The Jesus Dynasty / James Tabor

In Mark 6:3 the brothers of Jesus are named as James, Joses, Judas, and Simon and his sisters are mentioned but not named.
Matthew changes this to read: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55). Luke, true to his desire to marginalize James and the brothers of Jesus in favor of Peter and Paul, drops the reference to the brothers and sisters entirely (Luke 4:22). One must keep in mind here, and with all these examples, that Matthew and Luke have Mark before him, so these changes are deliberate and for a purpose, not passing and of no consequence. Matthew loses the “nickname” Joses, of Jesus’ second brother, and changes it to the more formal name: Joseph. He also moves Simon ahead of Judas in the order. I think Mark is listing the brothers in order of birth, as would be the standard practice, but Matthew wants to put Simon before Judas, since he took over leadership of the group after the death of James (I take “Simon bar Clophas” as a brother, not cousin of Jesus).

The form of the name Joses or Jose (Yose in Hebrew) is a very important detail that Mark preserves for us. He mentions him again in 15:40 and 47, as the son of Mary and brother of “James the Kid” (my translation of James the “younger”). He also mentions here and in 16:1, Salome, very likely one of Jesus’ sisters, involved with his mother and Mary Magdalene in the rites of burial for Jesus’ body. This second brother of Jesus, known by this nickname Yose, is preserved in a few manuscripts of Matthew 27:56, but by and large, without Mark, we would have lost it. This second brother of Jesus is a kind of “mystery” when it comes to the Jesus family. James we know, as he took over leadership of the group after Jesus death in 30 CE until is own murder in 62 CE. Simon then assumed leadership. We also have letters from James and Jude in the N.T. But other than these precious references in Mark, Yose has disappeared from history. It is very likely that he died before 62 CE, when James was killed, or he would have taken the lead before Simon, but we know nothing of the circumstances.

John never names the brothers of Jesus but he does refer to Mary, the mother of James and Joses, mentioned in Mark, as the “wife of Clophas.” I have argued in The Jesus Dynasty that this is Jesus’ mother, not “Mary a sister of Mary,” and that after Joseph’s death she married his brother, Clophas (also known elsewhere as Alphaeus). In fact, Mark also knows a “James son of Alphaeus,” his brother Jude, and a Matthew/Levi, son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14; 3:18), all part of Jesus’ council of Twelve. I am convinced they are half-brothers of Jesus, and once again, it is Mark who knows these sorts of details.

I have also speculated that in John the “disciple whom Jesus loves” is in fact, James, his “kid” brother, who lays on his breast at the last supper, and into whose hand he delivers the care of their mother at his death (John 19:25-27). This mysterious figure, introduced only at the Last Supper (13:23), and mentioned in the last chapters of John, that depend on the eyewitness testimony of this disciple, is never referred to by name (19:26; 19:35; 20:2; 21:7, 20-24). It makes no sense to think, as tradition holds, that he is John son of Zebedee, since Jesus surely would not turn over the care of his mother to this “Son of Thunder” whom he often rebukes for his lack of humility and compassion, and who, according to Mark, fled from the scene of the cross (Mark 10:35; Luke 9:54; Mark 14:50).