The Brethren of the Lord
Taken from Dr. Lightfoot's published commentaries upon St Paul's Epistles [1865].
Sources: 1 , 2 , 3
Dissertation
In the early ages of the Church two conflicting opinions were held regarding the relationship of those who in the Gospels and Apostolic Epistles are termed 'the brethren of the Lord.' On the one hand it was maintained that no blood relationship existed; that these brethren were in fact sons of Joseph by a former wife, before he espoused the Virgin; and that they are therefore called the Lord's brethren only in the same way in which Joseph is called His father, having really no claim to this title but being so designated by an exceptional use of the term adapted to the exceptional fact of the miraculous incarnation. On the other hand certain persons argued that the obvious meaning of the term was the correct meaning, and that these brethren were the Lord's brethren as truly as Mary was the Lord's mother, being her sons by her husband Joseph. The former of these views was held by the vast majority of orthodox believers and by not a few heretics; the latter was the opinion of a father of the Church here and there to whom it occurred as the natural inference from the language of Scripture, as Tertullian for instance, and of certain sects and individuals who set themselves against the incipient worship of the Virgin or the one-sided asceticism of the day, and to whom therefore it was a very serviceable weapon of controversy.
Such was the state of opinion, when towards the close of the fourth century Jerome struck out a novel hypothesis. One Helvidius, who lived in Rome, had attacked the prevailing view of the superiority of virgin over married life, and in doing so had laid great stress on the example of the Lord's mother who had borne children to her husband. In or about the year 383 Jerome, then a young man, at the instigation of 'the brethren' wrote a treatise in reply to Helvidius, in which he put forward his own view. He maintained that the Lord's brethren were His cousins after the flesh, being sons of Mary the wife of Alphaeus and sister of the Virgin. Thus, as he boasted, he asserted the virginity not of Mary only but of Joseph also.
These three accounts are all of sufficient importance either from their real merits or from their wide popularity to deserve consideration, and I shall therefore investigate their several claims. As it will be convenient to have some short mode of designation, I shall call them respectively the Epiphanian , the Helvidian , and the Hieronymian theories, from the names of their most zealous advocates in the controversies of the fourth century when the question was most warmly debated.
But besides the solutions already mentioned not a few others have been put forward. These however have been for the most part built upon arbitrary assumptions or improbable combinations of known facts, and from their artificial character have failed to secure any wide acceptance. It is assumed for instance, that two persons of the same name, James the son of Alphaeus and James the Lord's brother, were leading members of the Church of Jerusalem, though history points to one only; or that James the Lord's brother mentioned in St. Paul's Epistles is not the same James whose name occurs among the Lord's brethren in the Gospels, the relationship intended by the term 'brother' being different in the two cases; or that 'brethren' stands for 'foster-brethren,' Joseph having undertaken the charge of his brother Clopas' children after their father's death; or that the Lord's brethren had a double parentage, a legal as well as an actual father, Joseph having raised seed to his deceased brother Clopas by his widow according to the levirate law; or lastly, that the cousins of Jesus were rewarded with the title of His brethren, because they were His steadfast disciples, while His own brothers opposed Him.
All such assumptions it will be necessary to set aside. In themselves indeed they can neither be proved nor disproved. But it is safer to aim at the most probable deduction from known facts than to build up a theory on an imaginary foundation. And, where the question is so intricate in itself, there is little temptation to introduce fresh difficulties by giving way to the license of conjecture.
To confine ourselves then to the three accounts which have the greatest claim to a hearing. It will be seen that the hypothesis which I have called the Epiphanian holds a middle place between the remaining two. With the Helvidian it assigns an intelligible sense to the term 'brethren': with the Hieronymian it preserves the perpetual virginity of the Lord's mother. Whether or not, while uniting in itself the features which have recommended each of these to acceptance, it unites also their difficulties, will be considered in the sequel.
From a critical point of view however, apart from their bearing on Christian doctrine and feeling, the Helvidian and Epiphanian theories hang very closely together, while the Hieronymian stands apart. As well on account of this isolation, as also from the fact which I have hitherto assumed but which I shall endeavour to prove hereafter, that it was the latest born of the three, it will be convenient to consider the last-mentioned theory first.
St. Jerome then states his view in the treatise against Helvidius somewhat as follows:
The list of the Twelve Apostles contains two of the name of James, the son of Zebedee and the son of Alphaeus. But elsewhere we read of a James the Lord's brother. What account are we to give of this last James? either he was an Apostle or he was not. If an Apostle, he must be identified with the son of Alphaeus, for the son of Zebedee was no longer living: if not an Apostle, then there were three persons bearing this name. But in this case how can a certain James be called 'the less,' a term which implies only one besides? And how moreover can we account for St. Paul's language 'Other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother' (Gal 1:19)? Clearly therefore James the son of Alphaeus and James the Lord's brother are the same person.
And the Gospel narrative explains this identity. Among the Lord's brethren occur the names of James and Joseph. Now it is stated elsewhere that Mary the mother of James the less and of Joseph (or Joses) was present at the crucifixion (Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40). This Mary therefore must have been the wife of Alphaeus, for Alphaeus was the father of James. But again in St. John's narrative (19:25) the Virgin's sister 'Mary of Cleophas (Clopas)' is represented as standing by the cross. This carries us a step in advance. The last-mentioned Mary is to be identified with the wife of Alphaeus and mother of James. Thus James the Lord's brother was in reality the Lord's cousin.
But, if His cousin, how is he called His brother? The following is the explanation. The term 'brethren' is used in four different senses in Holy Scripture: it denotes either (1) actual brotherhood or (2) common nationality, or (3) kinsmanship, or (4) friendship and sympathy. These different senses St. Jerome expresses by the four words 'natura, gente, cognatione, affectu.' In the case of the Lord's brethren the third of these senses is to be adopted: brotherhood here denotes mere relationship, just as Abraham calls his nephew Lot brother (Gen 13:8), and as Laban uses the same term of Jacob his sister's son (Gen 29:15).
So far St. Jerome, who started the theory. But, as worked out by other writers and as generally stated, it involves two particulars besides.
(i) The identity of Alphaeus and Clopas . These two words, it is said, are different renderings of the same Aramaic name yplx or [Aramaic] (Chalphai), the form Clopas being peculiar to St. John, the more completely grecized Alphaeus taking its place in the other Evangelists. The Aramaic guttural Cheth , when the name was reproduced in Greek, might either be omitted as in Alphaeus, or replaced by a k (or c) as in Clopas. Just in the same way Aloysius and Ludovicus are recognized Latin representatives of the Frankish name Clovis (Clodovicus, Hludovicus, Hlouis).
This identification however, though it materially strengthens his theory, was unknown to Jerome himself. In the course of his argument he confesses plainly that he does not know why Mary is called Clopae, (or Cleophae, as he writes it): it may be, he suggests, after her father or from her family surname ('gentilitate familiae') or for some other reason. In his treatise on Hebrew names too he gives an account of the word Alphaeus which is scarcely consistent with this identity. Neither have I found any traces of it in any of his other works, though he refers several times to the subject. In Augustine again, who adopts Jerome's hypothesis and his manner of stating it, it does not anywhere appear, so far as I know. It occurs first, I believe, in Chrysostom who incidentally speaks of James the Lord's brother as 'son of Clopas,' and after him in Theodoret who is more explicit (both on Gal 1:19). To a Syrian Greek, who, even if he were unable to read the Peshito version, must at all events have known that Chalphai was the Aramaean rendering or rather the Aramaean original of 'AljaioV, it might not unnaturally occur to graft this identification on the original theory of Jerome.
(ii) The identity of Judas the Apostle and Judas the Lord's brother . In St. Luke's catalogues of the Twelve (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13) the name 'Judas of James' ('IoudaV 'Iakwbou) occurs. Now we find a Judas also among the four brethren of the Lord (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3); and the writer of the epistle, who was doubtless the Judas last mentioned, styles himself 'the brother of James' (Jude 1). This coincidence suggests that the ellipsis in 'Judas of James' should be supplied by brother as in the English version, not by son which would be the more obvious word. Thus Judas the Lord's brother, like James, is made one of the Twelve. I do not know when the Hieronymian theory received this fresh accession, but, though the gain is considerable in apparent strength at least, it does not appear, so far as I have noticed, to have occurred to Jerome himself.
And some have gone a step farther. We find not only a James and a Judas among the Lord's brethren, but also a Symeon or Simon. Now it is remarkable that these three names occur together in St. Luke's list of the Twelve: James (the son) of Alphaeus, Simon called Zelotes, and Judas (the brother) of James. In the lists of the other Evangelists too these three persons are kept together, though the order is different and Judas appears under another name, Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus. Can this have been a mere accident? Would the name of a stranger have been inserted by St. Luke between two brothers? Is it not therefore highly probably that this Simon also was one of the Lord's brethren? And thus three out of the four are included among the Twelve.
Without these additions the theory is incomplete; and indeed they have been so generally regarded as part of it, that advocates and opponents alike have forgotten or overlooked the fact that Jerome himself nowhere advances them. I shall then consider the theory as involving these two points; for indeed it would never have won its way to such general acceptance, unless presented in this complete form, where its chief recommendation is that it combines a great variety of facts and brings out many striking coincidences.
But before criticizing the theory itself, let me prepare the way by divesting it of all fictitious advantages and placing it in its true light. The two points to which attention may be directed, as having been generally overlooked, are these:
(1) Jerome claims no traditional support for his theory . This is a remarkable feature in his treatise against Helvidius. He argues the question solely on critical and theological grounds. His opponent had claimed the sanction of two older writers, Tertullian and Victorinus of Pettaw. Jerome in reply is obliged to concede him Tertullian, whose authority he invalidates as 'not a member of the church,' but denies him Victorinus. Can it be doubted that if he could have produced any names on his own side he would only too gladly have done so? When for instance he is maintaining the virginity of the Lord's mother, a feature possessed by his theory in common with the Epiphanian, he is at no loss for authorities: Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin, and many other 'eloquent apostolic men' occur to him at once. But in support of his own account of the relationship he cannot, or at least does not, name a single writer; he simply offers it as a critical deduction from the statements of Scripture. Again in his later writings, when he refers to the subject, his tone is the same: ' Some suppose them to have been sons of Joseph: it is my opinion, I have maintained in my book against Helvidius, that they were the children of Mary the Virgin's sister.' And the whole tenor of patristic evidence, as I shall hope to show, is in accordance with this tone. No decisive instance can be produced of a writer holding Jerome's view, before it was propounded by Jerome himself.
(2) Jerome does not hold his theory staunchly and consistently . The references to the subject in his works taken in chronological order will speak for themselves. The theory is first propounded, as we saw, in the treatise against Helvidius written about 383, when he was a young man. Even here his main point is the perpetual virginity of the Lord's mother, to which his own special solution is quite subordinate: he speaks of himself as not caring to fight hard ('contentiosum funem non traho') for the identity of Mary of Cleophas with Mary the mother of James and Joses, though this is the pivot of his theory. And, as time advances, he seems to hold to his hypothesis more and more loosely. In his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1:19) written about 387 he speaks very vaguely: he remembers, he says, having when at Rome written a treatise on the subject, with which such as it is he ought to be satisfied ('qualiacunque sunt illa quae scripsimus his contenti esse debemus'); after which he goes on inconsistently enough, ‘Suffice it now to say that James was called the Lord’s brother on account of his high character, his incomparable faith, and extraordinary wisdom: the other Apostles also are called brothers (John 20:17; comp. Psa 22:22), but he preeminently so, to whom the Lord at His departure had committed the sons of His mother (i.e. the members of the Church of Jerusalem)’; with more to the same effect: and he concludes by showing that the term Apostle, so far from being confined to the Twelve, has a very wide use, adding that it was ‘a monstrous error to identify this James with the Apostle the brother of John.’ In his Catalogue of Illustrious Men (AD 392) and in his Commentary on St. Matthew (AD 398) he adheres to his earlier opinion, referring in the passages already quoted to his treatise against Helvidius, and taunting those who considered the Lord’s brethren to be the sons of Joseph by a former wife with ‘following the ravings of the apocryphal writings and inventing a wretched creature (mulierculam) Melcha or Escha by name.’ Yet after all in a still later work, the Epistle to Hedibia (about 406 or 407), enumerating the Maries of the Gospels he mentions Mary of Cleophas the maternal aunt of the Lord and Mary the mother of James and Joses as distinct persons, adding ‘although others contend that the mother of James and Joses was His aunt.’ Yet this identification, of which he here speaks with such indifference, was the keystone of his own theory. Can it be that by his long resident in Bethlehem, having the Palestinian tradition brought more prominently before him, he first relaxed his hold of and finally relinquished his own hypothesis?
If these positions are correct, the Hieronymian view has no claim to any traditional sanction—in other words, there is no reason to believe that time has obliterated any secondary evidence in its favour—and it must therefore be investigated on its own merits.