Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 45

John 7:5, "For neither did his brethren believe in him." If his own brothers, men of the same flesh and blood, and the nearest judges of the powers attributed to him, felt no inducement to admit his pretensions; surely we Jews may be excused for discrediting what his own contemporaries and brothers rejected as incredible. 

 I have dealt with this objection earlier. The mother and brothers of Jesus did have their doubts about him. As Troki points out, this information is embarrassing to those who preached the name of Jesus, since opponents of the movement undoubtedly used this fact to argue against them. This gives us even more reason to believe that such information was not invented by the followers of Jesus, but is historically accurate.

James, who was Jesus' own brother, did not believe until after the resurrection, until Jesus appeared to him. The church marks James the brother of Jesus as the early bishop of Jerusalem, and his death during a lapse in the Roman government is corroborated by the writings of Josephus. James went to his death proclaiming the supremacy of his own brother as God incarnate. Many of us have brothers. What kind of evidence would it take for you to believe that your own brother is God in the flesh? That is the kind of evidence that James and Paul received.