Acts i, 21, 23.IV. JOSEPH, or Joses, the son of Mary Cleophas, was brother to S. James the less, and a near relation to our Lord Jesus Christ after the flesh, being the son of Mary the blessed Virgin’s sister, and Cleophas Joseph’s brother, or son to Joseph himself, as several of the Antients suppose, who have asserted, that Joseph was married to Mary Cleophas, or Escha, before he was married to the Virgin. There are some who believe Joseph the son of Mary Cleophas to be the same with Joseph Barsabas, sirnamed the Just, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and was proposed with S. Matthias to fill up the traitor Judas’s place. But there is no certainty at all in this. We learn nothing particular in Scripture concerning Joseph the brother of our Lord. If he was one of those among his near kinsmen who did not believe in him, when they would have persuaded him to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, some months before his death, it is probable that he was afterwards converted; for it is intimated in Scripture, that at last all our Saviour’s brethren believed in him; and S. Chrysostom1 says, that they were signalized for the eminency of their faith and virtue.
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Footnotes
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Chrysost. in Matth. homil. 5. p. 59. b. in Acta homil. 3. p. 38. in Joan. homil. 20. p. 134. e. ↩