The Brothers of Jesus Did Not Believe
by Hugh DeLong
This title is open to some misunderstanding – at the time that this interaction took place, they did not believe. We are not explicitly told why, but from the context, several things are possible. This one is recognized as a ‘first class’ conditional sentence which, from the speaker or writer’s point of view, is assumed to be true.
Some possible thoughts come up. First, it is possible (probably?) that they were ‘too close’ to see the implications of such miracles. The old adage “familiarity breeds contempt," or at least here unbelief. They had grown up with Jesus. Jesus would say later about his rejection at Nazareth, his ‘hometown’: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house” (Matthew 13:57).
They likely misunderstood His mission and purpose, possibly supposing that he was seeking public recognition or earthly prominence. Thus their statement: “If you do these things, show Yourself to the world” (John 7:4). “If”? While our translations use ‘if’, it should be noted that in the Greek language, there were different ‘classes’ of such conditional sentences. This is a first-class conditional sentence which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective. Thus, although they acknowledged that Jesus had been performing miracles, they did not understand the meaning, the implications of them.
It is also possible that they were overly influenced by public opinion! The opinion of the people of Nazareth was shown in rejecting Him, even though they had witnessed and been astonished at His teaching and miraculous powers. These brothers would not have been the first people to be moved by popular opinion.
However, before we come down too hard upon them, it is to be noted that after the resurrection, a group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem. “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). James appears as one of the leading disciples in the church (Acts 12:17; 15:13-21; and 21:18, Galatians 1:19, and Acts 21:18-19; and is widely accepted that he wrote the book of James). The same is said of Jude, the brother of James (Jude 1.1). The other two, Simon and Joses, are not explicitly noted in the New Testament, except for the statement in Acts 1:14.
Faith is sometimes not as simple as just seeing! We also learn that sometimes it takes either more time or more evidence for some than for others. We also see that people can and do change their understandings of things and people. They didn’t believe – for a while.
