to my initial conclusion: Jesus had few followers among his own relatives. The only ones who have made it into history are his brothers James, nicknamed “the Just,” who was undoubtedly the first bishop or leader of the Church of Jerusalem, and also Judas. Curiously, The Urantia Book confirms with its account that these two men had a special closeness to Jesus.
But of their descendants, except for an anecdote recorded by the historian Hegesippus in his Commentaries on the Acts of the Church, concerning an interrogation by the Emperor Domitian of some grandsons of Judas, Jesus’ brother, nothing at all. They left no trace in the centuries that followed. And perhaps this is understandable. These descendants of Jesus’ family became, overnight, the most persecuted and hated family on earth. It is not difficult to imagine that they desired anonymity that led them to disappear from historical texts.
¶ References
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Various authors, The Urantia Book, 1955.
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New Testament, The House of the Bible, 1992.
¶ External links
¶ Notas
Este libro es la novela «Jesús de Nazaret», una biografía sobre el Maestro basada en El Libro de Urantia que está en preparación por el autor. ↩︎