Joses

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy datesTemplate:Use British English Template:See also Joses (Template:Langx<ref>Strong's Greek: Ἰωσῆς (Iósés) / Joses – Bible Hub</ref>) is a name, usually regarded as a form of Joseph, occurring many times in the New Testament:

• Joses, one of the four "brothers" of Jesus (Template:Langx)<ref>Greek New Testament, Matthew 13:55: "οὐχ οὖτός ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ τέκτονος υἱός; οὐχ ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ λέγεται μαριὰμ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ ἰάκωβος καὶ ἰωσὴφ καὶ σίμων καὶ ἰούδας;"</ref><ref>Template:Bibleref2</ref>
• Joses or Joseph, son of a Mary of Clopas and brother of a James (James the Less according to Mark 15:40<ref name="Mark 15:40 text analysis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>), mentioned in Mark 15:40,<ref name="Mark 15:40 text analysis"/> Mark 15:47,<ref name="Mark 15:47 text analysis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Matthew 27:56<ref name="Matthew 27:56 text analysis"/>

• Joses or Joseph, the real name of Barnabas according to Acts 4:36<ref name="Acts 4:36 text analysis"/><ref name="Acts 4:36 parallel"/><ref>Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.</ref>
• There is also a Ἰησοῦ or a Ἰωσή (Jose, Joshua or Jesus) in Luke 3:29<ref name="Luke 3:29 text analysis"/><ref name="Luke 3:29 parallel"/>

Etymology

Joses is a short Greek form of Joseph. Unlike Greek Joseph, however, which remains frozen as Joseph in all grammatical cases, Joses functions like a true Greek name and is declined in Greek, taking the ending Template:Not a typo in the genitive case, hence Jose/Josetos ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), 'of Joses'.Template:Citation needed

Although spelling of Joseph is fairly constant in Greek, spellings of the short forms Joses and Josis vary. Tal Ilan's catalogue of Jewish name inscriptions of the period (2002) notes variation in the spelling of "Joseph" (indeclinable in Greek) and various shorter (and sometimes declined) Greek variants, but also notes that the full form Joseph is dominant with 47 of 69 Greek inscriptions.<ref>Bauckham in: Quarles, Buried Hope Or Risen Savior: The Search for the Jesus Tomb (2008), p. 84: "In Greek this short form of the name is rarer and does not seem to have any consistent spelling.[41] Among the Greek forms of the name Joseph, Iosepos (....) is overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for 47 of the 69 occurrences."</ref>

New Testament

Joses and Joseph in their various grammatical cases are often found as textual variants in the New Testament.

Joses, brother of Jesus

Template:Quote Template:Quote A minority of (Alexandrian, Western) Greek manuscripts in Matthew 13:55 read "Joseph" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) the standard spelling of the name.<ref>Greek New Testament, United Bible Societies, - footnotes to Mark 6:3 and critical apparatus NA24.</ref> Roman Catholics hold that Joses the brother of Jesus is the same as Joses the brother of James referred in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=Camerlynck/>

Joses, brother of James (the Less?)

In Mark 15:40 and Mark 15:47, a Joses is identified as the son of a certain Mary, who is also the mother of a certain James. For both verses, Ἰωσῆτος and Ἰωσῆ are found as textual variants, but both are genitives of Ἰωσὴς meaning of Joses.<ref name="Mark 15:40 text analysis"/><ref name="Mark 15:47 text analysis"/> Template:Quote

Matthew 27:56 also refers to a Mary, mother of a James, but it is unclear whether her other son is called Joses (Ἰωσῆ, favoured by Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550, Scrivener's Textus Receptus 1894, RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005, and the Greek Orthodox Church) or Joseph (Ἰωσὴφ, favoured by Westcott and Hort 1881, Westcott and Hort / [NA27 and UBS4 variants], Tischendorf's 8th Edition 1864–94, and Nestle 1904).<ref name="Matthew 27:56 text analysis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Modern English Bible translations are about evenly split on which textual variant to follow, with half including the New International Version (1978) rendering it as of Joseph, and the other half including the English Standard Version (2001) as of Joses.<ref name="Matthew 27:56 parallel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Quote

In the New Testament, the name "James the Less" appears only in Mark 15:40, who, by parallel accounts of the women at the crucifixion is usually equated with the James in "Mary the mother of James," who in turn is sometimes equated with Mary of Clopas, mentioned only in John 19:25. According to a tradition of Hegesippus (Eusebius III.11), this Clopas was a brother of Joseph, making his wife Mary Jesus' aunt and this James the younger and Joses to be Jesus' cousins.<ref>ed. Wilhelm Schneemelcher New Testament Apocrypha - Gospels and Related Writings. p483</ref>

James Tabor speculates that Mary the mother of James is the same person with Mary the mother of Jesus and that Clopas was her second husband,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> thus making Joses half brother of Jesus. Roman Catholic tradition follows Jerome's view that Mary the mother of James (wife of Clopas) is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, though they need not be literally sisters, in light of the usage of the said words in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.<ref name=Camerlynck>Template:Citation</ref>

Acts 4:36 (Barnabas)

Acts 4:36 states that the person whom the apostles surnamed/nicknamed/called Barnabas (Βαρνάβας) was actually named Ἰωσὴφ (Joseph) according to Westcott and Hort 1881, Westcott and Hort / [NA27 and UBS4 variants], Tischendorf's 8th Edition 1864–94, and Nestle 1904, or Ἰωσὴς (Joses) according to Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550, Scrivener's Textus Receptus 1894, RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005, and the Greek Orthodox Church.<ref name="Acts 4:36 text analysis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most modern English Bible translations such as the New International Version (1978) render it as Joseph, a minority including the King James Version (1611) as Joses.<ref name="Acts 4:36 parallel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Luke 3:29

In the Lukan genealogy of Jesus, Luke 3:29 mentions a Ἰησοῦ or a Ἰωσή (both in genetive) as the 15th descendant of David in the line from Solomon's younger brother Nathan. Ἰησοῦ Iēsou is the textual variant favoured by Westcott and Hort 1881, Westcott and Hort / [NA27 and UBS4 variants], Tischendorf's 8th Edition 1864–94, and Nestle 1904, while the variant Ἰωσῆ Iōsē is favoured by Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550, Scrivener's Textus Receptus 1894, RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005, and the Greek Orthodox Church.<ref name="Luke 3:29 text analysis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most modern English Bible translations such as the New International Version (1978) render it as Joshua, many others including the King James Version (1611) as Jose, and a few including the American Standard Version (1900) as Jesus.<ref name="Luke 3:29 parallel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Greek spelling ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is a variant of Joses.Template:Citation needed

Bishops of Jerusalem

A "Joses" appears in the bishop lists of Epiphanius ("Josis") and Eusebius ("Joseph") of the early bishops of Jerusalem.<ref>Richard Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church p 76.</ref>

Christian traditions

In the medieval Golden Legend, Joses is also identified with Joseph Barsabbas,<ref>[1] "The Nativity of our Blessed Lady", William Caxton's English version of the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine</ref> also called Justus, who in the Acts of the Apostles 1:23 is mentioned as a candidate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Judas Iscariot.

Eusebius lists Justus as the third Bishop of Jerusalem after James the Just and Simeon of Jerusalem. He does not, however, specify whether this Justus is to be identified with Joses, the brother of Jesus:

But when Symeon also had died in the manner described, a certain Jew by the name of Justus succeeded to the episcopal throne in Jerusalem. He was one of the many thousands of the circumcision who at that time believed in Christ.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Conversely, in the second book of Panarion, Epiphanius identifies the third Bishop of Jerusalem as "Judah",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Apostolic Constitutions similarly calls him "Judas the son of James".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• James, brother of Jesus
• James the Less
• Jesus Justus
• Jude, brother of Jesus
• New Testament people named Joseph
• Simon, brother of Jesus