The Desposyni
The Desposyni (plural from Greek desposynos) “of or belonging to the master or lord” , as in Greek (despotes) “Lord, Master”) [1] is a contemporary term used to refer to alleged blood relatives of Jesus. The New Testament names Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his brothers, James the Just, Joses, Simon and Jude [2]. According to Mark, Jesus’ mother and brothers were at first skeptical of Jesus’ ministry but later became part of the Christian movement[3] . Saint James, “the Lord’s brother,” presided over the Jerusalem church after the apostles dispersed. Jesus’ kinsmen likely exercised some leadership among neighboring Christian communities until Jews were expelled from the area with the founding of Aelia Capitolina. [4]
The most natural inference from the New Testament is that Jesus’ brothers were children of Mary and Joseph born after Jesus. Tertullian, possibly Hegesippus, and Helvidius accepted this view [5]. In the 4th century, however, Saint Jerome rejected this view in favor of Mary’s perpetual virginity [6] . Jerome held that these men were sons of Mary’s sister, also named Mary. Saint Epiphanius and the Eastern Church, however, regard these “brothers” as Joseph’s sons from a former marriage. A modern proposal has these men as the sons of Clopas (Joseph’s brother according to Hegesippus) and Mary (not identified as the Blessed Virgin Mary’s sister).
In Catholic and Orthodox Christian belief, Mary alone is counted as a direct blood relative due to the doctrine of Perpetual Virginity, Joseph only as a foster father, and the rest as close relatives with no direct blood ties, such as step-siblings or cousins. In Protestant Christian belief, the desposyni include his mother Mary, his cousin John the Baptist (Luke 1:36); as well, his brothers as named in the New Testament. In Ebionite belief, Joseph was viewed as the biological father of Jesus. Different sects of Christians hold broadly divergent interpretations of what actual relation the family members listed in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 may have had with Jesus, as a mortal or in his risen manifestation as “the Christ” [7] . Eastern Christianity, following Eusebius, believes that they were “Joseph’s children by his (unrecorded) first wife.” Roman Catholicism, following Mark 15:40, Mark 16:1, John 19:25 and Jude 1 agrees with Jerome that they were Jesus’ cousins, sons of another Mary, the wife of Cleopas, which the Greek word for “brother” or “relative” used in the Gospels would encompass. Following Hegesippus, Clopas was the brother of Joseph, and Simon was the cousin of Jesus. Both beliefs agree with the tradition that Mary remained a perpetual virgin [8], thus having no biological children before or after Jesus. While such notable reformers as Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, as well as the 18th Century evangelist Wesley affirmed the perpetual virginity of Mary, “I believe that He was made man, joining the human nature with the divine in one person; being conceived by the singular operation of the Holy Ghost, and born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought Him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin” most Protestants today believe that these family members were in fact the biological children of Mary and Joseph [9]. Scholars of the historical Jesus suggest that the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity has impeded the recognition that Jesus had brothers and sisters [10].
According to the Synoptic Gospels, and particularly the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was once teaching a large crowd near the home of his own family, and when this came to their attention, his family went to see him and “they” said that Jesus is “…out of his mind.” [11]
Mark 3:20-21 NRSV
Then he went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’
Mark 3:20-21
And he comes back home, and the crowd gathers again, to the point where they couldn’t even eat a meal. Hearing of that, his folks came out [from Nazareth] intending to take him away, saying, “He’s gone mad!”
In the narrative of the Synoptic Gospels, and of the Gospel of Thomas, when Jesus’ mother and brothers are outside the house that Jesus is teaching in, Jesus tells the crowd that whoever does what God wills would constitute his mother and brothers (The Gospel of Thomas). According to Kilgallen [12], Jesus’ answer was a way of underlining that his life had changed to the degree that his family were far less important than those that he teaches about the Kingdom of God. The Gospel of John states that Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him, because he wouldn’t perform miracles with them at the Feast of Tabernacles.There is much disagreement over whether the brothers referred to by these narratives are actual brothers or merely stepbrothers or cousins – argued to be valid translations for the underlying Greek term (adelphos) brethren in Christ. The official Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox doctrine is that Mary was a perpetual virgin, and so could not have had any other children besides Jesus, thus making these Jesus’s stepbrothers, sons of Joseph by another, unrecorded marriage (since according to Christian doctrine Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, such children would have no relation to Jesus whatsoever), or cousins. Only Tertullian seems to have questioned this in the early Church. Islam also holds that Mary was a perpetual virgin as did many of the early Protestants, although many Protestants today do not hold to the doctrine of perpetual virginity, and would thus believe that these are Mary’s children.The negative view of Jesus’ family portrayed in Acts and the Gospels may be related to the conflict between Paul of Tarsus and Jewish Christians, who held Jesus family in high regard, for example at the Council of Jerusalem. [13]
Historical accounts of the Desposyni
Hegesippus (c.110-c.180) wrote five books of Commentaries on the Acts of the Church. They are lost, but a few fragments are quoted by Eusebius in Historia Ecclesiae, 3.20. Among them is the following relation, ascribed to the reign of Domitian (81-96):
Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiae, 3.20
There still survived of the kindred of the Lord the grandsons of Judas, who according to the flesh was called his brother. These were informed against, as belonging to the family of David, and Evocatus brought them before Domitian Caesar: for that emperor dreaded the advent of Christ, as Herod had done. So he asked them whether they were of the family of David; and they confessed they were. Next he asked them what property they had, or how much money they possessed. They both replied that they had only 9000 denaria between them, each of them owning half that sum; but even this they said they did not possess in cash, but as the estimated value of some land, consisting of thirty-nine plethra only, out of which they had to pay the dues, and that they supported themselves by their own labor. And then they began to hold out their hands, exhibiting, as proof of their manual labor, the roughness of their skin, and the corns raised on their hands by constant work. Being then asked concerning Christ and His kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to appear, they returned answer that it was not of this world, nor of the earth, but belonging to the sphere of heaven and angels, and would make its appearance at the end of time, when He shall come in glory, and judge living and dead, and render to every one according to the course of his life. Thereupon Domitian passed no condemnation upon them, but treated them with contempt, as too mean for notice, and let them go free. At the same time he issued a command, and put a stop to the persecution against the Church. When they were released they became leaders of the churches, as was natural in the case of those who were at once martyrs and of the kindred of the Lord. And, after the establishment of peace to the Church, their lives were prolonged to the reign of Trajan.
In “The Ecclesiastical History”, Eusebius records an account by Sextus Julius Africanus recorded the following concerning the family:
Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiae, 1.7.11,13-14
For the relatives of our Lord according to the flesh, whether with the desire of boasting or simply wishing to state the fact, in either case truly, have handed down the following account…But as there had been kept in the archives up to that time the genealogies of the Hebrews as well as of those who traced their lineage back to proselytes, such as Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabitess, and to those who were mingled with the Israelites and came out of Egypt with them, Herod, inasmuch as the lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to his advantage, and since he was goaded with the consciousness of his own ignoble extraction, burned all the genealogical records, thinking that he might appear of noble origin if no one else were able, from the public registers, to trace back his lineage to the patriarchs or proselytes and to those mingled with them, who were called Georae. A few of the careful, however, having obtained private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by getting them in some other way from the registers, pride themselves on preserving the memory of their noble extraction. Among these are those already mentioned, called Desposyni, on account of their connection with the family of the Saviour. Coming from Nazara and Cochaba, villages of Judea, into other parts of the world, they drew the aforesaid genealogy from memory and from the book of daily records as faithfully as possible. Whether then the case stand thus or not no one could find a clearer explanation, according to my own opinion and that of every candid person. And let this suffice us, for, although we can urge no testimony in its support, we have nothing better or truer to offer. In any case the Gospel states the truth.” And at the end of the same epistle he adds these words: “Matthan, who was descended from Solomon, begat Jacob. And when Matthan was dead, Melchi, who was descended from Nathan begat Eli by the same woman. Eli and Jacob were thus uterine brothers. Eli having died childless, Jacob raised up seed to him, begetting Joseph, his own son by nature, but by law the son of Eli. Thus Joseph was the son of both.”
Conclusion
Considering the prominent place that Jesus’ family held in the Jewish Christian sect that emerged following his death, one has to conclude that he had a good relationship with his family. His mother and brothers all worked together to continue his ministry, and after their deaths, the leadership of the Jerusalem church remained in the hands of his grand nephews. Moreover, during his ministry, there are several clues that indicate his family was actively involved prior to his death. For example, his mother Mary initiates the first of Jesus’ “acts of power” (turning water into wine) at the Ca’na wedding (John 2) and his mother and brothers join Jesus and his disciples for several days in Capernaum (John 2:12). Moreover, It’s his brothers who encourage him to display his miracles in public (John 7:5), and his brother James is considered one of the apostles to whom the risen Jesus appears (1 Corinthians 7; 1 Galatians 18). Looking at all the evidence, pro and con, Butz (2005) concludes: “on balance there is more evidence to support a positive role for Jesus’ family in his ministry than a negative one .”
NOTES:
[1] Liddell, Henry George & Scott Robert. A Greek-English Lexicon
[2] Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. 2005
[3] Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. p. 527-534.
[4] Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. 2005
[5] Eusebius in Historia Ecclesiae, 3.20.
[6] idem.
[7] Witherington, Ben, p.30. Witherington lists a fourth possibility, that they were the full brothers and full sisters of Jesus, but notes that “this explanation does not mesh with most Christians’ belief that God not Joseph, was Jesus’ father.” .
[8] Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, §10.17
[9] Witherington, Ben, p.30–31
[10] Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. Harper San Francisco. 1998. “Mark,” p. 51-161 [11] Gaus, Andy. Unvarnished New Testament 1991
[12] Kilgallen J.J. Biblica 79 (1998) p. 69-75
[13] Wilson, A.N. Jesus: A life. 1992. New York: Norton & Co
[14] (St.) Hegesippus was a Christian chronicler of the early Church who certainly wrote against heresies of the Gnostics and of Marcion. The date of Hegesippus is insecurely fixed by the statement of Eusebius that the death and apotheosis of Antinous (130) occurred in Hegesippus’ lifetime, and that he came to Rome under Pope St. Anicetus (Bishop of Rome, ca 175-189) and wrote in the time of Pope St. Eleuterus.