Family loyalties- 3:31-35

v31
The NIV has, 'then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived,' - so they've translated 'Kai' as then- I wonder if you can do that... instead of 'and' (know it can mean also – and just some sort of joining word- use of a conjunction seems much bigger in Greek- and they keep starting sentences with them- bad english). Arrived is erketai- came.
This is fascinating. Jesus is in the middle of something else- and the word comes in (how much does he know about their motives?) and he takes the intrusion and makes a telling point that cuts across the strongest bonds most/many humans experience- or perhaps loyalties would be a better word. The people in the circle must have only had a vague idea of what he was going on about. “For whoever does the will of God, this one is my brother and mother.

How did he say it? And how did the situation end? Did he leave his family waiting? Was this the last thing he said to the crowd as he went to see them? (I don't think he would have immediately- the import of what he was saying – was that those before him were 'closer' family- or at least on the way there if they put what he was saying into practice). Did his family wait outside- and when the crowd eventually dispersed- after the family had got more and more frustrated – did he come out- was there a scene? From the small snippets we get- can conjecture a growing wedge- In John- the sarcastic comments to Jesus by brothers before going down to the festival (I would assume this was after this incident- and perhaps this incident had contributed to their tone...)

The sword thing Jesus talks about happens in his own family- with at first it seems everyone against him. But then we have turnarounds- and amazingly strong followers- people that thought their brother was God- and never sought to 'take him in hand' again.