Joses: A Brother Named, A Story Untold

A man of the New Testament era

Joses is a man who lived at the time of the New Testament, placed in the era of around 4 BC to AD 33 (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). Scripture names him five times, in two books: twice in Matthew and three times in Mark. His father is Joseph and his mother is Mary; his brothers are Jesus, James, Simon and Jude. That is the whole of his footprint. Five verses, four passages, and never more than a single verse at a time. He belongs to the tribe of Judah.

A name in the crowd's question

The first two mentions are not scenes in which Joses acts. They are lists spoken by other people about someone else. In Mark 6:3 the crowd asks, "Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" and Mark adds, "They were offended at him." Matthew records the same complaint with the same names in a different order: "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?" (Matthew 13:55).

Read carefully, Joses is not the subject of either sentence. He is evidence in an argument. The speakers are trying to cut a man down to a size they can manage, and the way they do it is to recite his family: mother, brothers, sisters, all of them known, all of them ordinary, all of them, as Mark 6:3 puts it, here with us. Joses is one of the names that made the claim seem impossible. His name was familiar enough to be used that way.

Named at the cross and the tomb

The remaining three mentions come at the end of the Gospels, and here too Joses is named for the sake of identifying someone else. "There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome" (Mark 15:40). Matthew's list runs the same way: "Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee" (Matthew 27:56). Then, when the burial is recorded, the identification is shortened to one son only: "Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid" (Mark 15:47).

That last verse is worth pausing over. A woman is standing where she can see where he was laid, and the way the Gospel tells us who she is, is by naming Joses. He is not there in the text himself. Nothing is said of where he was or what he did. His name serves as the label that lets a reader know which Mary is watching.

What Scripture does not charge against him

The dossier records no sin, no failure and no misstep of Joses. It is important to say that plainly rather than to borrow a fault from somewhere else. The only offense named in these five verses belongs to other people: "They were offended at him" (Mark 6:3). That is the reaction of the crowd that recited his family, and Scripture as given here does not tell us whether Joses shared it, resisted it, or said anything at all. To assign him a share in that offense would be to write a sentence the text has not written.

What we do not know

We do not know when Joses was born or when he died. No children of his are named. No wife is named. No word of his is recorded, no journey, no decision, no death. There is no scene told about him anywhere in Scripture: every one of his five mentions is a list, a genealogy or a passing note. We are not told what he made of his brother's work, nor whether he stood anywhere near the cross or the tomb. The Gospels leave all of it unsaid, and honesty about him means leaving it unsaid too.

The line to Christ

What these five verses do establish is a household. Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55 set Joses inside the same family as the carpenter, the son of Mary whose brothers are James, Joses, Simon and Judas, and whose sisters were known to those asking the question. He is named as one of the brothers of Jesus, and his name was one of the ordinary facts people threw at Jesus to prove that the claim before them could not be true. Mark 6:3 records what came of it: "They were offended at him."

And the closing mentions place his mother's name in the last hours. Mary the mother of James and Joses is watching the crucifixion from afar in Mark 15:40 and Matthew 27:56, and she is there at the burial in Mark 15:47, seeing where he was laid. Joses himself is only a name in that sentence. But his name is on the page of the burial account, and the Gospels found it worth writing down.