There Is History That Joseph Was a Widower with Four Children. Can You Prove That the Children Attributed to Mary Were Not Indeed Inherited?
1) Direct Answer
Yes. The “widower with four children” story is not Scripture. The Bible presents Jesus’ brothers and sisters as Mary’s own children born after the virgin birth.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Psalm 69:8 says of the Messiah, “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.” John 2:17 and Romans 15:3 apply Psalm 69 directly to Jesus. Now notice, it says “my mother’s children,” not “my father’s children.” That fits the virgin birth and shows Mary had other children.
- Matthew 1:25 says Joseph “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.” “Till” shows normal marital union followed the birth of Jesus, and “firstborn” points to more children afterward.
- Matthew 13:55-56 and Mark 6:3 name His brothers—James, Joses, Simon, Judas—and mention His sisters as present among them. The people said, “Is not this the son of Mary… and his brethren… and his sisters…?” That is natural, household language.
- John 2:12; Matthew 12:46; John 7:5 show “his mother and his brethren” moving and standing together as one family.
- Galatians 1:19 and 1 Corinthians 9:5 speak plainly of “the Lord’s brother.”
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- The Bible never says Joseph had previous children. That’s a later story, not the Word.
- The Messianic Psalm settles whose children they are—“my mother’s children.”
- “Till” and “firstborn” align with Mary and Joseph entering normal married life after Jesus’ birth.
- Jesus giving Mary to John at the cross doesn’t deny other sons; at that time His brothers did not believe (John 7:5). He entrusted her to a believing disciple present.
4) Reinforcing Statement
We don’t build doctrine on tradition. We stay with the Scripture: Jesus had brothers and sisters, Mary’s own children, born after His virgin birth.
Existing Follow-Up Answers
- Every "thing" God Ever "borrowed" Was Paid Back with Interest. Would It Not Be Inconsistent of God's Character to Borrow Mary's Womb and Not Repay?
1) Direct Answer No inconsistency at all. God did not "borrow" Mary's womb; God created a body by His Word and overshadowed a virgin. Then He hon
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Jehovah-Jireh
58-0127 §2
The little boy, many of you know the story of little Joseph. The Lord showed him to me six years before he was ... come to the earth. And He promised me a boy, because I like Joseph so well. I could sympathize with him, because he was born, saw visions, could interpret dreams, and he was hated by his brethren without a cause. I always felt sorry for Joseph, and I was weeping one day over at Minneapolis, back in a little closet, and the Lord said, "You shall have a son; you'll call his name Joseph." Well, I couldn't...
Fellowship
56-0212 §22
I remember little Joseph, my little boy. You know where Joseph was promised to me, at? Right here in Minneapolis about six years before he was born. I was over here one day reading Joseph in the Bible, and I seen what a perfect man he was. We had one little girl at the time, been four years before she come, and she was a cesarean and then about four years had passed again. They said they didn't think she'd ever ... wife would ever have another child, and I went in and was weeping and the joys just pouring down. I w...
Mary's belief
59-0409 §6
...them from the hand of the enemy, and by great signs and wonders, and fed them in the wilderness for forty years. And they came out of the wilderness, a forty-year journey, with not a feeble one among them. Even their clothes didn't wear down. What a great God that they had! But at the end of his message he ruined what he had been talking about when he said that those great days of Jehovah dealing with people like that, it wasn't necessary no more. They had become settled down in their homeland, and they didn't exa...
The ministry of Christ
53-0607A §30
He said, "Now look, that was just a little slip-up," said, "Joseph was going with this woman ... that girl." He was a widower, four children. And said, "Now look, he was going with that woman, I believe there's just a little slip-up, don't you?" I said, "No, sir! I believe He was the unadulterated Son of God, born a virgin birth." Said, "How could it be?"
God's Word calls for a total separation from unbelief
64-0121 §20
It's always a connection with the spoken Word of God, God's promise for the day. And when it comes, it's so unusual till people can hardly grasp it; because we're so sewed into ... to forms and ideas of our own, that it's hard for us to grasp what's truth. I think much of that would apply to Joseph, in the days of Mary in her maternity. She was to be mother; and Joseph loved her, and he wanted to believe. He was a righteous man, a good man. And he wanted to believe that story that Mary was telling him, but still th...