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Hi, Robert —
Thank you for your question.
The fact that the King James translates
the Greek texts brother is not relevant.
That is the choice of the translator.
The Greek word used is Adelphos.
It means brothers but in the
Hebrew culture, it was common to
call a close relative of any kind,
a brother. From Genesis, we know
that Lot was Abraham's nephew, yet
in some texts he is called Abraham's
brother. (Genesis 14:12-16 and Genesis 29:10-15)
All that said, the Church does not
dogmatically teach that the brothers were
cousins. It simply says that they
were relatives and not other children
born to Mary.
In the West, the Church developed
a small t tradition that
they were cousins, whereas in the
East, the tradition is that these
siblings were children of Joseph
by a prior marriage.
Nobody before the Reformation believed
that Mary had other children or that
she did not remain a virgin her entire
life. It is as much a part of the
Eastern Orthodox faith as it is the Catholic faith.
Even Martin Luther maintained this
belief. It was only later, as Protestants
continued to drift further and further
away that they dropped this belief.
John
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