James, son of Alphaeus
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| James, son of Alphaeus | |
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 Statue at the church of the Mafra Palace, Portugal |
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| Saint, Apostle | |
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| Died | |
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| Controversy | Tradition is not clear whether James is to be identified with James the Less or James the Just |
 Saints Portal |
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James, son of Alphaeus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth. He is mentioned only briefly in the Synoptic Gospels, and there is no consensus about which other references to "James" in the New Testament refer to the son of Alphaeus.
"The son of Alphaeus" appears in the slightly varying lists of the Twelve Apostles provided by the Synoptic Gospels, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles.[1] James is the son of Alphaeus and a brother of the Apostle Matthew, also known as Levi.
James is clearly distinguished from James, son of Zebedee, also called James the Greater, another one of the Twelve Apostles, but he is often identified with two other figures of the same name:
- James the Less, who appears only in reference to his mother Mary in Mark 15:40, Mark 16:1, Matthew 27:56 This identification was convenient as it juxtaposed the two Apostles called James as Jacobus Maior and Jacobus Minor. However, it also made it imperative to identify Clopas, the husband of Mary, with Alphaeus, the father of the Apostle James.[2] (For the argument on this, see Alphaeus.) This identification was almost universally accepted and therefore, tradition knows him also as Saint James the Less.
- James the brother of Jesus, who served for thirty years as head of the Church at Jerusalem and was killed in 62 CE.[3] The identification with the brother of Jesus was supported by Jerome and therefore widely accepted in the Western Church, while Eastern Orthodox tended to distinguish between "James the Apostle" and "James the brother of the Lord".
Another tradition holds that James, though strongly clinging to Jewish law, was sentenced to death for having violated the Torah. He is reported to have been martyred by crucifixion at Ostrakine in Lower Egypt, where he was preaching the Gospel. A carpenter's saw is the symbol associated with him in Christian art because it is also noted that his body was later sawed to pieces [4]
[edit] External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Saint James the Less, identifying the Apostle James with James, brother of Jesus
- James the Less: The Latter Rain Page
[edit] References
- ^ For the son of Alphaeus in the Synoptics, see Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, and Luke 1:13. In the Book fo Acts, see Acts 1:13.
- ^ Some avoided this problem by identifying Clopas as Mary's father and Alphaeus as Mary's husband.
- ^ Josephus, Antiquities, 2.9.1
- ^ James the Less on the Latter Rain page, retrieved March 7, 2007.
Simon Peter · Andrew · James, son of Zebedee · John · Philip · Bartholomew ·Thomas
Matthew · James, son of Alphaeus · Jude · Simon the Zealot · Judas Iscariot · Matthias
