Mar 3:31 | PNT | STEP | There came then his brethren and his mother . See notes on . Compare . The natural inference is that the "brethren" were the sons of Mary and the half-brothers of Jesus. No other idea would ever have been maintained had it not been that the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary arose some centuries after the apostles.

Mark 3:31

There came then his brethren and his mother. See notes on Mt 12:46-50. Compare Lu 8:19. The natural inference is that the "brethren" were the sons of Mary and the half-brothers of Jesus. No other idea would ever have been maintained had it not been that the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary arose some centuries after the apostles.