So... Jesus had brothers?

Abstract:
I kind of go on a big explanation of Jesus' brothers and why I didn't know they existed. Unless you have an interest in Biblical theology and the Catholic/Protestant differences, you can skip the big paragraph.

I was actually pretty productive today. I finished reading my articles for my epi report and I finished my detailed outline. That means that I just have to write the paper and go through and edit it a few times and I'm done. I still need to hear back from the people that I have to present with, though.

At 4:30, I went to CIF. We were talking about John 2, where Jesus turns water into wine. First of all, I would just like to comment on how cool it would be to have Jesus, in the flesh, at your wedding! But I digress. I found out something that I never knew today. Jesus had brothers! Well, half-brothers. (Imagine having to follow in his footsteps! And I thought that it was hard being the youngest in my family!) Anyway, the passage says something about Jesus' mother, brothers, and disciples. Whenever I read brothers in the Bible before, I never really thought of them as actual brothers, but Owen said that it meant his actual brothers. I couldn't really focus on anything else during CIF or church because I was just dumbfounded. I guess I found another difference between Catholic and Protestant teachings!

I had messaged Rohan about it during the break for dinner, and he gave me some Bible passages to look at when I got home from church. Apparently Jesus also had sisters. The Catholic teaching is that Mary was a perpetual virgin, which is something that I learned when I took Catholic Christianity my last semester at Hope. That just didn't really make sense to me because she married Joseph. I just figured that they never actually had any kids together. But then I started reading the New Testament shortly after I got back from Easter camp. In Matthew 1:25, it says that "he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus." I took this to mean what evidently most Protestants believe. But then I looked at my Catholic edition of the Bible that I have. (I bought a non-Catholic one from CIF, so I have both now.) The Catholic one has an asterick, so I went to the Appendix. It says "this means only that Joseph had nothing to do with the conception of Jesus. It implies nothing as to what happened afterward." So... where did those brothers (and sisters) come from if they "had no union." I also looked at the passages that listed Jesus's brothers and the Catholic Bible says brethren instead of brothers. It also has an asterick that explains that it the original text doesn't really explain how close in relation they really were. I also looked it up online to make sure that I wasn't crazy thinking that Catholicism teaches of Mary's perpetual virginity, and I wasn't. Here's the link I found that explains how they explain the brothers. Rohan just gave me this link and this link, too. Now my head hurts.

Back to the rest of my day, between CIF and church, Junnan and Lizzy were arguing over whether or not Iron Man is a jerk. I could actually participate in that conversation because now I've seen an Iron Man movie! Neither of them had seen the third one yet, though. Junnan couldn't believe that the only superhero movies I've seen were The Avengers and Iron Man 3. I think that Rohan plans to change that, though. I also got an email from a coursemate that wants me to check his biostats assignment over before he submits it. It makes me feel so smart when people come to me for help in a class. Other than that, I just printed my stuff for this week and tried to relax a bit because I was really tired at church. But I just finished looking up that Bible stuff about Jesus' brothers, so I feel more awake again. Except that Rohan gave me those other links so now my head hurts, but I'm more awake. Good grief!