James, son of Alphaeus

Identity

Possible identity as James the Less

James, son of Alphaeus, is often identified as James the Less, who is only mentioned four 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".

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").

Jerome identifies James, son of Alpheus, with James the Less, writing in his work called The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary the following:

Do you intend the comparatively unknown James the Less, who is called in Scripture the son of Mary, not however of Mary the mother of our Lord, to be an apostle, or not? If he is an apostle, he must be the son of Alphæus and a believer in Jesus, "For neither did his brethren believe in him."

The only conclusion is that the Mary who is described as the mother of James the Less was the wife of Alphæus and sister of Mary the Lord's mother, the one who is called by John the Evangelist "Mary of Clopas".

It has sometimes been thought that Papias of Hierapolis, who lived circa 70–163 AD, in the surviving fragments of his work Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord relates that Mary, wife of Alphaeus, is the mother of James the Less:

Mary, mother of James the Less and Joseph, wife of Alphaeus was the sister of Mary the mother of the Lord, whom John names of Cleophas, either from her father or from the family of the clan, or for some other reason.

However, this is likely a misattribution. Rather, this quote should be attributed to the eleventh-century lexicographer Papias, not the second-century Papias of Hierapolis, and indeed this passage has been found directly in the lexicographer's writings.

Modern Biblical scholars are divided on whether the identification of James of Alphaeus with James the Less 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.

Possible identification as James, the brother of Jesus

Jerome, voicing the general opinion of Early Church, maintains the doctrine of perpetual virginity of Mary. He proposed that James, son of Alphaeus, was the one referred to as "James, the brother of the Lord" (Galatians 1:19) but that the term "brother" was to be understood as "cousin." The view of Jerome, the "Hieronymian view," became widely accepted in the Roman Catholic Church, though certain Protestants do not subscribe to this view. Geike (1884) states that Hausrath, Delitzsch, and Schenkel think James, the brother of Jesus, was the son of Clophas-Alphaeus.

In two small but potentially important works ascribed by some to Hippolytus, On the Twelve Apostles of Christ and On the Seventy Apostles of Christ, he relates the following:

And James the son of Alphaeus, when preaching in Jerusalem was stoned to death by the Jews, and was buried there beside the temple.

James, the brother of Jesus is attributed the same death; he was stoned to death by the Jews, too. This testimony of "Hippolytus", if authentic, would increase the plausibility that James the son of Alphaeus is the same person as James the brother of Jesus.

These two works of "Hippolytus" are often neglected because the manuscripts were lost during most of the Christian era and then discovered in Greece in the 19th century. As most scholars consider them spurious, they are often ascribed to "Pseudo-Hippolytus". The two are included in an appendix to the works of Hippolytus in the voluminous collection of Early Church Fathers.

According to the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord by Papias of Hierapolis, Cleophas and Alphaeus are the same person, Mary, wife of Cleophas or Alphaeus, would be the mother of James, the brother of Jesus, and of Simon and Judas (Thaddeus), and of one Joseph.

(1) Mary the mother of the Lord; (2) Mary the wife of Cleophas or Alphaeus, who was the mother of James the bishop and apostle, and of Simon and Thaddeus, and of one Joseph; (3) Mary Salome, wife of Zebedee, mother of John the evangelist and James; (4) Mary Magdalene. These four are found in the Gospel...(Fragment X)

Thus, James, the brother of the Lord, would be the son of Alphaeus, who is the husband of Mary of Cleophas, or Mary, the wife of Alphaeus. However, the Anglican theologian J.B. Lightfoot maintains that the fragment in question is spurious.

As reported by the Golden Legend, which is a collection of hagiographies compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the thirteenth century:

James the Apostle is said the Less, how well that was the elder of age than was St. James the More. He was called also the brother of our Lord, because I have resembled much well our Lord in body, in visage, and of manner. He was called James the Just for his right great holiness. He was also called James the son of Alpheus. He sang in Jerusalem the first mass that ever was there, and he was first bishop of Jerusalem.

Possible brother of Matthew

Alphaeus is also the name of the father of the tax-collector 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. The four times that James son of Alphaeus is mentioned directly in the Bible (each time in the list of the Apostles), the only family relationship stated is that his father is Alphaeus. In two lists of the Apostles, the other James and John are listed as brothers, and their father is Zebedee.