Jude, brother of Jesus

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1 References in the Canon
2 Early references outside the Canon
3 Current positions
4 External links

[edit] References in the Canon

Judas or Jude is mentioned in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55 as a brother of James and of Jesus.

The identity of the "Judas [son] of James," mentioned among the apostles in Luke 6:16, is debated. A common Greek idiom regularly followed a man's name with his father's name in the genitive case— the ordinary way in the papyri. Early English translators, William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale, understood this idiom correctly in translating Luke, but Theodore Beza introduced "brother of James," which passed through the Geneva Bible (1560) ("Iudas Iames brother") into the King James Version of the Bible (Luke 6:16).

[edit] Early references outside the Canon

Hegesippus (ca 110 A.D. – ca 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 A.D.:

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. (See Desposyni.)

[edit] Current positions

A local tradition of eastern Syria identifies Jude with the Apostle Thomas, also known by them as Jude Thomas, who they believe is the twin brother of Jesus Christ.^{[citation needed]}
Protestants believe Jude is the uterine half-brother of Jesus Christ. A literal brother of Jesus, but at the same time not the Jude who is one of the twelve Apostles.^{[citation needed]}
The Eastern Orthodox Church views Jude as a stepbrother of Jesus by a previous marriage of Joseph that was never mentioned in the canonic Gospels.^{[citation needed]}
The Roman Catholic Church holds the belief, first expressed by Jerome, that Jude is a first cousin of Jesus, a son of Clopas the brother of Joseph, or Mary the sister of Jesus' mother Mary.^{[citation needed]} The Catholic New American Bible opens its introduction to the Epistle of Jude

"This letter is by its address attributed to "Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James" (Jude 1:1). Since he is not identified as an apostle, this designation can hardly be meant to refer to the Jude or Judas who is listed as one of the Twelve (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13; cf John 14:22). The person intended is almost certainly the other Jude, named in the gospels among the relatives of Jesus (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), and the James who is listed there as his brother is the one to whom the Letter of James is attributed (see the Introduction to James). Nothing else is known of this Jude, and the apparent need to identify him by reference to his better-known brother indicates that he was a rather obscure personage in the early church."

See also the further disambiguation at Jude.