Are there descendants of Jesus living TODAY?
What is Jesus' FAMILY TREE?

Q. What is Jesus' family tree? Was he an ONLY child? After his resurrection, what happened to his remaining family members? Are there descendants or relatives of Jesus living TODAY?

A. Several New Testament scriptures confirm the fact that Jesus was NOT the only child of Joseph and Mary:

"When He (Jesus) had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said,  'Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?  Is this not the carpenter’s son?  Is not His mother called Mary?  And His BROTHERS James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?  And His SISTERS, are they not all with us?' " (Matthew 13:54-56, NKJV)

Notice here that Joseph, the husband of Mary, is not listed. It is probably because he had already died. A parallel account of these verses can be found in Mark 6:3. There is also mention of Jesus' family in Matthew 12:47, John 2:12, and Acts 1:14.

Accounts are sketchy as to what happened to Jesus' brothers and sisters after His resurrection. The Bible does give us, however, clues regarding what may have happened to Jesus' mother Mary:

"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother,  'Woman, behold your son!'  Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.'  And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home." (John 19:25-27, NKJV).

Who was the beloved disciple? Most scholars and commentators state it was the apostle John. If true, then John and Jesus were first cousins since John's mother, named Mary who was the wife of Clopas, was also the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Now, a question, "Did Mary, the mother of Jesus, spend the remainder of her life in the care of John, the Apostle?"

In Raymond Capt's book, The Traditions of Glastonbury: The Biblical Missing Years of Christ - Answered, the tradition is that John put Mary in the care of an uncle of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, a rich tin merchant who sailed to Britain shortly after the resurrection of Jesus, settling in Southwest England in a village called Glastonbury. This tradition holds that Mary lived there with a few other disciples for 15 years and that she died and was buried there in A.D. 48.

Of the four brothers of Jesus, I could find information on only two -- James and Jude. The New Testament mentions four men named James :

1. James, the son of Zebedee, and Salome (cf. Matthew 27:56 with Mark 15:40) elder brother of the Apostle John (therefore cousin of Jesus). This identifies Zebedee and Clopas as being the same individual.

2. James, the son of Alpheus and disciple of Christ. It is not at all clear whether this is the same James as the son of Zebedee.

3. James, the father of the Apostle Judas, (not Iscariot) who is referred to in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. Nothing else is known of him.

4. James, the brother of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1Corinthians 15:7 that the first post-resurrection appearance of the risen Christ was to James who from that time forward gave the rest of his life to Christ. James was an early leader of the Jerusalem Church. The last Biblical mention of James is in Acts 21:18 where the Jerusalem elders exhorted Paul to take a Nazarite vow. James is credited with writing the epistle that bears his name even though the Christian Church in the West did not accept it as canon until the end of the 4th century. It is said that James was martyred in A.D. 63 under the authority of Ananus, the high priest, whom Josephus claims was "a bold man in his temper, and very insolent". Ananus illegally called a Sanhedrin who agreed to stone James to death. (See Josephus' Antiquities (History) of the Jews, book 20, chapter 9)

Jude, another brother of Jesus, also did not believe in Jesus until after His resurrection. Jude is attributed to be the author of the Epistle that bears his name. The Epistle was recognized as part of the Muratorian Canon circa 200 A.D., but was undoubtedly read many, many years before. The only extra-Biblical mention of Jude I found was a note by Hegisippus (c.110 to 180 A.D.) saying that two grandsons of Jude appeared before Emperor Domitian as descendants of David, but were considered harmless peasants and dismissed.

Of the two remaining brothers of Jesus, Joseph and Simon, I could find nothing extra-Biblical.

The book of Matthew states that Jesus had at least two sisters who were named Mary and Salome. Parallel accounts in Matthew 27 and Mark 15 link Mary and Salome:

"And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. " (Matthew 27:55-56, NKJV)

"There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome . . ." (Mark 15:40, NKJV)

Mary, mother of James and Joses, is considered to have been the wife of Clopas (John 19:25). Was she the sister of Jesus? Possibly. Salome was the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John.

Are there people living today who are descendants of Joseph and Mary, who would be blood relatives of Jesus? Given that Mary had at least SIX children other than Jesus that (likely) lived to adulthood, there is a high degree of probability at least a few people living today have a genetic link to Jesus.