Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger (Less) and of
Joses (Joseph), and Salome.” Who is this “Mary the mother of James the
younger and of Joses?” Of the Marys mentioned in St. John 19:25 it must
be Mary the wife of Clopas, not Mary the “mother of Jesus,” as the Virgin
Mary is never mentioned by any other title in the Gospels except as
“mother of Jesus.” Furthermore, we know that the father of James the
younger was Clopas, the husband of Mary of Clopas (St. Mark 3:18),
making Mary of Clopas James’ mother. Jude was also a son of Clopas and
the Virgin Mary’s sister as Scripture speaks of him as a brother of James
the younger: “James son of Alphaeus (Clopas), and Simon the Zealot, and
Judas (Jude) the brother of James” (Acts 1:13). Evidently, Our Lord had
cousins by the names of James, Joseph and Jude.
One can safely state then that the “brothers” of Our Lord––as mentioned in
St. Matthew 13:54-57 being James, Joseph, Jude––are in fact the same
James, Joseph and Jude who were His cousins. It would be forcing
credulity to believe that the Virgin Mary and her older “sister” both had the
same names and also had children with the same names. One can expect,
also, that after St. Joseph died, the Virgin Mary would have gone with Our
Lord to live with or nearby her older “sister,” explaining why she was
traveling with those mentioned in St. Matthew 12:46. It is a clear example
of the word “brother” being used to refer to a first or second cousin.
Some Protestants attempt to scuttle the above reasoning by claiming that in
St. John 19:25 there are in fact four women, not three. They argue that “his
mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas” are in fact two different women
indicated by the placement of the comma between “sister” and “Mary.”
Hence, the Virgin Mary and Mary of Clopas are not blood related and their
children cannot be cousins. The counter argument is founded on Galatians
1:19, where St. Paul calls the Apostle James “the Lord’s brother.” Why
does St. Paul use such a term for St. James and which St. James is he
referring to? There were only two Apostles named James––James the Great
son of Zebedee and Salome, and James the Less the son of Alphaeus
(Clopas) and Mary. Neither had St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary as their
parents. In fact, St. Paul is referring to St. James the Less and calls him “the
Lord’s brother” because his mother (Mary of Clopas) and the mother of
Jesus were “sisters” according to St. John 19:25.
 |
 |
 |