Matthew 13:55 - Exposition

Is not this the carpenter's son? In Mark, "the carpenter, the son of Mary," which may possibly be a doctrinal correction, made to avoid representing our Lord as the son of Joseph, but is more probably the earlier form of the narrative (due to immediate and, perhaps, local knowledge), which St. Matthew, or one of those who transmitted the source he used, avoided out of a feeling of reverence. In the Apocryphal Gospels our Lord is not represented as a carpenter himself, but as helping Joseph by miraculously lengthening a piece of wood which Joseph had cut too short. Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren ( Matthew 12:46 ). Probably sons of Joseph by a former wife (see Bishop Lightfoot's classical dissertation in 'Galatians'). James . Afterwards "bishop" of Jerusalem ( Galatians 1:19 ; Acts 15:13 ), and the author of the Epistle. And Joses; Joseph (Revised Version), which is also probably right in Matthew 27:56 . Joses is the Graecised form (see Westcott and Hort, 'Append.'). And Simon, and Judas. Probably the author of the Epistle.