All emphasis will be mine.

Certain opponents of the blessed Mother’s perpetual virginity reference Eusebius’ church history to show that Jesus is said to have had brothers according to the flesh, which they take to mean from Mary:

Chapter 19. Domitian commands the Descendants of David to be slain.

But when this same Domitian had commanded that the descendants of David should be slain, an ancient tradition says that some of the heretics brought accusation against the descendants of Jude (said to have been a brother of the Saviour according to the flesh), on the ground that they were of the lineage of David and were related to Christ himself. Hegesippus relates these facts in the following words.

Chapter 20. The Relatives of our Saviour.

1. Of the family of the Lord there were still living the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord’s brother according to the flesh.

2. Information was given that they belonged to the family of David, and they were brought to the Emperor Domitian by the Evocatus. For Domitian feared the coming of Christ as Herod also had feared it. And he asked them if they were descendants of David, and they confessed that they were. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had only nine thousand denarii, half of which belonged to each of them.

4. And this property did not consist of silver, but of a piece of land which contained only thirty-nine acres, and from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor.

5. Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor.

6. And when they were asked concerning Christ and his kingdom, of what sort it was and where and when it was to appear, they answered that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly and angelic one, which would appear at the end of the world, when he should come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and to give unto every one according to his works.

7. Upon hearing this, Domitian did not pass judgment against them, but, despising them as of no account, he let them go, and by a decree put a stop to the persecution of the Church.

8. But when they were released they ruled the churches because they were witnesses and were also relatives of the Lord. And peace being established, they lived until the time of Trajan. These things are related by Hegesippus.

9. Tertullian also has mentioned Domitian in the following words: Domitian also, who possessed a share of Nero’s cruelty, attempted once to do the same thing that the latter did. But because he had, I suppose, some intelligence, he very soon ceased, and even recalled those whom he had banished.

10. But after Domitian had reigned fifteen years, and Nerva had succeeded to the empire, the Roman Senate, according to the writers that record the history of those days, voted that Domitian’s honors should be cancelled, and that those who had been unjustly banished should return to their homes and have their property restored to them.

11. It was at this time that the apostle John returned from his banishment in the island and took up his abode at Ephesus, according to an ancient Christian tradition. (Ecclesiastical History, Book III)⁽¹⁾

The assumption is that the phrase “according to the flesh” (KATA SARKA), proves that these brothers of Jesus were Mary’s offspring.

However, the Greek words do NOT necessarily mean they were ACTUAL BLOOD brothers. KATA SARKA is used in various ways in Scripture and in early Church History.

For instance, in an early Christian document Saint Joseph is referred to as father of Christ KATA SARKA (“according to the flesh”):

2. There was a man whose name was Joseph, sprung from a family of Bethlehem, a town of Judah, and the city of King David. This same man, being well furnished with wisdom and learning, was made a priest in the temple of the Lord. He was, besides, skilful in his trade, which was that of a carpenter; and after the manner of all men, he married a wife. Moreover, he begot for himself sons and daughters, four sons, namely, and two daughters. Now these are their names — Judas, Justus, James, and Simon. The names of the two daughters were Assia and Lydia. At length the wife of righteous Joseph, a woman intent on the divine glory in all her works, departed this life. But Joseph, that righteous man, my father after the flesh (KATA SARKA), and the spouse of my mother Mary, went away with his sons to his trade, practising the art of a carpenter…

17. These are the words spoken by Joseph, that righteous old man. And I, going in beside him, found his soul exceedingly troubled, for he was placed in great perplexity. And I said to him: Hail! My father Joseph, you righteous man; how is it with you? And he answered me: All hail! My well-beloved son. Indeed, the agony and fear of death have already environed me; but as soon as I heard Your voice, my soul was at rest. O Jesus of Nazareth! Jesus, my Saviour! Jesus, the deliverer of my soul! Jesus, my protector! Jesus! O sweetest name in my mouth, and in the mouth of all those that love it! O eye which sees, and ear which hears, hear me! I am Your servant; this day I most humbly reverence You, and before Your face I pour out my tears. You are altogether my God; You are my Lord, as the angel has told me times without number, and especially on that day when my soul was driven about with perverse thoughts about the pure and blessed Mary, who was carrying You in her womb, and whom I was thinking of secretly sending away. And while I was thus meditating, behold, there appeared to me in my rest angels of the Lord, saying to me in a wonderful mystery: O Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take Mary as your wife; and do not grieve your soul, nor speak unbecoming words of her conception, because she is with child of the Holy Spirit, and shall bring forth a son, whose name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Do not for this cause wish me evil, O Lord! For I was ignorant of the mystery of Your birth. I call to mind also, my Lord, that day when the boy died of the bite of the serpent. And his relations wished to deliver You to Herod, saying that You had killed him; but You raised him from the dead, and restore him to them. Then I went up to You, and took hold of Your hand, saying: My son, take care of yourself. But You said to me in reply: Are you not my father after the flesh (KATA SARKA)? I shall teach you who I am. Now therefore, O Lord and my God, do not be angry with me, or condemn me on account of that hour. I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaiden; but You are my Lord, my God and Saviour, most surely the Son of God. (History of Joseph the Carpenter (c. 400))

The foregoing illustrates that, according to the flesh is used because they were either related to Christ in some sense, i.e., blood relatives, or because they were of the same race/tribe/lineage. I.e., Jesus’ adoptive father Joseph is physically related to Christ because they are both descendants of David and of the tribe of Judah.

In reference to Jesus’ brothers, this is meant to convey that they were more than spiritual brothers, since they were also related to him by race. This is contrast to the Gentile believers who would be Christ’s spiritual siblings.

We even have a NT example illustrating this point:

“For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” Romans 9:3-5

Here the blessed Apostle distinguishes the Israelites from the Gentiles since the former are his brothers ethnically, being his kinsmen, from whom Jesus also belonged according to the flesh.  

Finally, and more importantly, Eusebius who employed the phrase kata sarka in reference to Jesus’ siblings is also explicitly clear that Mary remained ever virgin:

“Nay more it ought to have been that the sons of his mother, since they also likewise prophecy to the former. But he [the Psalmist] did not name the sons of his mother ‘brothers’ (aldelphous), as the other [order], that is following the first order of his aforenamed brothers. So, it is that his disciples have become like his brothers, about whom also in another place [Psalm], he says:

‘I will announce my name to my brothers (adelphois), and I will hymn you in the midst of the Church.” And in the Gospel, he [Jesus] appeared to Mary after the resurrection of the dead, saying: “Walk toward my brothers, and tell them: ‘I go up to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.’

“An alien he was become to the sons of his mother, of a truth not also to those… being his ‘brothers.’ The Gospel has remembered “his brothers” and “mother”, when, he went into his own country (Mark 6), he taught in their synagogue, to the effect that they [the people there] were surprised and said: “Whence this wisdom from him? Is not this who is son of a carpenter? Is not his mother and his brothers (adelphoi) and are all his sisters among us? Whence all these things from him?” Now, therefore, if we would take the so-called sons (in what is at hand) of his mother to be those [referred to in the Psalm], it is then necessary that the holy Virgin appears to become the mother of “the rest of his brothers.”

Mother? For he [Jesus] was no alien regarding them, but quite precious [to them]: such that his aforesaid brothers are not to be regarded sons as belonging to Mary…” (Eusebio: Comentario en los Salmos, Patrología Griega DCCXXXVII B)

Note that Eusebius is careful to note over and over that post-birth and presently during Christ’s ministry that Mary is a virgin. I.e., she is ever virgin!

The foregoing shows that the very authority whom those that oppose Mary’s perpetual virginity did not intend the phrase “according to the flesh” to convey that these brothers of Christ were from the blessed Mother.

FURTHER READING

PROTESTANT SCHOLAR ON MARY’S VIRGINITY IN THE EARLY CHURCH

What the Early Church Believed: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary

Church Fathers on Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

THE WOMB OF THE VIRGIN: GOD’S MOST HOLY PLACE

EARLY CHURCH ON MARY AS THE NEW AND GREATER EVE

FRANCIS TURRETIN ON THE PERPETUAL VIRGINITY OF MARY

THE REFORMERS ON MARY’S PERPETUAL VIRGINITY

ENDNOTE

(1) Elsewhere, Eusebius mentions some of the Lord’s relatives who came to positions of authority within the early church:

Chapter 11. Symeon rules the Church of Jerusalem after James.

1. After the martyrdom of James and the conquest of Jerusalem which immediately followed, it is said that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord that were still living came together from all directions with those that were related to the Lord according to the flesh (for the majority of them also were still alive) to take counsel as to who was worthy to succeed James.

2. They all with one consent pronounced Symeon, the son of Clopas, of whom the Gospel also makes mention; to be worthy of the episcopal throne of that parish. He was a cousin, as they say, of the Saviour. For Hegesippus records that Clopas was a brother of Joseph. (EH, Book 3)

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