In the former post I mentioned The Burial of Jesus, a collection of essays published by the Biblical Archaeology Society. All but one of the essays in that collection addressed ancient tombs. One essay, however, written by Richard Bauckham and titled “All in the Family: Identifying Jesus’ Relatives,” attempted to provide information regarding Jesus’ family in the early history of the church from both Biblical and extra-biblical sources. I found the topic and article quite interesting, and wanted to share Bauckham’s findings with you here.
The NT tells us very little about Jesus’ family. First Corinthians 9:5 and Galatians 1:19 speak of “the brokers of the Lord.” Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 identify them by name: James, Joseph/Joses, Judas, and Simon. They also tell us Jesus had sisters, but do not specify how many or identify them by name (although I would argue that Matthew’s reference to “all His sisters” makes better sense if Jesus had at least three sisters since one would ordinarily refer to a group of two individuals using “both” rather than “all”). The Protoevangelium of James 19:3–20:4, the Gospel of Philip 59:6–11, and Epiphanius Panarion 78.8.1 and 78.9.6 identify Jesus’ sisters as Mary and Salome. Since the name Salome was very popular in Palestine and very rare outside of Palestine, this tradition may be historically accurate.
Thinking to Believe 