Mark 3:35 — Community Reflections

MARK 3:35 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”

Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother — the defining criterion is simple and comprehensive: doing God's will. Not nationality, not biological descent, not religious performance, not socioeconomic status — doing God's will. The extension to sister is significant: the biological family mentioned was mother and brothers; Jesus adds sister to the kingdom family, expanding the community's gender inclusivity. The saying is not merely about who can join Jesus' inner circle but about the nature of the kingdom community itself: it is constituted by obedience to God, and it creates the most intimate relational bonds (mother, brother, sister) among people who would otherwise have no natural connection.

Church Fathers on Mark 3:35

Because the relations of the Lord had come to seize upon Him, as if beside Himself, His mother, urged by the sympathy of her love, came to Him.
Theophylact · 11th century

The brother of the Lord must not be thought to be the sons of the ever-virgin Mary, as Helvidius says [ed. note: The perpetual virginity of the Mother of God is reckoned by White, Bramhall, Patrick and Pearson, amongst the traditions which have ever been held in the Catholic Church. For an account of the heretics who denied it, see Bp. Pearson on the Creed, Art, 3, p. 272, note x., also Catena Aurea in Matt., p 58, note c], nor the sons of Joseph by a former marriage, as some…
Bede · 8th century

But let us be assured that we are His brethren and His sisters, if we do the will of the Father; that we may be joint-heirs with Him, for He discerns us not by sex but by our deeds.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 5 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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