Below are links and extracts about the apostles and brothers of Jesus. Were they the same or two different groups?
12-19-2013 – The Apostles and Brothers of Jesus by Andrew Sills, Georgia Southern University, asills@georgiasouthern.edu
See Sill’s 14-page paper addressing the chances of so many common names in the same groups; e.g. three James and three Simons and four Judas. Provided by Tabor on 6/22/2023. He also sent his one-page comparison lists and a graphic set of lists. See DropBox.
The Twelve Apostles include two men named James, two named Simon, and three named Judas. Bearing in mind the data in Table 2, the probability that a randomly selected group of twelve men consists of exactly two named James, two named Simon, three named Judas, and five with other names. The probability is computed to be 0.0000317.
...if the four brothers are distinct from the Twelve Apostles, we have a group of sixteen men, in which three are named James, three are named Simon, four are named Judas, and six have names other than these. The probability of a randomly selected group of sixteen having this shape is ≈ 0.000000469…..
The ratio of these two probabilities 0.0000317 ÷ 0.000000469 is about 67.6, i.e. the scenario that Jesus’ brothers James, Simon, and Joses are among the Twelve Apostles is more than sixty-seven times as likely as the traditional scenario that the brothers are separate from the Apostles, based on name frequencies.
From a conversation of SBA members here –
Brian Chang – I remember Dr. Tabor making an argument that the disciple Jesus loves in John is not John, but his brother, James. But I’ve not heard arguments that Simon and Judas are Jesus’s brothers. One question though, if they were his brothers, Mark 3:32 would seem odd for his brothers to be looking for Jesus.
Dr. Terry Traster to Brian Chang — I brought this verse up to Dr. Tabor. He believes the brothers weren’t believers in the beginning but became believers as the ministry progressed. Jacob/James was not a common name. It only occurs on 3/600 ossuaries that’s 0.5% but 2 Apostles are named James plus James the Brother of Jesus. As soon as Jesus ascends James takes over. When James is murdered his brother Simon takes over. Church tradition states the family of Jesus were the leaders until the Bar Kokhba revolt ending 135 A.D. If James and Simon weren’t Apostles, I doubt they would have been the leaders.
