Even further, did he have children; I am in a bible group, in our basic training-we are not allowed to bring in outside books-and we have to prove and DISPROVE statements we do not like per the bible and ONLY the bible.. last week some guy joined the group and said Jesus had brothers and sisters AND children hmmmm. I certainly cannot disprove he had brothers and sisters via the Bible; I had always thought or heard that Jesus was never with a woman, and never had children.. but I am having a tough time proving it per the Bible...please don't offer any other proof from outside sources -this guy has books too.. he is just dying to bring.. and we did the lifestyle argument last time...to no avail. He is saying that since Jesus started his ministry at about 30 years old and most people in the region married when they were around 15 - he easily could have had 10 children - -what was he doing until he was 30??? Help me sort this out Biblically and please I need the chapter and verse number thanx..
The new guy has obviously been influenced by the _da_Vinci_Code_ or other, similar works that posit that Jesus was married (most likely to Mary Magdalene), and likely had children through that union.
There are a couple verses in the gospels (depending on your translation - I'm looking at the New International Version) where Jesus is referred to as having brothers; I'd look specifically at Matthew 13:54-56, which says
"54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"
While scholars have argued that "brother" might actually mean "cousin" or "other close male relative", the text wouldn't directly support that.
The wife and children thing can't be disproved Biblically - but neither can it be proven. Some take the absence of direct reference to a wife as proof, while say that any man referred to as a rabbi/teacher would need to be married to have that status (as per the culture of the time). Either way, there isn't anything that can be used definitively either way.