James, son of Alphaeus

Saint James, son of Alphaeus
Statue of St James at the Church of the Mafra Palace, Portugal
Apostle
Born	Unknown
Died	Egypt or Jerusalem
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	1 May (Anglican Communion), May 3 (Roman Catholic Church), 9 October (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Attributes	carpenter's saw; fuller's club; book
Patronage	apothecaries; druggists; dying people; Frascati, Italy; fullers; milliners; Monterotondo, Italy; pharmacists; Uruguay

Saint James, son of Alphaeus (Ἰάκωβος, Iakōbos in Greek) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. He is often identified with James the Less and commonly known by that name in church tradition.

James, the son of Alphaeus, is rarely mentioned in the New Testament, but he is sometimes identified with James the Just, an important leader in the New Testament church. He is clearly distinguished from James, son of Zebedee, another one of the Twelve Apostles.

Sources

James, son of Alphaeus, only appears four times in the New Testament, each time in a list of the twelve apostles.

Identity

Possible identity with James the Less

James, son of Alphaeus is often identified with James the Less, who is only mentioned three times in the Bible, each time in connection with his mother. Mark 15:40 refers to "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses", while Mark 16:1 and Matthew 27:56 refer to "Mary the mother of James". James, son of Alphaeus may also be identified as James the Just.

Since there was already another James (James, son of Zebedee) among the twelve apostles, equating James son of Alphaeus with James the Less made sense. (James son of Zebedee was sometimes called "James the Greater").

Modern Biblical scholars are divided on whether this identification is correct. John Paul Meier finds it unlikely. Amongst evangelicals, the New Bible Dictionary supports the traditional identification, while Don Carson and Darrell Bock both regard the identification as possible, but not certain.

Fresco of Saint James the Less in the Orthodox Church of Vladimir, Russia. 12-th century.

Possible identity with James, the brother of Jesus

James, son of Alphaeus, has also been identified with James the Just. This was supported by Jerome and therefore widely accepted in the Roman Catholic Church, while Eastern Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestants tend to distinguish between the two.

Possible brother of Matthew

Another Alphaeus is also the name of the father of the publican Levi mentioned in Mark 2:14. The publican appears as Matthew in Matthew 9:9, which has led some to conclude that James and Matthew might have been brothers. However, there is no Biblical account of the two being called brothers, even when they appear side by side in the synoptic list of the Twelve Apostles, next to the fraternal pairs of Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee.

Possible mistake by Mark

In the Gospel of Mark at the beginning of Jesus' ministry he first calls Peter and his brother Andrew and asks them to follow him Mark 1:16–17. In the next verses it tells the story of how James the Greater and his brother John the Apostle came to follow Jesus Mark 1:19–20. After some healing Jesus meets Levi son of Alphaeus who was a tax collector and he then asks Levi to follow him Mark 2:14. Given that Peter, Andrew, James the Greater and John the Apostle had previously followed Jesus and were then listed as Apostles it is possible that the Mark the Evangelist intended to list Levi son of Alphaeus and not James son of Alphaeus as one of the 12 Apostles. Mark the Evangelists doesn't always names his James' in a clear way. A James is listed as being the brother of Jesus Mark 6:3 which is presumably a different James from James son of Alphaeus and James son of Zebedee. Despite the three James' Mark on three separate occasions writes about a James without clarifying which James he is referring too. There is a James at the transfiguration Mark 9:2, at the Mount of Olives Mark 13:3 and the Garden of Gethsemane Mark 14:33. Although this James is listed alongside John the Apostle the distinction isn't made that they are either the son's of Zebedee or brothers. We can discount the possibility that Mark the Evangalist intended the reader to think that this was James the brother of Jesus as Jesus rejects his family earlier in the Gospel Mark 3:31–35 and it would appear that his brothers didn't follow him on his mission. What isn't clear is why a distinction wasn't drawn between James son of Alphaeus and James the Greater on these three occasions. If the interpretation is made that Mark the Evangelist intended to write Levi the Son of Alphaeus as one of the 12 Apostles then the remaining references to James throughout the Gospel are consistent. Even the reference to Mary mother of James the Younger and Joseph Mark 15:40 makes more sense when looking at the Gospel of Mark in isolation. The identification of James the younger would refer to a James other than James the son of Zebedee or the brother of John as he is identified. It is likely that this is a reference to his brother James' mother Mary. It either refers to his younger brother James' mom with a brother called Joseph (we already know from Mark 6:3 that James has a brother called Joseph) or Jesus knows two James' who have a brother called Joseph and a mother called Mary. Internal evidence within the Gospel of Mark would suggest it was a mistake by Mark the Evangelist to like James son of Alphaeus as one of the 12 Apostles.

Tradition

A tradition holds that Saint James, though strongly clinging to Jewish law, was sentenced to death for having violated the Torah. He was arrested along with an unspecified number of Christians and was subsequently beheaded by Herod in persecution of the church. Acts 12:1,2 In Christian art he is depicted holding a fuller's club because he was martyred when beaten to death with a fuller's club at Ostrakine in Lower Egypt, where he was preaching the Gospel.