<p>8:19 <i>And there came to him his mother and relatives; and they could not come to him because of the crowd</i>- Mt. 12:46-50 five times repeats the phrase &ldquo;his mother and his brethren&rdquo;, as if to link her with them. In the parallel Mk. 3:21,31-35 we read of how &ldquo;his own&rdquo; family thought He was crazy and came to talk to Him. Then we read that it was His mother and brothers who demanded an audience with Him, perhaps linking Mary with her other children. Their cynicism of Jesus, their lack of perception of Him, came to influence her- for He effectively rebuffs her special claims upon Him by saying that His mother and brethren are all who hear God&rsquo;s word. Clearly the brothers, who didn&rsquo;t believe in Jesus (Jn. 7:5) influenced her. When He speaks of how His real family are those who hear the word of God and do it, the Lord is alluding to Dt. 33:9, where we have the commendation of Levi for refusing to recognize his apostate brethren at the time of the golden calf: &ldquo;Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren&hellip; for they Levi have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant&rdquo;. The last sentence is&nbsp;the essence of the Lord&rsquo;s saying that His true family are those who keep God&rsquo;s word and do it. The strong implication of the allusion is that the Lord felt that His mother and brethren had committed some kind of apostasy.</p>