The Holy Scriptures indicate that Jesus had several siblings—at least four brothers and an unknown number of sisters. The names of the brothers are explicitly recorded in the King James Version (KJV).
The Brothers of Jesus
The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark both record the names of the four men referred to as Jesus’s brothers.
“Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?” — Matthew 13:55-56 (KJV)
Based on this and a similar passage in Mark 6:3, Jesus is cited as having:
- Four Brothers: James, Joses (a variant of Joseph), Simon, and Judas.
- Sisters: Mentioned in the plural (“his sisters, are they not all with us?”), indicating a minimum of two sisters, though their names are not provided in the Bible.
This means Jesus had at least six siblings in total (four brothers and at least two sisters).
Significance of the Siblings
The scriptures also highlight the spiritual journey of Jesus’s siblings:
- Initial Unbelief: The Gospel of John notes that initially, “neither did his brethren believe in him” (John 7:5, KJV).
- Post-Resurrection Faith: Following Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, two of Jesus’s brothers became prominent figures in the early Christian church:
- James: He became a key leader in the Jerusalem church and is traditionally considered the author of the Epistle of James in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul refers to him as “James, the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19, KJV).
- Jude (Judas): He is traditionally considered the author of the short New Testament book of Jude, where he humbly identifies himself as a “servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” (Jude 1:1, KJV).