article_snippet: For Catholics, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are a family unit unto Catholics, Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
article_snippet: Yet Catholic theology also holds that Jesus was God's son, born of the virgin -- and that Mary did not give birth to other children, divine or otherwise. 'Finding Jesus':
article_snippet: But Catholics also believe in Mary's perpetual virginity, so Martin surmises that James and the other brothers were Joseph's children from a prior marriage."It makes sense that Joseph would have been older and Mary was younger, so
article_snippet: I see Joseph would have been older in a sense as stepbrothers.
article_snippet: Other Catholic scholars see James and Jesus  as cousins, an idea that began in the fourth century, when St. Jerome, who translated the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament into Latin, argued the point against the theologian Helvedius, who said Mary and Joseph had other children. '
article_snippet: Jerome countered that other children were instead born to Mary of Clopas, Jesus aunt.
article_snippet: Protestants, however, see Jesus family as free of ambiguity, with Mary and Joseph having several children.
article_snippet: One of Mary and Joseph having several children is Jesus -- but the question then becomes, which one?
article_snippet: The New Testament says nothing about Mary being a perpetual virgin, The New Testament says Mary virginally conceived Jesus, and The New Testament certainly implies that Mary went on to have more children after that, and his brothers and sisters are in fact his brothers and sisters," Witherington says.
article_snippet: What's more contentious for some Protestants, is the fact that Jesus, as the eldest in the family, essentially forsook his obligation as next-in-line to head the family after Joseph died.
article_snippet: Instead Joseph followed Joseph divine destiny, as ordained by Joseph father in heaven.