<P> The literal translation of the words "brother" and "sister" is an objective problem, because of the very little number of quotations, and their polysemy in the family of Semitic languages </P> <P> In the 3rd century, biological relatives on account of their connection with the nuclear family of Jesus, without explicit reference to brothers or sisters, were called the desposyni, from the Greek δεσπόσυνοι, plural of δεσπόσυνος, meaning "of or belonging to the master or lord". The term was used by Sextus Julius Africanus, a writer of the early 3rd century . </P> <P> The Gospel of Mark 6: 3 and the Gospel of Matthew 13: 55--56 state that James, Joses (or Joseph), Jude and Simon were the brothers of Jesus, the son of Mary . The same verses also mention unnamed sisters of Jesus . Mark 3: 31--32 tells about "Jesus' mother and brothers" looking for Jesus . A verse in the Epistle to the Galatians 1: 19 mentions seeing James, "the Lord's brother", and none other of the apostles except Peter, when Paul went to Jerusalem after his conversion . The "brothers of the Lord" are also mentioned, alongside (but separate from) Cephas and the apostles in 1 Corinthians 9: 5, in which it is mentioned that they had wives . Some scholars claim that Jesus' relatives may have held positions of authority in the Jerusalem area until Trajan excluded Jews from the new city that he built on its ruins . </P> <P> That the brothers were children of both Mary and Joseph was held by some people of the early centuries; The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church claimed that Tertullian (c. 160--c. 225) was one of them . The 3rd - century Antidicomarianites ("opponents of Mary") maintained that, when Joseph became Mary's husband, he was a widower with six children, and that he had normal marital relations with Mary, but they later held that Jesus was not born of these relations . Bonosus was a bishop who in the late 4th century held that Mary had other children after Jesus, for which the other bishops of his province condemned him . Jovinian, and various Arian teachers such as Photinus held a similar view . When Helvidius proposed it, again in the late 4th century, Jerome, representing the general opinion of the Church, maintained that Mary remained always a virgin; he held that those who were called the brothers and sisters of Jesus were actually children of Mary's sister, another Mary, whom he considered the wife of Clopas . The terms "brothers" and "sisters" as used in this context are open to different interpretations, and have been argued to refer to children of Joseph by a previous marriage (the view of Epiphanius of Salamis), Mary's sister's children (the view of Jerome), or children of Clopas, who according to Hegesippus was Joseph's brother, and of a woman who was not a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus (a modern proposal). </P>

Where does the bible talk about jesus brothers