The Bible says that Mary had other children.

Matthew 13: 55-56 states, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Jude? And are not all his sisters with us?”

Reading this through 21st-century American glasses would imply that Jesus did have brothers and sisters. To really understand what this meant, you would have to put on your first-century Jewish glasses. Jesus didn’t speak English or Spanish or Italian. Jesus spoke Aramaic, and there is no word for cousins in Aramaic. The word for brother and sister was also used when referring to cousins. This would explain the above passage and several other passages in the Gospels referring to Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

This can also be looked at in comparison with modern cultures. In many present day cultures, the words cousin, uncle, brother, aunt, etc., aren’t used only to describe one’s biological cousin, uncle, brother, aunt, etc. Cousins, who grow up together and are very close, many times refer to each other as brother and sister. A father or mother may have a very close family friend that the children of the household refer to as Uncle. This interchange of terms is seen from Latin cultures of Europe and Latin America to countries such as India. The point here is that even modern-day cultures do not use the term brother or uncle solely for referring to a brother or uncle. The usage of these terms is very flexible, and this is how they were used in Israel 2000 years ago.

How do the various Churches interpret these passages? The Catholic, Orthodox, and various Apostolic Churches of Africa and the East are the only Churches that historically can be traced back to the Apostles. These Churches, which believe and agree on 99% of the same doctrines and dogmas, all interpret the biblical passages referring to Jesus’ brethren to mean cousins and have done so since the Apostolic era.

Not until the 16th century did various Protestant groups start interpreting these passages literally to mean biological brothers and sisters. Even though some of the Protestant reformers, such as Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Wesley, also believed that Mary remained a virgin her whole life. If one wants to know true Christianity, one must go back to the writings of Early Church Fathers. (the Christian leaders who were taught by the Apostles) They believed what the Catholic Church taught and believed for 2000 years.