Matthew 12:46-50

Jesus’ True Family

12:46 While Jesus ¹  was still speaking to the crowds, ²  his mother and brothers ³  came and ⁴  stood outside, asking ⁵  to speak to him. 12:47 ⁶  Someone ⁷  told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting ⁸  to speak to you.” 12:48 To the one who had said this, Jesus ⁹  replied, ¹⁰  “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” 12:49 And pointing ¹¹  toward his disciples he said, “Here ¹²  are my mother and my brothers! 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ¹³  my brother and sister and mother.”

Matthew 13:55

13:55 Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother named Mary? ¹⁴  And aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

Mark 6:3

6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son ¹⁵  of Mary ¹⁶  and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And so they took offense at him.

Luke 6:15

6:15 Matthew, Thomas, ¹⁷  James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, ¹⁸ 

John 2:12

Cleansing the Temple

2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum ¹⁹  with his mother and brothers ²⁰  and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days.

Acts 1:14

1:14 All these continued together in prayer with one mind, together with the women, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. ²¹ 

Galatians 1:19

1:19 But I saw none of the other apostles ²²  except James the Lord’s brother.

[12:46]  ¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:46]  ² tn Grk “crowds, behold, his mother.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[12:46]  ³ sn The issue of whether Jesus had brothers (siblings) has had a long history in the church. Epiphanius, in the 4th century, argued that Mary was a perpetual virgin and had no offspring other than Jesus. Others argued that these brothers were really cousins. Nothing in the text suggests any of this. See also John 7:3.

[12:46]  ⁴ tn “His mother and brothers came and” is a translation of “behold, his mother and brothers came.”

[12:46]  ⁵ tn Grk “seeking.”

[12:47]  ⁶ tc A few ancient mss and versions lack this verse (א* B L Γ pc ff¹ k sy^s,c sa). The witness of א and B is especially strong, but internal considerations override this external evidence. Both v. 46 and 47 end with the word λαλῆσαι (“to speak”), so early scribes probably omitted the verse through homoioteleuton. The following verses make little sense without v. 47; its omission is too hard a reading. Thus v. 47 was most likely part of the original text.

[12:47]  ⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:47]  ⁸ tn Grk “seeking.”

[12:48]  ⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:48]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And answering, he said to the one who had said this.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) at the beginning of the clause has not been translated.

[12:49]  ¹¹ tn Grk “extending his hand.”

[12:49]  ¹² tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”

[12:50]  ¹³ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[13:55]  ¹⁴ sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter’s son is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to his mother…Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 4:41; 8:41; 9:29).

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tc Evidently because of the possible offensiveness of designating Jesus a carpenter, several mss ([Ì^45vid] ˹³ 33^vid [565 579] 700 [2542] pc it vg^mss) harmonize the words “carpenter, the son” to the parallel passage in Matt 13:55, “the son of the carpenter.” Almost all the rest of the mss read “the carpenter, the son.” Since the explicit designation of Jesus as a carpenter is the more difficult reading, and is much better attested, it is most likely correct.

[6:3]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to Jesus as the carpenter is probably derogatory, indicating that they knew Jesus only as a common laborer like themselves. The reference to him as the son of Mary (even though Jesus’ father was probably dead by this point) appears to be somewhat derogatory, for a man was not regarded as his mother’s son in Jewish usage unless an insult was intended (cf. Judg 11:1-2; John 6:42; 8:41; 9:29).

[6:15]  ¹⁷ sn This is the “doubting Thomas” of John 20:24-29.

[6:15]  ¹⁸ sn The designation Zealot means that Simon was a political nationalist before coming to follow Jesus. He may not have been technically a member of the particular Jewish nationalistic party known as “Zealots” (since according to some scholars this party had not been organized at that time), but simply someone who was zealous for Jewish independence from Rome, in which case the descriptive term applied to Simon means something like “Simon the patriot” (see L&N 25.77 and especially 11.88).

[2:12]  ¹⁹ sn Verse 12 is merely a transitional note in the narrative (although Capernaum does not lie on the direct route to Jerusalem from Cana). Nothing is mentioned in John’s Gospel at this point about anything Jesus said or did there (although later his teaching is mentioned, see 6:59). From the synoptics it is clear that Capernaum was a center of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and might even be called “his own town” (Matt 9:1). The royal official whose son Jesus healed (John 4:46-54) was from Capernaum. He may have heard Jesus speak there, or picked up the story about the miracle at Cana from one of Jesus’ disciples.

[2:12]  ²⁰ sn With respect to Jesus’ brothers, the so-called Helvidian view is to be preferred (named after Helvidius, a 4th-century theologian). This view holds that the most natural way to understand the phrase is as a reference to children of Joseph and Mary after the birth of Jesus. Other views are that of Epiphanius (they were children of Joseph by a former marriage) or Jerome (they were cousins). The tradition of Mary’s perpetual virginity appeared in the 2nd century and is difficult to explain (as J. H. Bernard, St. John [ICC], 1:85, points out) if some of her other children were prominent members of the early church (e.g., James of Jerusalem). But this is outweighed by the natural sense of the words.

[1:14]  ²¹ sn Jesus’ brothers are mentioned in Matt 13:55 and John 7:3.

[1:19]  ²² tn Grk “But another of the apostles I did not see, except…” with “another” in emphatic position in the Greek text. Paul is determined to make the point that his contacts with the original twelve apostles and other leaders of the Jerusalem church were limited, thus asserting his independence from them.