Joses (Ancient Greek:Ἰωσῆς[1]) is a name, usually regarded as a form ofJoseph, occurring many times in theNew Testament:
Joses is a short Greek form of Joseph. Unlike GreekJoseph, however, which remains frozen asJoseph in all grammatical cases,Joses functions like a true Greek name and is declined in Greek, taking the ending-e/-etos in the genitive case, henceJose/Josetos (Ἰωσῆ/Ἰωσῆτος), 'of Joses'.[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 formJoseph is dominant with 47 of 69 Greek inscriptions.[12]
Joses andJoseph in their various grammatical cases are often found astextual variants in the New Testament.
"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him." (Mark 6:3,ESV)
"Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" (Matthew 13:55,ESV)
A minority of (Alexandrian, Western) Greek manuscripts in Matthew 13:55 read "Joseph" (Ἰωσήφ) the standard spelling of the name.[13] Roman Catholics hold that Joses thebrother of Jesus is the same as Joses the brother of James referred in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40.[14][15]
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 meaningof Joses.[4][5]
"There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome." (Mark 15:40,ESV)
"Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where [Jesus] was laid." (15:47 ESV).
Matthew 27:56 also refers to a Mary, mother of a James, but it is unclear whether her other son is calledJoses (Ἰωσῆ, favoured by Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550, Scrivener's Textus Receptus 1894, RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005, and the Greek Orthodox Church) orJoseph (Ἰωσὴφ, favoured by Westcott and Hort 1881, Westcott and Hort / [NA27 and UBS4 variants],Tischendorf's 8th Edition 1864–94, and Nestle 1904).[6] Modern English Bible translations are about evenly split on which textual variant to follow, with half including theNew International Version (1978) rendering it asof Joseph, and the other half including theEnglish Standard Version (2001) asof Joses.[16]
"There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee." (Matthew 27:55–56, ESV)
In the New Testament, the name "James the Less" appears only in Mark 15:40, who, by parallel accounts of thewomen at the crucifixion is usually equated with the James in "Mary the mother of James," who in turn is sometimes equated withMary of Clopas, mentioned only in John 19:25. According to a tradition ofHegesippus (Eusebius III.11), thisClopas was a brother of Joseph, making his wifeMary Jesus' aunt and this James the younger and Joses to be Jesus' cousins.[17]
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,[18] thus making Joses halfbrother of Jesus.Roman Catholic tradition followsJerome'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 andAramaic.[15]
Acts 4:36 states that the person whom the apostles surnamed/nicknamed/calledBarnabas (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.[7] Most modern English Bible translations such as theNew International Version (1978) render it asJoseph, a minority including theKing James Version (1611) asJoses.[8]
In the Lukangenealogy of Jesus, Luke 3:29 mentions a Ἰησοῦ or a Ἰωσή (both in genetive) as the 15th descendant ofDavid in the line fromSolomon's younger brotherNathan. ἸησοῦIēsou is thetextual 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 ἸωσῆIōsē is favoured by Stephanus Textus Receptus 1550, Scrivener's Textus Receptus 1894, RP Byzantine Majority Text 2005, and the Greek Orthodox Church.[10] Most modern English Bible translations such as theNew International Version (1978) render it asJoshua, many others including theKing James Version (1611) asJose, and a few including theAmerican Standard Version (1900) asJesus.[11]
A "Joses" appears in the bishop lists ofEpiphanius ("Josis") andEusebius ("Joseph") of theearly bishops of Jerusalem.[19]
In the medievalGolden Legend, Joses is also identified withJoseph Barsabbas,[20] also called Justus, who in theActs of the Apostles 1:23 is mentioned as a candidate to fill the vacancy created by the death ofJudas Iscariot.
Eusebius lists Justus as the thirdBishop of Jerusalem afterJames the Just andSimeon of Jerusalem. He does not, however, specify whether this Justus is to be identified with Joses, the brother of Jesus:
Conversely, in the second book ofPanarion,Epiphanius identifies the third Bishop of Jerusalem as "Judah",[22] and theApostolic Constitutions similarly calls him "Judas the son of James".[23]