Loading...Here is a question I get with some fair regularity, and which I have addressed several times on the blog in the past. Since I made a few posts on the Coptic Gospel of Thomas last week, I’ve received it again several times — including this succinct way of asking.
QUESTION:
I’m perplexed by how Jesus could have had a twin brother. Jesus was miraculously conceived of the holy spirit so how did a twin get into Mary’s womb at the same time?
RESPONSE:
Here is what I’ve said before about the matter which, for what it’s worth, is one of the most intriguing in early Christian traditions, from where I sit:
*************************************************
I have mentioned in passing that there were some early Christians who thought that one of Jesus’ brothers, Jude (or Judas: both are translations of the same Greek word), was actually a twin. Not just of anyone, but of Jesus himself. Some readers have expressed surprise in the most succinct way possible, by asking: “Huh??”
I talk about the matter in a couple of my previous publications, especially when speaking about early Christian apocryphal texts that deal with the missionary exploits of the apostles after Jesus’ death. We have several of these, including an Acts of Thomas. Like the other apocryphal Acts (such as the more famous Acts of Thecla – an account of the adventures of the apostle’s Paul most famous legendary convert, an upper-class woman named, obviously, Thecla), this one celebrates the virtue of celibacy and sexual renunciation, and it actually uses the idea that Jesus had an *identical* twin to advance its views. I’ll explain how it does that in the next post. In this one I’ll deal directly with the background issue, of how Jesus could have an identical twin brother.
Most of this is taken from my book Lost Christianities
*******************************************************
The view of sexual renunciation found in the Acts of Thecla recurs in other Apocryphal Acts as well. One of the most intriguing is the Acts of Thomas, an account of the exploits of the apostle Thomas, probably written in Syria some time in the third century. It is a famous account, in that it is the first to present the well-known legend that the apostle Thomas became a missionary to India. One of the most striking features of the text is that it assumes that this apostle Thomas was Jesus’ brother. The name Thomas, in fact, is an Aramaic equivalent of the Greek word Didymus, which means “twin.” Thomas was allegedly Jesus’ identical twin, otherwise known as Jude (Mark 6:3), or Didymus Judas Thomas.
One might wonder how some early Christians could have thought that Jesus had a twin brother. If, after all …
To see the rest of this post, I’m afraid you have to belong to the blog. On the good news front, it is cheap and easy to join. And every penny goes to help those in need. So why not?
I’ve long had a private theory about this subject. And that’s because I have a twin–born 9 years after me.
My youngest sister and I look so much alike, it sometimes stuns friends of one of us who meet the other for the first time. My sister’s daughter used to stare very hard at me when she was a newborn, and we said I was “right-handed Mommy” (my sister is left-handed, oddly). In many cases, we can only tell which one of us is in a childhood photo by clues like the house or car in the background. And at every wedding, after a glass or two of wine, my sister makes sure everyone knows that she is NINE YEARS YOUNGER! People have, in fact, asked us if we are twins.
My guess is that Jesus had a younger brother who looked just like him, enough that people remarked on it, maybe sometimes even mistaking one for the other. People who met them as adults may even have assumed that they were born-together twins (“syn-[insert Greek word for ‘born’]”). After Jesus’ death, this idea could easily have become canon among the early followers of Jesus (“Yes, look at Jude! Jesus looked exactly like that!”).
Thoughts?
Hi, I am a retired OB/GYN. The phenomenon of a woman carrying two fetuses from different fathers can happen and has happened. Besides, the quotation from Isaiah is better translated as “a young woman” not as “a virgin”. The idea of a woman being pure if and only if she is a virgin is misogynistic and has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit coming upon her after or before becoming pregnant with Joseph.
Unrelatedly, I had my name attached to my account when I used the three month trial, thank you. But when I tried to pay for a year the account told me that I already had an account and would not accept me. So I quickly used the name of my wonderful dog.
Is there something wrong with my post?
Go ahead and send me a private email so we can figure it out. [email protected]
Yes, Isaiah’s passage means young woman. Matthew’s means virgin. And yup, two fetuses: possible. One of them by a virgin birth from a divinity, well, probably not….
Prof Ehrman,
Please, how do you contrast this notion of Jesus’s twin with the Church’s tradition that Mary remained a virgin till death. Please were there gospels or accounts of this tradition or the Church just made this up at a point?
It doesn’t match up. those who had the tradition of Thomas as the twen did not also have the tradition of the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Prof Ehrman,
Is the view of perpetual virginity of Mary supported by any account – whether canonical or non-canonical?
And is purgatory also supported by any account – whether canonical or not?
There are later authors who support both, yes. They both became standard teachings of the church in the Middle Ages.
I attended Catholic school till the 12th grade. It never occurred to me that Mary remained a virgin until death (I guess even after death too, unless the mortician was creepy). Maybe it was assumed by our teachers that we understood that to be true, but I don’t recall it ever being discussed. I surely could not phantom that to be true. That would have just been too much. Resurrection from the dead, sure, why not, but a virgin till death – impossible! 🙂
Well it’s always been a big issue, at least for some Catholics. When I taught at Rutgers about three-fourths of my stdudents were Cathoic, and the one thing that really completely blew their minds (no matter what else they learned in the New Tesatment class) was that I thought Jesus actually had BROTHERS!!!
Isn’t it just as likely, or perhaps more likely, that early Christians did not believe Jesus was born of a virgin until substantially after his death when some of his followers decided he was the Messiah and gospel writers, in reliance on the mistranslation of “almah” in Isaiah 7:14 as “virgin” instead of “young woman,” decided he needed to have been born of a virgin in order to be the Messiah?
I don’t think the view was around in the early decades of the church, or widley even after that in the first century. In the entire NT it’s found only in Matthew and Luke.
This reminds me of the recent/old search by the American military to find Osama Bin Laden. A reporter was interviewing an American soldier in the Afghanistan,Pakistan border where the search mission was being conducted, and was asked why it was becoming long and difficult to find Bin Laden, and the soldier replied sincerely,” Everyone around here looks the same, do you know how difficult it is to know which one is Bin Laden ? It’s like there are thousands of him”. I imagine after a ten year search for him, there was plenty of relief amongst the military people involved in the mission.
Thank you for your article. Can you do a post about your library and any Bibliophile insights you would like to share. Is there a particular used book you found that is dear to you? What would be a big find? I really enjoyed your post on reading so much and taking notes.
Ah, interesting idea. thanks.
The interesting point about this tradition is that it resembles the plot of the Gospels about Judas and his twin brother, Thomas
In fact, Judas did not betrayed Jesus and this is just a lie in the literal level of the narrative that must be rejected due to multiple contradictions with the metaphoric level of the narrative.
The role of the twin of Judas is exactly this that it justfies Judas beeing seen after allegation of his suicide. Twin of Jesus could play the same role, since it paves the way for Jesus to be seen, after allegation of his ascention. In fact, twin of Jesus is no one than Jesus himself.
If it is a pseudonymous schripture, it would probably fall into the same category wich several other scriptures written at that time.
Since both the Gospel /Acts of Thomas tends toward/are Christian gnostic schriptures , the term «Twin», could easily have a more symbolic understanding (Spiritual twins, or Twins in level of knowledge») which the Christian gnostics mentioned alot in the Gospel of Thomas. Unity (marriage and twin?perhaps), is also a major theme in the Valentinian gnosticism,and for example like the Gospel of Philip says, «The Lord said, “I came to bring the lowest to the Highest and the outer — to the inner. and to unite them there.”
In this Christian gnostic cosmology, where all come from «One», and using In The Apocryphon of John the Creation is portrayed as a series of emanations moving outward from the ancient Unity at their centre.(symbolized as emination of a watery light) This expression point to oneness where our existance is just reflections of the oneness’ “thought” in different guises. (our level of existance, as Carl Jung’s psycospiritaul perspective claim that the physical is only the top of the iceberg).
Even the Christ and from it Sofia was “eminated” (concieved of light more than created) in the beginning (upper aeons) Valentinian gnostisism seems to emphazise the realtionship between Christ and Sophia who had it’s earthly expression in Jesus and Maria Magdalen (suggested! idea through for example through the Gospel of Philip, verse 32 adn 63, and in the Valentinian Exposistion), destined to reunite/reconsiliation in the “Bridal Chamber” and after this, the destined unification in the bridal chamber and then our own ascend/reconciliaton /unification with God and become one,,,,again.
From such «unification» persepctiv the «twin» might in my unscholarly free thoughts mean “closely related” or as “spiritual twin”,,,,,,,,,and the twin expression could still be true.
Your response is quit good, and about the closest as one can get. That twin is known as Union of the spirit and is on a spiritual level, and if one wants that experience the best way is to learn Yoga . Prayer and meditation required.
It’s not the strangest case of strange biology. Leda had sex with Zeus in the form of a swan and laid two eggs. Fowl play indeed.
I first read about Jesus having a twin brother in non-scholarly, sensationalist works back in the 90s and dismissed it as a deliberate attempt to provoke Christians, particularly Catholics, who don’t accept that Jesus had any full siblings at all. So it was only when I read your books, Dr Ehrman, that I realised that there was a valid basis for this claim. But I have read other experts on Early Christianity (eg Dr Brakke) who say that Thomas looked a lot like Jesus and was called Twin for that reason but was not an actual twin. What is your view on that?
The texts don’t say one way or the other, so I’m not sure why if a text calls him the twin, one wouldn’t think he was a twin. David Brakke almost certainly doesn’t think there was a Jesus look-alike (these stories are legendary). Where does he say that?
I’m pretty sure he (David Brakke) says that Thomas was probably thought to be a look-alike in one of his Great Courses lectures on The Apocryphal Jesus.
I’d be surprised — but I’m not counting it out!
Off-topic question:
Bart, is it only you who approve all the comments or there is someone else who helps you to do it?
C’est moi.
Since Jude is listed after James and Joseph and before Simon in Mark 6:3, could we assume then that Jude was the twin of either Joseph or Simon because brothers were usually listed by age?
Were they? Maybe so. Still, none of these sources that think of Thomas as a twin refers to the Mark passage.
Paul’s letters and the Gospel of Mark give no details of Jesus’ birth, leaving open all sorts of possibilities, including a twin brother. However, by the time Matthew and Luke were composed they thought it important to show that Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus’ birth, which seems to rule out a true twin. Do you think the virgin birth was already proto-orthodoxy by the time those Gospels were written, or did it take some time for it to become so?
I think they introduced the idea.
Being a devout, lifelong Christian who respects and loves my Lord with all my heart, I will reply the following: History is replete with true accounts of great men and women whose lives made tremendous, positive impacts upon humanity. People like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom we were taught to respect because of all of the good they accomplished for our country. Unfortunately, but because of the tendencies of human imagination and folk lore, both of these men have also been accused of shameful acts such as the hypocritical acts of owning slaves while pronouncing their objection to it. Thomas Jefferson, supposedly (but not surprisingly) has biracial descendants; not that it is shameful to have biracial descendants, but shameful to try to hide the fact). But, Jesus Christ is the one man upon whom multitudes of human beings, historically and presently, anchor (our) souls upon and within the promises He gave to us. One must be careful not to promote slanderous remarks or scandalous tales about Him for fear of committing the one, true, unpardonable sin: the blaspheming of God’s Holy Spirit.
I can’t see any harm in trying find the facts. If you want to find the facts and learn the truth, preconceptions seem to be out of place. If Jesus is what you believe, then unbiased and objective inquiry will confirm it. If Jesus isn’t what you believe, unbiased and objective inquiry will reveal THAT. How can a search for truth be blasphemy?
If early Christians did not yet have the myth or tradition of virgin birth, it would be easier to to imagine that Jesus had a twin. Seems like the virgin birth thing wouldn’t have been part of the early Christianity represented by Peter and James, but more of a Pauline thing. Do we have any kind of chronology for the virgin birth tradition? It seems to have been well-established sometime after Paul, but what would the status have been earlier? Probably no way of knowing…
I am a bit confused about the last paragraph sentence: “One cannot very well object that this is not taught in the New Testament.” I am not sure what “this” is that “one cannot…object is not taught in the New Testament”. That Joseph and Mary conceived children through sex? That Thomas and Jesus were twins similar to the story in the Amphitryon? Maybe some New Testament references can help.
Or am I reading this wrong and you are saying that we cannot object to historical findings that are not in the New Testament?
Thanks
One can’t object that the view that Mary had twins, one of them human and one not divine, on the *grounds* that it is not what the NT taught, since the people who held that tradition did not *have* the NT. (In other words, it’s not their fault they didn’t understand what hte NT said about the matter)
To me, it seems, after having read the Gospels that Mary as the virgin mother (the literal mother of God) takes on greater significance many, many years later. To say she had sex after the virgin birth (and, that too, an immaculate one where Mary, herself, is cleansed of original sin) seems to bring her down from her heavenly realm to earth. Also, the story of Jesus preaching in the synagogue and being told that his mother and siblings are outside and calling for him and Jesus ignores them??? I mean, I understand the point of the story but, if at the time the Gospel was written, Mary’s place in early Christianity had been elevated, no one could have written that.
Did all Christians believe that “Jesus was miraculously conceived of the holy spirit”?
Gospel of Philip says: “Some said, “Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.” They are in error. They do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever conceive by a woman?”
Apparently some Christians believed (or knew) that the holy spirit was feminine as late as year 250. Is it true that the holy spirit is masculine in Greek but feminine in Aramea and Hebrew languages?
That’s right. Not everyone did. Only 2 of the 27 books of the NT talk about it at all, and Philip definitely polemicizes against it. So too other groups of early Christians.
How accurate translation is the word “some” for the original coptic? “Some” as pronoun means: “an amount or number of something that is not stated or not known; a part of something” Would you say Philip refers less than half of the Christians?
There’s no way to know if he has in mind, say 5% or 55%. If it was the majority, he would be using “some” to minimize their view; if the minority in order to emphasize its scant influence.
Jesus’ twin brother should have been more believable story for the ancient people than story of Mary conceived by the feminine person of the holy trinity, right?
I’m not sure most ancient Christians thought of the Holy Spirit as feminine; but it does seem to me the stories in the Acts of Thomas were probably no more believable than the infancy narratives for ancient folk.
Hebrew and Syriac Christian most likely did:
“In Hebrew the word for Spirit (רוח) (ruach) is feminine, (which is used in the Hebrew Bible, as is the feminine word “shekhinah” in rabbinic literature, to indicate the presence of God…).
In the Syriac language too, the grammatically feminine word rucha means “spirit”, and writers in that language, both orthodox and Gnostic, used maternal images when speaking of the Holy Spirit.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_the_Holy_Spirit
As did Valentinian Christian, for example “I am the one who is with you (pl.) always. I am the Father, I am the Mother, I am the Son. I am the undefiled and incorruptible one.” and “the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living”
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apocryphonjohn.html
Considering the improbability that Jesus was born of a virgin, I guess it’s not impossible he had a twin. The first time I heard about Jude being his *twin* brother, I wondered if that somehow played into the earliest rumors of his resurrection….somebody just saw his brother who looked a lot like him…Of course, that was years ago and I no longer entertain that idea…but it was interesting to think about back then.