Who was James and Joses in the Bible?

Mary (Hebrew Miryam) was one of the most common women’s names in New Testament times, and so it is not surprising that the crucifixion and resurrection narratives seem to speak of as many as five separate Marys.  These women are usually identified in some way in order to distinguish them, but in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 27:61, Matthew 28:1) one is simply called “the other Mary.” Who was this “other Mary” and why was she called by that name – if it was, in fact, a name?

If we put the various accounts together that mention the women at the crucifixion and at the tomb of Jesus, we find:

Mary Magdalene (mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
Mary, mother of James and Joseph or Joses (mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke)
Mary, the wife of Clopas (mentioned in John)
Mary, mother of Jesus (mentioned in John)
Mary, “the other Mary” (mentioned in Matthew)
(One other woman, Salome, the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John, is also mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.)

We know who several of these Marys are – Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene present no problem.  Mary the wife of Clopas was also known as the wife of Alphaeus (Acts 1:13), the Hebrew form of which was Cleopas.

Notice what Matthew tells us regarding the women present at the crucifixion:  “Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph [Joses] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons” (Matthew 27:56). A few verses later Matthew continues:  “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb” (Matthew 27:61). 

Of these women, we know that the mother of Zebedee’s sons was Salome (Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:56), so “the other Mary” Matthew mentions would seem to be the same as Mary the mother of James and Joses.  James was one of the disciples and his father was Alphaeus – “James the son of Alphaeus” (Matthew 10:3 and Luke 6:15).  

Putting these facts together we see that it is likely that Mary the mother of James and Joses was the same person as Mary the wife of Alphaeus who was called Clopas or Cleopas.  This would mean that “the other Mary” mentioned in Matthew 27:61 was not a separate Mary, but simply the Mary other than Mary Magdalene whom he had mentioned a few verses earlier.  This would mean that Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and “the other Mary” were in fact the same person.

According to many biblical scholars, and in early Christian tradition from the time of Papias of Hierapolis (c. AD 70-163), this Mary was the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus and the wife of Alphaeus, as we apparently see in John 19:25: “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene."  So the “other Mary” may well have been Jesus’ aunt (and her husband, Clopas, his uncle).

This question arises because the gospels refer to the “brothers” and “sisters” of our Lord.  In the New American Bible’s English translation of the Gospel of St. Mark, we do indeed read about the crowd asking, “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, a brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  Aren’t his sisters our neighbors here?” (Mark 6:3).  A similar reference occurs earlier in Mark 3:31 — “His mother and brothers arrived….”

The problem emerges in understanding the meaning of the word brother.  In the original text of the gospel, we find the Greek word adelphos, meaning brothers, used.  However, adelphos does not just mean blood brothers born of the same parents.  Rather, adelphos was used to describe brothers not born of the same parents, like a half-brother or step-brother.  The word also described other relationships like cousins, nephews, uncles, etc.  For example in Genesis 13:8 and 14:14-16, the word adelphos was used to describe the relationship between Abraham and Lot; however, these two men did not share a blood brother relationship, but one of uncle and nephew.  Another instance is that of Laban, who was an adelphos to Jacob, not as a brother, but as an uncle.  (In the New American translation, “kinsman” or “relative” will be used in these Old Testament cases; I do not know why this is not true in the English translation of the gospel.)

The same meanings are true for the word sister in Greek.  For example, in I Chronicles 23:21-22, the sons of Kish married their “sisters,” a literal translation of the text, but in reality they married their cousins.

Actually the confusion originates in Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of most of the original Old Testament texts and of Christ.  In these languages, no special word existed for cousin, nephew or aunt, half-brother or half-sister, or step-brother or step-sister; so they used the word brother or a circumlocution, such as in the case of a cousin, “the son of the brother of my father.”  When the Old Testament was translated into Greek and the New Testament written in Greek, the word adelphos was used to capture all of these meanings for male relatives.  So in each instance, we must examine the context in which the title is used.  In all, the confusion arises in English because of the lack of distinct terms for relatives in the Hebrew and Aramaic, and the usage of the Greek adelphos to signify all of these relations.

Nevertheless, other gospel passages clarify these relationships.  James and Joses were the sons of Mary of Cleophas (Mark 15:40).  Mary of Cleophas is described in the Gospel of John as our Blessed Mother’s “sister” (John 20:25); obviously, she must have been a cousin, and James and Joses thereby cousins of our Lord.  Judas was the son of James (not either of the apostles) (Luke 6:16).  James the lesser was the son of Alphaeus (Luke 6:15).  James the greater and John were the sons of Zebedee with a mother other than our Blessed Mother Mary (Matthew 20:20ff).

The gospels are also very clear that Mary was a virgin at the time she conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-38).  Remember when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary God’s plan, she responded, “How can this be since I do not know man?”  After the birth of our Lord, although the gospels do not give us many details of His childhood, no mention is made of Mary and Joseph ever having other children.  Never does it refer to the “sons of Mary” or “a son of Mary,” but only the son of Mary.

This point is again corroborated at the crucifixion scene:  Before He dies, our Lord says to Mary, “Woman, there is your son,” and then to St. John, who is definitely not a blood brother, “There is your mother.”  According to Jewish law, the oldest son had the responsibility of caring for the widowed mother, and that responsibility would pass to the next oldest if anything happened to the first born son.  By this time, St. Joseph had died.  Since Jesus, the first born, had no “blood brother,” He entrusted Mary to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple.

Interestingly, the Orthodox Churches solve this problem over brothers and sisters by speculating that St. Joseph was a widower who had other children before he married Mary.  These brothers and sisters would really then be half-brothers and half-sisters.  Perhaps this notion is why St. Joseph sometimes appears elderly in paintings.

Actually, this whole confusion is not new.  About 380, Helvidius suggested that the “brethren” were the children born of Mary and Joseph after Jesus.  St. Jerome declared this as a “novel, wicked, and daring affront to the faith of the whole world.”  In his On the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Mary, St. Jerome used both Scripture and the fathers like Saints Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus and Justin Martyr to refute Helvidius.  Later, the First Lateran Council (649) definitively declared that Mary was “ever virgin and immaculate.”  Therefore, as Catholics, based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition, we do not believe that Mary and Joseph had other children and consequently that Jesus had blood brothers and sisters.

Who is the mother of James and Joses?

Who was James the Less and Joses?

Who is the father of James and Joses?

Did Jesus name his brother Joses?