BELIEF: Jesus was an only child.

STATUS: MYTH.

That Jesus had siblings is clearly indicated in the Gospels. Luke’s Gospel refers to Jesus as Mary’s “firstborn,” implying that she later bore other children.c (Luke 2:7) Mark’s Gospel reports that some in the city of Nazareth equated Jesus with his siblings, regarding him as nothing special. They asked: “Aren’t James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon his brothers? Don’t his sisters still live here in our town?”​—Mark 6:3, Contemporary English Version; Matthew 12:46; John 7:5.

Despite what the Gospels say, many theologians maintain that Jesus was an only child. Some suggest that the brothers and sisters in question were actually Jesus’ cousins.d Others speculate that these siblings were Mary’s stepchildren. But consider: If Jesus were Mary’s only child, would those Nazarenes have said what they did? On the contrary, some of them likely witnessed Mary’s pregnancies with their own eyes. They knew firsthand that Jesus was one of many children born to Mary.