“And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!”
Matthew 12:49 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 12:49
Because He had spoken all the aforesaid things in the power of His Father’s majesty, therefore the Evangelist proceeds to tell what answer He made to one that told Him that His mother and His brethren waited for Him without; 'While he yet spake unto the people, his mother and brethren stood without desiring to see him.'
We are to understand without doubt that this happened close upon the foregoing; for he begins to tell it with the words, 'And while he yet spake.' What can that 'yet' mean but that it was at the very time He spake the foregoing things?
From this is taken one of Helvidius' propositions [margin note: Hieron. cont. Helvid. 14, et seq.], on the ground that mention is made in the Gospel of the brethren of the Lord. How says he, are they called brethren of the Lord, if they were not his brethren? But now it should be known that in divine Scripture men are said to be brethren in four different ways, by nature, by nation, by kindred, and by affection.