Jesus’ Family and their Genealogy according to the Testimony of Julius Africanus

In his Letter to Aristides, Julius Africanus (ca. 170-250) aims at reconciling Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies of Jesus. For this sake, he invokes earlier traditions, one of which claims to originate within the circle of the Desposynoi, who were members of Jesus’ family. After examining the role of this tradition in Africanus’ argumentation, this contribution investigates carefully his content, showing that it reflects a 1 st century Palestinian setting, probably before the Jewish Revolt. Particular attention is payed to the information concerning the Desposynoi’s genealogical tradition, whose possible links with each of the Gospel genealogies are investigated.