Discovery BoxMark 3:31-35 
Context3:31 Then 1 Jesus’ 2 mother and his brothers 3 came. Standing 4 outside, they sent word to him, to summon him. 3:32 A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers 5 are outside looking for you.” 3:33 He answered them and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 6 3:34 And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, “Here 7 are my mother and my brothers! 3:35 For whoever does the will of God is 8 my brother and sister and mother.”
1 tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
2 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 sn The issue of whether Jesus had brothers (siblings) has had a long history in the church. Epiphanius, in the 4th century, argued that Mary was a perpetual virgin and had no offspring other than Jesus. Others argued that these brothers were really cousins. Nothing in the text suggests any of this. See also John 7:3.
4 tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
5 tc ‡ Many
6 tn Grk “Who is my mother and my brothers?” The use of the singular verb ἐστιν (estin) here singles out Mary above Jesus’ brothers, giving her special prominence (see ExSyn 401-2). This is slightly unnatural in English since the predicate nominative is plural, though, so a plural verb was used in the translation.
7 tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”
8 tn The pleonastic pronoun οὗτος (Jouto", “this one”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.
