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Q u i c k Q u e s t i o n s
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This Rock
Volume 3, Number 5 & 6
 May-June 1992 
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Does Greek Prove Jesus Had Brothers?
Q: Since coming back to the Catholic Church after attending Calvary Chapel for nearly ten years, I've learned how to refute all the arguments used to attack Mary's perpetual virginity. But recently I was stumped by my former pastor by an argument I've never heard before. He said Mary definitely had other children besides Jesus because the New Testament uses the Greek word for brother in Matthew 13:55-56. He said the Greek words for cousin or nephew could have been used instead if that was in fact the relationship. He insisted this Greek word is never used in the New Testament to mean anything else except sibling.
A: The pastor is half right and half wrong. He's right about the fact that the Greek word for brother (adelphos; plural: adelphoi) does mean sibling and about the fact that Greek has precise words for cousin, nephew, and other close relations. He's also correct in pointing out that adelphos is the word used whenever there's a mention of Jesus' "brothers" (Matt. 12:46; 13:55-56; Mark 6:3; John 7:5; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5).
He's wrong, though, to infer from that bit of grammatical truth that Mary had children other than Jesus, mainly because he's wrong in claiming that adelphos can only mean sibling in the New Testament. In Matthew 13:55-56 four men are named as brothers (adelphoi) of the Lord: James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude. Your former pastor concludes wrongly that these are at least some of Mary's other children. The New Testament proves otherwise.
In John 19:25 we read, "Standing by the foot of the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of Magdala." Cross reference this with Matthew 27:56: "Among them [at the cross] were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee." We see that at least two of the men mentioned in Matthew 13 were definitely not siblings of Jesus (although they're called adelphoi); they were Jesus' cousins--sons of their mother's sister.
The Bible is simply silent on the exact relationship between Jesus and the other two men, Simon and Jude, mentioned in Matthew 13. This proves two important things. First, it proves that the Greek word for brother is sometimes used to mean something other than sibling, and it proves that Matthew 13:55-56 in no way demonstrates that Mary had other children.
Q: At a recent R.C.I.A. meeting a fellow instructor and I clashed over her claim that it's neither scriptural nor a formally defined doctrine of the Church that Jesus is wholly present under either species at Mass. She said this belief is just an "out-of-date pious custom" and that Catholics should always receive both the species in order to "fully participate at Eucharist."
A: This instructor needs to take some basic instruction in the Catholic faith before she tries to teach others. She's wrong on both counts. First, the Church has formally defined the doctrine that Jesus is completely present, Body and Blood, soul and divinity, under the appearance of the consecrated bread or the wine. This doctrine was officially taught by Pope Martin V in 1418 in his bull Inter Cunctas and formally defined as dogma at the councils of Constance (1415), Florence (1439), and Trent (1551), and it was reiterated at Vatican II (Instruction on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery, section 32).
For the clearest biblical evidence, look at 1 Corinthians 11:27: "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or [not "and"!] drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and the blood of the Lord." This means that reception of either the host or the wine carries the same reality of Jesus' Body and Blood.
Q: My husband and I homeschool our children. We give them a thorough education in areas such as the lives of the saints, the sacraments, and Church doctrine, but we strive to do it as much as possible in a Bible-centered way. We want to teach them to discover their Catholic faith as it's rooted in Scripture. One thing we haven't found verses for is the Church's teaching that Christians should study the lives of the saints and imitate their virtues. Is this biblical?
A: Very. Paul said: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1); "So they glorified God because of me" (Gal. 1:24); "I implore you, brothers, be as I am, because I have also become as you are" (Gal. 4:12); "Join with others in being imitators of me, brothers, and observe those who conduct themselves according to the model you have in us" (Phil.3:17); "Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you" (Phil. 4:9); "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers" (1 Thess. 1:6-7); "We instruct you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you know how one must imitate us" (2 Thess. 3:6-7).
Perhaps the author of the Letter to the Hebrews said it best when he exhorted all Christians to "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith" (13:7).
Q: I was born and raised in the Mormon Church, went on a mission, and did everything a good Mormon should do, including tithing. Since my wife and I converted to the Catholic Church we still have nagging doubts that we should be tithing to our parish (as we did when we were Mormons: ten percent of our gross income), except that it's much harder to do so now that we have several children. The Mormon Church taught me that tithing is mandatory. What's the Catholic Church's position?
A: Although the Church teaches that offering some form of material support to the Church is obligatory for all Catholic adults who are able to do so, it doesn't specify what percent of one's income should be given. Remember, tithing was an Old Testament obligation that was incumbent on the Jews under the Law of Moses. Christians are dispensed from the obligation of tithing ten percent of their incomes, but not from the obligation to help the Church.
The key to understanding how God wants us to give to the Church is found in 1 Corinthians 16:2, "On the first day of the week [Sunday] each of you should set aside whatever he can afford," and in 2 Corinthians 9:5-8, "So I thought it necessary to encourage the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for your promised gift [donation], so that in this way it might be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an exaction. Consider this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work."
To paraphrase: God doesn't demand a fixed amount of money from us; he wants us to give from the heart. If people are forced by their church to give a certain percent of their income, that's extortion. If they give freely and cheerfully the amount they are able, that's a gift.
Q: A Jehovah's Witness commented that the veneration of relics is superstitious and condemned by the Bible. I had no idea how to respond.
A: You might start by saying that although the ancient Christian practice of venerating the relics of saints, especially martyrs, can be abused in a superstitious way by some who misunderstand the purpose of relics, it is not itself in any way superstitious.
A relic is an object, such as a piece of clothing or, more commonly, a piece of bone from a saint's body, which has spiritual value because it belonged to one of God's saints. The Bible records many accounts of the value of relics and even episodes of miraculous events connected with them. "People brought to [Jesus] all who were sick and begged him that they might only touch the tassel on his cloak, and as many as touched it were healed" (Matt. 14:35-36; cf. Mark 6:56; Luke 8:43-44). It was not uncommon for ordinary objects, like the tassel on the Lord's cloak, to have miraculous characteristics. Look also at Acts 5:15, where even Peter's shadow could cause miraculous healings.
Regarding the relics of saints, especially martyrs (about whom the Bible says, "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his holy ones" [Psalm 116:15]), look at 2 Kings 13:21: "Elisha died and was buried. At the time, bands of Moabites used to raid the land each year. Once some people were burying a man, when suddenly they spied such a raiding band. So they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet."
Q: I'm criticized because I'm willing to talk about not just what unites Catholics and non-Catholics, but also about what divides them. I'm told I should just respect other people's beliefs and keep my mouth shut. What do you think?
A: It depends partly on what you do when you keep your mouth open. Make sure that you conduct yourself, whatever you do, whatever you say, in a charitable manner. It's not enough to protest "I love non-Catholics" if you bash them with uncharitable words. We run into lots of anti-Catholics who bash Catholics and say, at the same time, how much they love "Romanists."
If this kind of thing isn't a failing of yours, then we can consider the next point. Should you respect other people's beliefs? You need to distinguish between respecting other people and respecting all or part of their beliefs.
Five centuries ago, should you have respected the Aztec belief in human sacrifice? Today should you respect the New Age belief that many people walking around now used to be princes or princesses in ancient Egypt? "No" to both. Such beliefs aren't worthy of respect because they're simply wrong. (Who would insist that a geophysicist "respect" the belief that the Earth is flat?)
You never should respect error, though you should respect the erring, because God loves them. You should respect whatever is true in other religions. It's not an all-or-nothing proposition. You can reject the errors while respecting the true elements.
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