:*The ''Helvidian'' theory, advanced by certain persons (such as [[Tertullian]], and in particular, [[Helvidius]], who lived in Rome at the time of Jerome toward the close of the fourth century) argues that the obvious and most literal meaning of the term was the correct meaning, and that these brethren were the Lord's brethren as truly as Mary was the Lord's mother, being her sons by her husband Joseph (uterine relationship, born from her womb from the seed of Joseph by natural marital conception).
:*The ''Hieronymian'' theory, proposed in or about the year 383 by Jerome, at the instigation of 'the brethren' wrote a treatise in reply to Helvidius, in which he maintains that the Lord's brethren were His cousins after the flesh, being sons of Mary the wife of Alphaeus and sister of the Virgin.
:Dr. Lightfoot asserts in his dissertation, ''The Brethren of the Lord'' (1865) , that the most devastating argument against the Helvidian theory is to be found in the prevailing first century Jewish cultural bonds of the most paramount and inviolable familial duties rooted in "the most sacred ties of natural affection" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20%3A12&version=KJV Exodus 20:12]; https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+19%3A2-3&version=KJV Leviticus 19:2-3]; https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21%3A18-21&version=KJV Deuteronomy 21:18-21]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+27%3A16&version=KJV 27:16]) and in Jesus' entrusting of his mother to the son of Zebedee in [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A25-27&version=KJV John 19:25-27:]::"''But one objection has been hurled at the Helvidian theory with great force, and as it seems to me with fatal effect, which is powerless against the Epiphanian.* Our Lord in His dying moments commended His mother to the keeping of St. John; ‘Woman, behold thy son.’ The injunction was forthwith obeyed, and ‘from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home’ (John 19:26,27). Yet according to the Helvidian view she had no less than four sons besides daughters living at the time. Is it conceivable that our Lord would thus have snapped asunder the most sacred ties of natural affection? The difficulty is not met by the fact that her own sons were still unbelievers. This fact would scarcely have been allowed to override the paramount duties of filial piety.''"
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