BRETHREN OF THE LORD, THE. A term which occurs but once in the New Testament (I. Cor. ix. 5: "Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a believer, even ns the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?"), though the phrase 'the Lord's brother' is used once of James (Gal. i. 19: "But other of the apostles saw I none, save .James, the Lord's brother.").
In view of these and other passages that refer apparently to actual brothers and sisters of giving the names of the former as James and :loses (Joseph) and .Judas and Simon (Matt. xii. 46-50; and parallels, xiii. 55; xxviii. 10; Mark vi. :3; John ii. 12; vii. 3, 5. 10: xx. 17; acts i. 14), there has existed, ever since the Patristic Age, a large controversy regarding the degree of consanguinity involved in the above term.
Three views have obtained: (1) The Helvidian —first asserted by Tertullian (e.208 A.D.) and restated by Helvidius (e.380 A.n.)— that these brethren were later sons of Mary by -Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus. (2) The Epiphanian
first appearing in the Second Century apocry phal hooks, the Gospel of Peter and the Prote vangelium of James, and chiefly supported by Epiphanius (c.370 A.D. 1 —that these brethren were sons of Joseph by a former marriage. (3) The Ifieronymian — promulgated by Jerome (c.380 A.D.) —that these brethren were cousins of .Tesus, being sons of Clopas or Alphous, the husband of a sister of Mary.
Of these views, the first is fatal to. while the latter two sustain, the theory of the per petual virginity of Slary.
Consult: For the first view, J. B. Mayor, Introduction to his Commentary on James (Lon don. 1897) : for the second view, J. B. Lightfoot, Excursus in his C0111111ell tary on ttalatians (Cambridge and London, 1887) : for the third view, P. Schegg, Jakobus der Bruder des Herrn (Munich, 1883). See .1.01us.