Galatians 1:19: The Smoking Gun" of Historical-Jesus Apologetics?

[Unknown Soldier]

Some have proposed Galatians 1:19 as the "smoking-gun" evidence for a historical Jesus. The passage reads:

But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

Many people interpret this passage as referring to James, the biological brother of Jesus. Since Paul is mentioning this James in passing with no apparent motive in doing so aside from informing people, then there's no reason to believe Paul was making up this James, and this "brother of the Lord" probably was a real person. If a blood-brother of Jesus existed, then Jesus existed. I think that this James was a real person, but it's hardly obvious that he was really the biological brother of Jesus. It is true that when we speak of a man's brother, then we normally are speaking of his biological brother. However, in Galatians 1:19 Paul is referring to a man being the brother of the Lord. Generally, people don't think that a man can be a divine being's biological brother. I must then conclude that Paul is not likely telling us that James was the blood brother of Jesus; he more probably understood James as being the Lord's brother in a metaphorical sense. Galatians 1:19 is then not the smoking gun for the historicity of Jesus.

 

[steve_bank]

Seeing as the father of Jesus was a god, James would be a half brother.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Seeing as the father of Jesus was a god, James would be a half brother.

Paul says nothing about the virgin birth, so we don't know if Paul thought that James was the full brother of Jesus or the half brother of Jesus or neither.

Anyway, if I told you I was God's brother, would you conclude that I'm saying that God and I had the same mother or the same father and that we ate at the same dinner table? Like most people, you would conclude that I'm not claiming to be God's literal blood brother but that I'm saying we are close as brothers. So why make an exception with "brother of the Lord" in Galatians 1:19? Paul may have had his eccentricities, but he'd really be going off the deep end if he thought that James and God are biological brothers.