Did Jesus have Sisters?

The Silent Sisters: What Tradition Tells Us About the Women in Jesus’ Family

In the study of the Holy Family, we often focus on the "Big Three": Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. If we dig a little deeper, we encounter the brothers—specifically James the Just and Jude, who authored biblical books. We know their names, their struggles with skepticism, and their eventual leadership in the early church.

But there is a third group in the household of Nazareth that is almost entirely lost to history: the sisters of Jesus.

The Bible confirms their existence but maintains a frustrating silence regarding their identities. In Matthew 13:56, the townsfolk of Nazareth ask: "And are not all his sisters with us?" Mark 6:3 repeats the question: "Are not his sisters here with us?"

The use of the plural "all" (Greek pasai) implies there were at least two, and possibly more. Yet, the inspired text never names them. They are the background figures of the Gospel narrative. However, where Scripture is silent, early church tradition and non-biblical history have attempted to fill in the blanks. While these accounts do not carry the authority of the Bible, they offer a fascinating glimpse into how the earliest Christians remembered the family of the Lord.

If you want to find the names of Jesus' sisters, you have to leave the canon of Scripture and look at the writings of the early church fathers and apocryphal texts. These documents, written between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, often sought to satisfy the curiosity of believers regarding Jesus' childhood and family life.

The most prominent source comes from Epiphanius, a bishop of Salamis who wrote in the 4th Century AD. In his work Panarion, he preserves a tradition that lists the sisters as:

1. Mary
2. Salome

It is worth noting the commonality of these names. "Mary" (Miriam) was the most popular Jewish female name of the period, and "Salome" was also incredibly common.

Another apocryphal text, the History of Joseph the Carpenter (likely written in Egypt around the 5th Century AD), expands the list. It describes the family of Joseph in detail, naming the daughters as Lysia and Lydia.

Yet another tradition, found in later medieval lists, suggests names like Esther or Assia.

While the variation in names tells us we cannot be historically certain, the persistence of the tradition confirms that the early church firmly believed Jesus grew up in a house with female siblings. They were not viewed as metaphors, but as real women who lived, married, and settled in Nazareth.

Why do these traditions matter? Much of the early writing about Jesus’ sisters was driven by a theological debate regarding Mary.

As the church grew, the doctrine of the "Perpetual Virginity of Mary" gained prominence. This teaching asserted that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life and did not have other children after Jesus. To reconcile this with the clear biblical references to Jesus' "brothers and sisters," early writers like the author of the Protoevangelium of James (c. 150 AD) popularized the idea that Joseph was an elderly widower.

In this narrative, the "brothers and sisters" were actually Joseph’s children from a previous marriage. Therefore, Mary and Salome (or Lysia and Lydia) would have been Jesus’ step-sisters.

This view posits that when Joseph married Mary, he brought a house full of older children with him. This tradition paints a picture of Jesus as the youngest child in a bustling, complex family dynamic, rather than the oldest of a growing brood. While this interpretation is not the standard Protestant view (which holds that they were blood siblings born to Mary and Joseph later), it was the dominant view for centuries and explains why these women were often portrayed as older figures in religious art.

The Bible gives us one clue about the sisters’ location during Jesus' ministry: they stayed home.

In the accounts of Matthew and Mark, the neighbors say, "Are not his sisters here with us?" The implication is that while Jesus left Nazareth to travel, and while his brothers eventually traveled (sometimes with him, sometimes appearing later in Jerusalem), the sisters married local men and remained in Nazareth.

However, tradition suggests they were not entirely absent from the movement. Some scholars associate the "Salome" mentioned at the crucifixion (Mark 15:40) with Jesus' sister, though most identify her as the mother of the disciples James and John. If the traditions identifying his sister as Salome are correct, it creates a web of connections where Jesus’ family was deeply intertwined with the families of his disciples.

The existence of Jesus' sisters, even if unnamed in the Bible, adds a vital layer of depth to our understanding of the Incarnation.

• It Grounds Jesus in Reality: Jesus did not float above human existence. He likely grew up understanding the protective instinct of a brother. He witnessed the societal challenges women faced in the 1st Century through the lives of his sisters. When He spoke of women with dignity and value, it wasn't abstract; He had sisters he cared for.
• It Highlights the Focus of Scripture: The fact that the Bible omits their names is not an insult; it is a clarification of purpose. The Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense; they are theological documents focused on the work of salvation. The text includes details only as they serve the narrative of the Cross. The sisters, having lived quiet lives in Nazareth, did not impact the public ministry, and thus remain in the background.
• It Validates the "Normalcy" of His Life: The neighbors in Nazareth were offended by Jesus precisely because his family was so ordinary. "We know his sisters," they said. They are just like us. This underscores the miracle of the Incarnation: God hid Himself in the middle of a totally average, messy, large human family.

While we may have to wait until eternity to know their true names—whether Mary, Salome, or something else—we know that the Savior of the world was also a brother.