- 16 - Matthew 13: 54-56: ‘From where does this man have all this wisdom and the power to perform miracles? Is he not the son of the carpenter? Is not his mother’s name Mary, and are not his brothers named James, Joseph, Simon and Judah? Do not his sisters also live here among us? How has he come by all this? ”’ Can any rationally minded person contend that this enumeration of the father, mother, brothers and sisters of Jesus refers to kinsfolk only? Just as the reference in this case is to the real father and mother of Jesus, so too his real brothers and sisters are meant. What purpose could be served by listing the names of his kinsfolk? The inhabitants of Nazareth were astonished at his words and his teachings and asked each other, as you would under similar circumstances: Whence has he all these things? His father, the carpenter, is a man like the rest of us. Mary, his mother, is a simple, unpretentious woman, and his brothers and sisters are nothing out of the ordinary, for his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, live among us and we see them every day, but we have never discovered anything unusual in any of them, and as for his sisters, all of them live in this village and are no different from any of the other women of Nazareth. How does it happen that of all the family, Jesus is the only one who is so wonderfully gifted? The contention that the expressions ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ of Jesus, as they are used here, refer to ‘kinsfolk’ only, is too absurd to be advanced by anyone without an ulterior motive. You can see here how one falsehood must be supported by another. The Catholic Church has taken the unreasonable stand that Mary remained a virgin in spite of the fact that she bore Jesus, a position that would, of course, be utterly untenable in the face of an admission that she afterwards gave birth to other children. However, there are many references in the Bible to the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Since this conflict with the doctrine of Mary’s perpetual virginity, these historically established brothers and sisters must be branded as ‘kinsfolk’. Otherwise, the dogma of Mary’s perpetual virginity, and, with it, that of papal infallibility, would collapse. • The birth of Jesus took its course like any other human birth, as regards both the mother and the child. The newly-born infant was nursed, cared for and eventually weaned, as are all children. The message of the angels to the shepherds, their salutation of the Redeemer of mankind who had appeared, the presentation of Jesus in the temple, and the coming of the Wise Men of the East all happened exactly as related in your New Testament. These Wise Men were Divine instruments and were highly gifted with mediumistic powers. In their homelands they were the dispensers of the true faith, and through their communication with the good spirit world they had been initiated into many of the truths relating to the Salvation of mankind. The same spirit world that had proclaimed the birth of the Saviour to the shepherds also brought the tidings of the happy event to the Magi. It had already been foretold as imminent by messengers from God. They were now invited to set out in search of the child in whom the Son of God was incarnated. The name of the place at which the child lay was withheld from them, but they were told that a ray of light would go before them to guide them on their way. Not only the Wise Men, but everyone else saw this light, which appeared as a bright star moving before them and leading them, as Moses and the people of Israel had once been led by the pillar of cloud. Their journey took them first to Herod in Jerusalem. This was an act of God, by which that earthly prince was to be apprised of the human birth of him who was to rule the world, and in order that the destiny of the children of Bethlehem might be fulfilled, as had been foretold by the prophet. Here again the spirit forces who were against Christ inspired Herod with
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