Jesus' family members

[Sexton Blake]

Mark 6

 

1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.

 

2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

 

3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

 

4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

 

5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

 

 

* Verse 3. There is some effort to try and tell us that these are merely part of the same christian community as Jesus, when surely the people talking are also part of the same community (verse 1)? There is also the meaning "womb" so actual brothers and sisters, which some claim were born to Mary, AFTER Jesus. What happened to them, these people with common names and the unnamed sisters (common in the bible for women not to be named, or even mentioned as in the family of Adam and Eve.)

 

* The all important Joseph who has lengthy genealogies attributed to him in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 has vanished without any explanation. Jesus is now called "the carpenter", something he supposedly worked at for maybe 20 years?

 

* Poor Jesus can do no mighty works. It seems that like God in Judges 1:19 who was helpless against iron chariots, even Jesus has his off days.

[mwc]

     According to the Infancy Gospel of James all these other folks are just the kids Joseph had from a previous marriage.  So now he's old and not interested in sex or anything.  Mary was a given to him by lot at age of 12, to get her out of the temple or something so it meant he had to participate like it or not, and she gets knocked-up at 16 all while Joseph is away working.  Skip ahead and they go to Bethlehem for the enrollment but they're not properly married and Mary gives birth.  At that point the gal that helps out sees that she's a virgin not only before the birth but after the birth as well and has another gal come in and feel around in Mary to verify this.  This is basically why Mary is considered a perpetual virgin.  She didn't birth anyone except the one kid and that didn't change her virgin status.  Using the biblical narratives alone Mary is free to have many children.

 

     Those are still jesus' family because in Mark 3 the same story basically happens with fewer details except with one added point:

Quote

21 When his family[b] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

...

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

     His family do not believe in him.  They show up (his mother and brothers...no sisters this time).  And in this version he says that those that do god's will are his family essentially disowning his own family members.  But the parallels show he had a mother and brothers in the narrative whether he chooses to own them or not on theological grounds.  These are a literal. not figurative, family.

 

     I do enjoy that jesus' magic is contingent on people believing in him.  By simply not believing in jesus he can only eek out the most basic of "miracles" (probably because that's all the energy he could muster from those around him).  So he's all belief powered.  No belief means no power.  That's a terrible weakness for what is supposed to be an all-powerful god.  It also seems localized like he couldn't take belief power from those in other areas of Israel that believed in him.  He needs the locals to believe so he can draw on it directly not remotely.  I have no idea what the author was thinking with this nonsense but I bet they thought it was great at the time.

 

          mwc