The Family of Jesus...Brothers?

(1) DOES THE BIBLICAL TEXT SAY THAT MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS, WAS A "VIRGIN" WHEN JESUS WAS BORN? DOES OUR MODERN DAY UNDERSTANDING OF "VIRGIN" MATCH THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FIRST CENTURY WHEN THE GOSPELS RECORD IT?

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” (Matthew 1:23)
COMPARE WITH:
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, an shall name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Is the book of Isaiah speaking about the child Jesus who wasnt born for at least another 500 years? Or is Isaiah speaking about another child?

Who will give birth to this child? The “young woman” gives birth to the child. Beginning with the word, alma (Hebrew), we arrive to an English translation of “young girl.” While the word alma can be used to designate a woman, it most often refers to a young girl who has reached the age of puberty and is able to be married. However, it lays no direct stress on the virginity of the girl, even though it is implied that if the girl is not yet married she should still be a virgin (in the modern sense of the word, i.e. she had yet to have sexual intercourse).

Later on when this text was translated by the followers of Jesus, (including Matthew above) into Greek. In the Greek version of the Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), the term alma was rendered as parthenos. This is a surprise considering the translation of the word alma should have resulted in the Greek word neanis. Neanis is the Greek term for “young woman” and it occurs in other places of the Hebrew Bible as a translation of alma. The fact that the LXX uses the term parthenos betrays the later theological importance placed on this word by the Greek linguists (In Greek parthenos was most often used as a translation of the Hebrew word betula which means virgin).

(2) DID JESUS HAVE BROTHERS?

They are variously described, here is but one example: James, Joses, Judas and Simon (Mark 6:3).
According to the Bible he did in deed have brothers (and in fact some sources mention sisters as well). A brief sampling of biblical verses which speak of his brothers include:
Matthew: 12:46-50, 13:55
Mark: 3:31-35, 6:3, 15:40
Luke: 8:19-21
John: 2:12, 7:4-5
Acts: 1:14
Galatians: 1:19
1 Corinthians: 9:4-5, 15:6-7
Jude, 1:1

(a)Adelphos is the Greek term for brother, with full (same two parents) or half (with one common parent) brother being the literal translation of the word.
"When one considers adelphos…is used a total of 343 times in the NT, the consistency of this “literal” usage is amazing…when used not merely figuratively or metaphorically but rather to designate some sort of physical or legal relationship, [adelphos] means only full or half brother…" (John P. Meier, A Maginal Jews, vol.I, p.328).

Therefore, a careful reading of NT appears to provide an overwhelming amount of evidence that the “brothers” of Jesus were just that, full blood-brothers (i.e. following the Helvidian view). From the multiple attestations of the NT works and the Church Fathers, as well as the criteria of embarrassment (the fact that if Mary was not a perpetual virgin, it would be painful for the authors to include this information that would contradict their theology, i.e. brothers and sisters), it appears as if Jesus really did have full blood brothers

(3) SPEAKING OF JESUS' BROTHERS, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THIS BURIAL BOX INSCROBED "JAMES, SON OF JOSEPH, BROTHER OF JESUS? IS THIS THE JAMES WE HAVE JUST SPOKEN ABOUT?

Quite possibly. While scholars continue to debate the veracity of the ossuary (or bone box), a couple of things are certain.

(A) These ossuaries were used during the first century almost exclusively, thereby conforming with the lifetime of Jesus (and James).

(B) The names given for his father (Joseph) and brother (Jesus) on the ossuary, while being common names in the first century, do correspond to the names of the father and brother of Jesus in scripture. Please go to the BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE for a listing of websites that deal with this most fascinating of archeological discoveries.