Are James and Joseph the Brothers of Jesus?

We read in Matthew 13:55-56

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?

Protestants will point to this verse and say that this proves that the Perpetual Virginity of Mary is false. Is that so?

It is true that the most natural reading of the Greek word for "brothers" and "sisters" is read to mean blood brothers. As many good Catholics have already pointed out, while the word does encompass the blood brother understanding, it is by no means limited to it. And plenty of early church witnesses testify that they are his cousins. The early church is by no means unanimous, some think they are his blood brothers, others think they are cousins, while some others think they are St. Joseph's children from a previous marriage before he married Mary. But my point is that the early church does provide precedent for the belief that Mary had no other children.

Scripture itself may indicate that James and Joseph were not the blood brothers of Jesus, however, since it later identifies them in Matthew 27:55-56

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, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

We know that these are the same James and Joseph because the Bible doesn't differentiate them from the earlier James and Joseph. When there are multiple Marys, Sacred Scripture gives them certain distinguishing features, like this one is Magdalene, this one was Mother of so and so, etc. So, in the absence of any differentiating property, we safely presume they are the same James and Joseph.

Now we ask, is Mary mother of God also the mother of James and Joseph? Probably not. Matthew 27:61 reads

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

So Matthew tells us there are two Marys at the crucifixion. We already know Mary Magdalene. But here, we read Matthew call who we are supposed to think is Mary mother of God as, "the other Mary". This seems improbable. It is further improbable that Mary would be at a distance when in Johns gospel, she is described as being at the foot of the cross. It is also improbable that the mother of Jesus would be denoted with the title of "Mother of James and Joseph" when the main character of the entire gospels is Jesus. So the mother of James and Joseph is also probably not the mother of Jesus, and so James and Joseph are probably not the blood brothers of Jesus.

A knock out case? No, but it should at least establish that reading "brothers" and "sisters" in the most natural way to mean blood brothers and sisters can no longer be presumed.

For a more detailed explanation of the passages, see Dr. Brant Pitre's excellent study here.