Jesus Had Brothers And Sisters

By James Donahue

Hard-line Christians and especially the Roman Catholic Church perceive "The Virgin Mary" as a pure woman who never experienced sex with a man throughout her entire life. But this is an absurd idea that stems from the fact that the Catholics pray to Mary perhaps as much if not more than they do to God or Jesus.

There seems to be a stigma that marks a woman as unclean after she has experienced sex with a man and lost her virginity. The very story of Jesus being born to a virgin is somewhat absurd since she and Joseph were obviously husband and wife at the time Jesus was born. They were living and traveling together, thus making it almost mandatory by Jewish law that they were married.

That they were married when Jesus was born means that Mary had probably lost her hymen by the time the Baby Jesus came out of her womb. Had this not happened, the very act of delivering the baby might have been medically problematic if not extremely painful for Mary.

Of course the Catholic church teaches that Mary remained a virgin even after Jesus was born, and that his birth also was an immaculate experience, just as her pregnancy had been. And the Book of Matthew teaches that Joseph followed the angelic order and "did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son." Thus, according to Catholic dogma, Mary’s hymen remained intact both before and after the birth of Jesus.

If we accept the Catholic story completely, we must assume that poor Joseph never ever experienced sexual relations with his wife. And that is not only ridiculous, but it conflicts with the Biblical text itself.

In Matthew 15 we read where the people of Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up, failed to recognize him as the Son of God when he attempted to teach them at the local temple. They mocked him asking: "Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Juda? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"

From this simple verse we know that there were at least four brothers and more than one sister. The sisters are never named and their numbers never given. Thus we know that Jesus grew up in a home filled with brothers and sisters.

Mark 3:31 tells how "Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived" to visit him while he was teaching in a private home somewhere near Jerusalem.

And John 7:7 states that "even his own brothers did not believe in him."

These are references to the family of Jesus found in the text that was allowed in the Christian Bible by the church leaders who participated in the collection and translation of the first books placed in the complete Bible under Pope Damasus I in 382. There were numerous other books in existence that might have offered more detailed information about the family of Jesus.

That they were omitted from the Bible as we know it today is probably significant. The Catholic Church, which was instrumental in collecting the books that were included in the Bible, was bent on portraying Mary as the miraculous virgin mother of Jesus. That she ever accepted a man’s penis in that sacred vagina was too terrible a thought for them to accept.

The church wanted to believe Mary was married to God and not Joseph. To this day the women to enter the church as nuns also consider themselves married to God and they reportedly maintain their virginity. Strangely, the priests in that church also refuse to marry and allegedly maintain their sexual virtue for life.

Of course we know that a lot of priests have ravaged the young altar boys over the years. Is there not something wrong with this picture?